//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Clockwork, What have you gotten yourself into? // Story: The Clockwork Chronicles // by Ash19256 //------------------------------// "Mom! We're going to be late!" Nyx exclaimed distressedly. She was waiting near the front door of the Golden Oaks Library, where she lived with her mother, Twilight Sparkle. Today was an important day for Nyx. She was going to help her mother oversee the construction of an observatory on a nearby mountain. Her job was assisting Spike in making sure all the ponies in the tent where her mom would be overseeing the installation from had what they needed. "Just a minute, Nyx!" Twilight shouted back. The reason she was overseeing the installation of the telescope was because the observatory been commissioned by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and they had asked Twilight to keep an eye on things for them. "Just hurry up! If we're late, it'll look bad!" Spike shouted. The reason he was tagging along was two-fold. First, he was Twilight's number one assistant. He was in charge of making sure everything was set up an running smoothly. Second, Bright Eyes and him were also part and parcel of the security team making sure the event was safe. After all, super huge dragon in crystalline armor with a unicorn helper is not exactly the kind of thing you want to fight. Add in the S&S platoon, Lieutenant Rock Steady's troops, and the two platoons of Royal Guards (One platoon of Night Guard, one platoon of Day Guard), and you had the most thoroughly secured event in Equestria. "There! Done!" Twilight exclaimed as she gathered her saddlebags and raced out the door with Nyx and Spike not far behind. [START DATA LOG-002] Hey there. Clockwork here. Beginning atmospheric entry now. Currently in the upper atmosphere, moving at 8,000 m/s and accelerating due to gravity. Hopefully I don't scare the locals too much. Should be about an hour before I hit the middle of the atmosphere. That's when the real interesting stuff will start happening. "Well that was boring,” complained Nyx. She, Twilight, Spike were walking back to the library after watching the workponies install the telescope. As predicted, nothing had gone wrong, and of course, this bored Nyx. "Well, Nyx, it's a good thing it was boring,” said Twilight. "If it hadn't been, it would have been up to us to deal with whatever was causing the problem." Nyx knew her mother was correct, but still, she felt boredom. However, she also felt anticipation. After all, it was only one month to Nightmare Night, which had become something of an anticipated holiday for her. It was at this moment that all Tartarus broke loose. Crap crap crap.... Oh, hi there. I'm a little busy. Trying to correct for coming in way too short... crap - An explosion rang across the sky. Onlookers stared at the flaming streak as a projectile descended at a near-unfathomable velocity, rapidly cooling and heading for the Everfree Forest. The projectile smashed into the canopy of the forest and scattering debris and vegetation from the forest floor, its misshapen form damaging surrounding terrain with its impact. It was this massive explosion that shook Nyx out of her thoughts. It also caused Twilight Sparkle to jump almost a dozen feet into the air, along with more panic than any disaster Ponyville had ever faced previously. After all, what tops a noise so loud it causes windows to shatter all throughout town? Nyx immediately went to work. Her job, should any form of disaster befall Ponyville while her and her mother were out was to gather Rainbow Dash and Applejack at Sugarcube Corner. Spike's job was to gather Rarity and Fluttershy. This was easier for a filly and a little dragon to do in a situation where everypony in the area was freaking out. Nyx hoped that it would be as easy as the first time they had practiced. Clockwork’s self-diagnostics service began running in the background as he awoke to the darkness of his drop capsule. It immediately began ticking off Clockwork’s most essential faculties, beginning with those most critical to his function. <...Defense systems: WARNING: SSDL offline; SRES Generator operational. Drive systems: All actuators functional; Initializing onboard sensor apparatus…>