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// Chapter 4 - A Hop, Skip, and Jump 
// Story: Temporal Cogs 
// by Summonerx 
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	The next morning had been rougher than expected on Clockwork, he hadn’t slept well and was cold from horn to rump. The sun was barely coming up over the horizon when they loaded up the seven carriages. The two cloaked ponies from before were no where to be seen and their tent had already been dismantled and put into a rear carriage by the time they had started helping out.
May Belle had ushered them around, with Riddle’s help at times, to packing up tents and tackle with swiftness. By the time the sun was just above the horizon in all it’s glory they were on the front carriage sitting as the train began rolling. It didn’t take nearly as long as Clockwork had expected to reach the junction, but the very sight of it caused him to pale in confusion.
Where there had once been a guard house made of sturdy wood and two manual signals painted blue and green with a large flat switch to swap the track lines back and forth, there now was a much simpler little cabin with a smaller switch, no signals, and a friendly earth mare who waved the train onwards after tossing the switch which led to the tracks for crossing an upcoming massive bridge. Even Lazy Chords, who had been by this junction not to long ago, seemed a bit confused.
“Hey what happened to the signal mount and two geared-switch?” The unicorn asked out loud; causing every other pony from the circus to stare at him in bewilderment. After a moment he realized he was gawking at the outside window before he saw everypony staring and cleared his throat before looking down in embarrassment.
“Maybe we’re on different tracks?” Lazy Chords whispered to him as the others on-board turned back to their own things and conversations.
“There’s only one track and train system as far as I know.” Clockwork replied; “Something’s seriously wrong here...I just can’t put my hoof on it.”
Lazy Chords huffed; “I reckon you’re right but what can we do?”
The green unicorn sighed in agreement and sat silently as they continued onto and over the bridge across the river below it. Deep down he knew there was something extremely off about everything, but despite knowing the switch post by heart and recognizing the bridge, he was fairly sure the more he thought about it, the more he knew something was just wrong about everything. However it seemed as if his mind grew cloudy the more he focused on it. It was as if something was actively keeping him from noticing the obvious answer.

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After traveling through the Canterlot interconnected cave system the circus train had continued onto a switching track and then southerly towards Ponyville. When they arrived     Lazy Chords had noticed the village was rather surprisingly large for how simple the housing was and between the brightly colored roofs and town center it seemed all rather cozy.
He and the rest of the train’s occupants saw it only in passing as the train slid into a siding south of the town near a small mountain and across from a very deep green forest which seemed to have rain just within it’s borders but not beyond. Lazy Chords, with his guitar in tow, walked around towards the back of the train. Here a majority of the workers were unloading various things including the tent supplies while Clockwork and May Belle started to converse about the town.
“So that town is Ponyville?’
“Yes indeedy it is. Very small by average but a good mix of all kinds. And while it’s a bit rural between Sweet Apple Acres and Market Square, you won’t find better produce in all of Equestria!” The purple unicorn cheerfully announced as she walked forward. Her bear pal looked out the door, snorted, and walked back into his train car with other circus animals.
“Lazy Chords..” Clockwork called out to him and trotted forwards a bit. “Let’s go looking for those thieves.”
“Might as well. Thank you May Belle” The stallion nodded; she only grinned and nodded back before turning around and barking orders to the others. The earth pony walked forward followed by his companion who still was a bit away.
“You know I never heard of this place.” Clockwork stated as he caught up finally.
“Yeah me neither.” Lazy Chords said with a small huff.
“Looks very....” the unicorn thought a moment before going on with; “..quant.“
"I suppose you’re use to something a little bigger."
“Actually I am, I use to live in Fillydelphia with my parents before I got the job working on the railroad. But since then I have merely lived on the rails only occasionally visiting home.” The unicorn replied.
“Well I like it here, reminds me of where I grew up; small, quiet, and friendly.”
“Still...” the unicorn started but was cut off as they entered town. There were ponies everywhere some were shopping, some were flying, some were just randomly dancing or relaxing outside in the sun.
The sounds of a distant school bell rang for morning classes and the smells of fresh apple pie mixed with strawberries and something akin to marshmallows was carried on the breeze.
An earth pony mare with a tan coat and blue and pink mane and cutie mark of three wrapped candies walked by talking with a sea-foam green unicorn whose cutie mark was a lyre. In the distance another earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark walked briskly by followed by a pegasus with a wall eyed stare and small bubbles for a cutie mark; followed behind by another earth pony with a rose for a cutie mark wearing strangely dual colored glasses.
Overhead a few pegasi flew by pushing clouds around preparing the sky for a sunny day.
Lazy Chords casually over to the first vendor he found; the shop appeared to be a cake shop known as Sugar Cube Corner. I happy bubbly pink earth pony danced around her kitty Mark was a bunch of balloons of yellow and blue variety.
"Excuse me," he asked politely, "Have you or any other pony seen three strange looking ponies of odd cutie marks walking around here?"
The pink pony laughed and giggled and laughed some more and made a weird squeaking noise then responded with; "No silly but there are a lot ponies around here!"
She ended with another giggle before realizing something; "Wait are you new here?!?" She gasped loudly; "Oh my gosh we gotta throw you a party!"
“No, that is...” but before he could finish the pink pony zipped inside and slammed the door.
Clockwork laughed a little before his new found friend spun around on him. “Well that won’t get us anywhere.”
“Gee you don’t say..”
As they walked past the bakery Clockwork pointed out the multicolored homes, the many stalls of food and wares, and a curious shop called Quills and Sofas.
“Well why don’t we split up and ask around here? We can meet back in an hour.” the unicorn suggested.
“And how do we know when that is?”
“Well by all the sundial over there.” he tilted his head and horn towards a small sundial in-between several houses in a small square opening.
“Oh...why not make it two hours?” the earth pony came back with; “Gives us plenty of time to look around.”
The unicorn thought a moment, then nodded in agreement; “True that does give us a lot more time. Meet you back here in two hours then.” He waved a hoof and trotted off in the direction of the Quill and Sofa store while Lazy Chords walked in the opposite direction.

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As the sun hung lower in the sky, the circus tent began filling with ponies of all shapes and sizes, meanwhile Clockwork and Lazy Chords met back up as promised on the two hour mark. Strangely a small table with cake had been set up and next to it was that crazy haired pink pony with a little alligator and a rather oddly shaped cake.
“Um....” Lazy Chords stated as he stepped closer. The pink pony held balloons in one hoof while dancing around crazily.
“Welcome welcome welcome, to Ponyville; Welcome welcome welcome, from all of us here. We hope you like your visit, please have some cake, welcome welcome welcome, it’s not hard to take!” She sang in a sing-song rhyme while dancing around at seemingly random intervals.
Clockwork smiled cheerfully, truly enjoying the antics the pony pulled, while helping himself to the cake that was offered. “Thank you.” He said when she had finished her song.
Lazy Chords cut in; “Is this really the time for cake?”
“There’s ALWAYS time for cake!” The pink pony burst out loudly. Lazy Chords sighed and went over to examine the cake. “Did you find anything?”    
“Not really.” the green unicorn responded between. Meanwhile the pink pony danced around then seemingly pulled a cannon out from nowhere and blasted confetti and streamers everywhere.
Clockwork grabbed some cake on a plate and began munching on it. Lazy Chords, after rolling his eyes, joined in and thanked the pink pony.
“Yah! Welcome to Ponyville!” And with that she broke into song and dance. Then other ponies began joining in before the two could make any escape. It was going to be a long evening after all it seemed.