A stallion with a deep maroon coat looked at the second-hand of his clock, slowly ticking towards an unwanted hour. He sighed. Nothing in life would ever surprise him.
His ears flicked as he heard his door creak open slowly. He turned his face towards the door to see who had entered his bedroom. It was none other than his beloved wife, Flara. She levitated a lit candle in her magical grasp that illuminated her face and brought out her deep orange eyes. Tears drenched her face.
"What's wrong, my love?" the stallion asked his wife. "Your clock is counting down to the best moment of your life. You're about to reach your personal goal in just three days."
"I care not about my own desires now," Flara sobbed. "Your clock is counting down to your death which is only 12 hours away. Please stay with me. I need to make sure nothing happens to you!"
The stallion sighed and rubbed his forehead with his hoof. Hearing Flara sounding so afraid normally would've concerned him, but he couldn't blame her now. He looked back towards his clock. It was true. His death was only in 12 hours and he didn't know what the cause of it would be. He knew that he wasn't sick. He had just recently had a check-up at his local hospital and the doctor had told him he was as healthy as ever. He wasn't old. In fact, he and his wife had only been married for four years and he wasn't even out of his mid-twenties. "I... I don't know if we can prevent this, sweetheart."
"O-Onyx," Flara choked on her desperate sobs. "Don't you say that to me. We can escape the fate that time has set out for you."
Onyx shook his head. "Nothing escapes the clutches of time, Flara. It will happen tomorrow, no matter where we may be."
Flara's magic began to flicker out and Onyx saw her quickly reignite her magic to catch the candle that almost fell to the floor. "Even if you're here with me? Even if I'm protecting you from your fate?"
Onyx nodded. "It's inevitable, Flara. You have to accept that it's going to happen whether we want it to or not."
Flara set the candle on her nightstand and silently climbed into bed, pulling the covers close to her chin. With the edge of the large quilt she was under, she lifted it to her eyes to wipe away the tears. Cautiously looking over to her husband's nightstand, Flara gritted her teeth in anger. "I wish this clock would just disappear! I don't want this little clock carved out of wood to control our whole lives!"
Onyx trotted over to his side of the bed and climbed under the covers beside his wife. "It doesn't control our lives as much as it tells us when we have to make a decision. Let me tell you when this all began..."
The night wind blew cold. The harsh cry of the winds filled Onyx's ears. He was a young colt, no more than six years old. Onyx watched as fat flakes of snow fell before his eyes. He was unsure of how cold it was, but he felt like he was going to freeze to death. He knew that he was lost as well as his hope.
Onyx jumped when he heard a foreign voice beside him. "You know, I've always loved nights like this."
Onyx turned to see who had spoken and saw a large, strong-looking stallion whose dark gray coat almost blended in with the night. His black mane wasn't visible against the dark night sky, but his yellow eyes seemed to give off a luminous glow. "What are you doing out here all alone, my boy?"
"I-I wandered off when I wasn't supposed to," Onyx stammered. "My Mom told me to stay close, but I saw a raven and I was curious about where it was flying off to."
"You mean this raven?" the stallion asked him.
Onyx's heart leapt in fear when he heard the call of a raven. All at once, he could barely make out the silhouette of a raven flying over to land on the stallion's back.
"He's mine," the stallion told him. "His name is Midnight."
Onyx only stared. He veered back nervously. "Is he a nice raven?" he wondered.
"He's obedient if that's what you mean," the stallion answered. "He does my bidding. He also brings me wood for my work."
"Wh-what is your work, sir?" Onyx stuttered.
"I make clocks," the stallion replied. "Would you like to see them?"
Not wanting to see what would happen if he rejected the ominous stallion, Onyx nodded.
Onyx watched as the peculiar stallion seemingly made a dark brown briefcase appear from midair. He stared in wonder as the perplexing pony opened the briefcase.
Onyx peeked inside. The items lying in the briefcase seemed to illuminate the space in front of them. Onyx saw a pile of wooden clocks, carved from hoof.
"I make each one of them special," the stallion claimed. "Different shapes. Different number systems. Different sounds. Take a look."
Onyx did as the stallion instructed and took a small clock carved into the shape of a star. It had the numbers 1-12 painted on it in jet black paint. After studying the expertly-crafted clock for awhile, he caught sight of words just by the numbers written in fine print. The word nearest to the top was 'Goal'. The word in the middle of the clock was 'Love'. The word on the bottom of the three words was 'Death'. On the other side of the clock, there were a few more words. The one on the top read 'Children'. The middle of this side had two words which were 'Biggest Emotion'. The word at the bottom was none other than 'Loss'.
As Onyx ran his hoof over the words, the hands of the clock seemed to change before his eyes. They went in different directions and halted at different times. "Mister, why did it change?"
The stallion's glowing yellow eyes widened. "Fool! Do you realize what you have done?"
Onyx's heart began to pound. He shook his head. "No, sir. I don't."
"I was cursed by an enchantress named Enchante when I was your age!" the stallion barked. "Now, everything I touch is cursed in some way. These clocks are only one of the many examples. Great! Now, I have to give these to everyone in Equestria."
"Why?" Onyx wondered, nervousness creeping into his voice.
"I'm very passionate about whittling," the stallion explained. "And the thing I'm most passionate about places the worst curse of all. If everyone in Equestria doesn't get one of these special clocks, I'm afraid that Enchante will be freed from her magical prison and she won't be merciful. Oh no." The stallion scooped up as many clocks as his forelimbs could hold. "Now, everyone in Equestria is under my curse too. These clocks are like a curse. They tell you the biggest events that happen in your life. The hands of these clocks don't ever really move unless they connect to somepony new. They tell you the exact date and time that these events will take place. And the scariest part is... you'll never want to get rid of your clock. You won't be able to stop peeking at your clock. You are under its spell and now, so is everypony in Equestria."
"I'm so sorry!" Onyx cried. "Is there anyway to break the curse?"
The stallion shook his head. "There is not and now this curse will be passed down from generation to generation. From the moment you are born, you will have a clock."
Onyx furrowed his brow in confusion. "That's impossible!"
"Oh, just you wait," the stallion replied. "You'll see how possible it is!" He shoved a clock into Onyx's hoof. "Take this. Take it home."
"But sir, what do the words even mean?!" Onyx cried.
The stallion moaned. "Must it be all questions with you, my boy?" He rolled his eyes. "Oh, alright." He kneeled down to see the clock in Onyx's hoof. He pointed to the first word. "See this one? What does it say?"
"Goal," Onyx replied.
"Good. That one tells you when you'll reach the personal goals you have set for yourself. What does the next one say?"
"It says love," Onyx said.
"It sure does. That one shows you the time that you fall in love with your special somepony. Your soulmate. The one who you're meant to be with." He moved his hoof to the next one. "What does this one say?"
Onyx swallowed. He almost didn't want to say it aloud. "It says d-death."
"Correct. That one tells you the time you'll pass away. Move on from this world and onto the next one." He moved his hoof to the other side of the finely-crafted clock. "What about this one?"
"Children?"
"This one is probably one of your greatest joys as well as one of your worst nightmares. This tells you the date that you'll have children of your very own." He moved on. "This one?"
"Biggest emotion."
"That's right. This one tells you the time that you'll feel the biggest emotion you'll ever experience. For some, it'll be happiness or joy. For others, it will be anger or rage. Sometimes, it will be grief or sadness. It just depends on the pony."
"And the last one says loss. But I thought that there was already one for death."
The stallion shook his head. "Loss means something else. Death is when YOU will die. Loss is when the one closest to you will. Sometimes, your death times before theirs does."
"Will that be my true love?" Onyx inquired.
"Perhaps," the stallion answered. "Or maybe it'll be a member of your family. Maybe it will be a dear friend. Only time will tell."
"Yeah," Onyx said. "Well, now it seems like time will be telling us everything."
"Smart kid," the stallion remarked with a chuckle. "Now, if I ever come around to show you anything again, don't touch it."
The stallion left, beckoning for his raven to fly by his side. The raven took flight and stayed close behind him.
Onyx stared at his clock. His heart sank as he stared at the one for 'Death'. His time was up in ten years.
Flara's eyes began to water. "O-Onyx, it's not your fault. You'd never do anything bad on purpose."
"Thank you, Flara," Onyx said, sorrowfully. "Just know that however I may die tomorrow, you will be the first thing I see when my life flashes before my eyes."
The two lovers held onto each other as they drifted into an uneasy sleep.