Chapter 22
You’re Just In Time.
There is a burning in my cheeks and a flush of embarrassment coming over me. It feels like I blacked out for a moment. But at the same time, I was fully aware of everything that was happening, and I couldn’t stop it. I shake my head and the bowler hat topples off, settling in front of High Hat.
Ever have a sneeze that you know is coming and you try to hold it in, but eventually it forces its way out your nose, whether you want it to or not? Or maybe you wanted to say one word and yet another word came out instead?
It was like that. Inside I was nearly screaming to stop. I wanted to stop, but it didn’t. The whole time I was inside my own head, pounding on the door, screaming for help. Yelling that somepony or being or something out there hear me. Instead, they got a female Willy Wonka singing about drinking tea.
That settles it. There is something wrong with this tea. There has to be. Why else would I do that, why else would I burst into song? I mean I loved the songs from the show and I sang them anytime I could, but this was different. It was crazy. I think I am getting-
“I dare say that is the best tea in all of Equestria,” High Hat says, almost instantly his free hoof covers his mouth.
-a new hat. I am getting a new hat. I blink and wonder what I was thinking about a few seconds ago. All I can remember is that I made a deal with High Hat, and it was for his hat. Which now I can claim to be mine. Hearing his words, another squee manages to escape. That's the third one today.
“I-I just lost a bet, didn’t I?” his eyes have a long distance stare to them. They flutter and he looks at the hats in his cart. His hoof moves up and he takes another sip of tea. I slip the cup off his hoof and put it back into my saddle bag.
“Thatyouhave,” I smile, as his hoof fidgets. “Andnow, myend of thebargin. FlyingFedora, acoolingcap, abowler thatcan onlybe removed bytheowner and never comesoff inthewind, aCollapsingCordobés, anda Sombrero made ofsunshine.”
High Hat blinks and starts mulling the ideas in his head. “I dare say that while your suggestions are wonderfully interesting,” his hooves started to move to the neatly packed boxes, he started pulling out pins and needles, brushes and feathers, and everything else a hatter would need to make hats. “They might actually be unnecessary! It’s incredible! There are twenty different ideas for new hats in my head as we speak! I-”
“Needtokeep Yourend ofour bargin,” I interrupt.
He blinks and then smiling he takes the hat he is currently wearing off his head. “Oh, yes! Here!”
I look over the purple silk top-hat. “It’smissingsomething, something vital.”
“And what could that be?” High Hat asks, fidgeting a bit more.
“Wouldyou,won’tyou,wouldyou,won’tyou, thatisifyoudon’tmind, takeablank threebyfive stockcard andwrite,” I move my hoof in the air, mimicking what I want so that there isn’t any confusion. “Ten-sixths, andthen placeit inthe ribbonof thehat?”
High Hat already has quill and stock card out, he slips the card into the spot I requested it. “Like that?!” he asks.
“Ooooohyesyesyes! Exactlylikethat!” I reply.
“Hmmm,the card won’t stay unless I pin it down. Normally would charge for that, but seeing that I have hats to make...This time is free.” he leans over to me. “This. Time.” He puts a small pin with a black bobble at the end through the ribbon to keep the card in place. “There!” he presents it to me.
“Ifyoudon’tmind? Couldyouplaceitonmyhead? I’mafraidthatIam a bitofabutterhooves...” I say, sadly.
“Not at all! Not at all!” he puts it on my head and my ears flick out through the holes in the brim. Looking around, I find that the sun isn’t in my eyes as much as it was before. I am a very happy pony right now. But there is still one thing I need before everything is complete.
“Imustbeoffthen,Mr.HighHat!” I begin to start to trot away. There is a shop that just has caught my eye. A shop that will help me with the device I need.
“Yes, yes! Be off with you Mis-, Uhm I mean Heartbreak, I have hats to make!” He replies gleefully.
“OhandMr.HighHat?” I say pausing for a moment.
“Hmmmm?”
“It’sbetterto useyourmarbles ratherthanloose yourmarbles.” I quip. He starts laughing and reaches for the grey bowler hat in front of him. I on the other hoof have spotted a shop at the other end of the block that will help me. There is a sign that looks like the face of a clock and around the border of said face is the name ‘Just in Time.’ “That’sexactlywhatIneed.”
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The sound of ticking clocks echoed through the room almost constantly. Most of them were broken, busted, or just didn’t work. Shelves carried clocks of all shapes and sizes, colours and makes. Coo-Coo Clocks, grandfather clocks and pocket watches of all shape and hue. Diagrams of clocks, blueprints of clocks, and everything that could even be remotely clock or watch related. There was a cabinet of drawers that contained many of the parts, both magical and mechanical, used to fix the clocks.
And in this mess was a work bench. At this workbench was a unicorn with peppered spots on his coat was sitting at this bench. He was wearing a simple vest with one of the only working watches in this entire clock shop.
Another pocket watch was in front of him. Several tools were in his mouth and another one hovered over the pocket watch. On his face was perched a pair of glasses that magnified the delicate parts that he needed to place. He wore a gold embossed name tag that read “Pepper Pocket.” To the right of him was a picture of his mare and two twin foals, Tick and Tock. His wife didn’t exactly like their names, but with Pepper so happy to be a father, she let him have this naming.
“This one time,” she told him.
Next to the picture was a stale sandwich and a cold cup of coffee. He struggled to put the gears in properly in this pocket watch. Then his stomach growled at him. A silvery glow surrounded the sandwich and he tried to bring it to his mouth while concentrating on his work. He bit into the sandwich that his loving mare had made for him. Like many of the watches and clocks here, Pepper Pocket was one tightly wound pony. What was worse: He was on a schedule.
Just then, a random crumb fell from his muzzle and into the fine watch-works. He looked around for it. “No! Come on! Where are you?!” He searched and searched but to no avail. “No! No! No!” His hoof banged down on the worktable, the jarring set the watch to life as it spewed out its springs, gears and other watch parts. “NO!” looking somberly at the picture, he felt the need to cry. “I’m sorry, Jewel Movement, but it appears I’ll be home late...again!”
The bell to the shop rang. Pepper Pocket’s eye twitched in time with the ticking clocks. “Not. More. Clocks. Please.” He leered back at the front desk and felt the need to hide. The silhouette of a mare in a top hat stood in the door frame. “Calm yourself, Pepper. If you’re really quiet, she just might go away.”
She walked into the shop. She was a tan earth pony, with bright blue eyes and a dark brown mane and tale. She was looking around with a great deal of exuberance. She darted about the front of the shop, then stopped and took something out of her saddlebags. “Yes,yes,yes,yes,ohgawdsyes,yes! ThisistheshopthatIneed!” she then darted somewhere out of sight.
Pepper Pocket lifted his head from the workbench. He cautiously walked over to the counter. She wasn’t anywhere to be seen. The only thing that had denoted that she had even entered the shop was the slightly swinging bell and the mess of papers on the floor. He peered at the papers. They almost seemed to be diagrams for something that he just couldn’t quite make out from where he stood. “She appears to be gone...I wonder where she went off to? Oh well, she’s gone now.” he picked up the papers using his magic and shuffled them. He then sat them on one of the only bare spots in the entire shop. He turned around and was met with the sight of his broken clocks on the shelves. He sighed. “So many timepieces, so little time,” he commented out loud wistfully. Just then he heard the rustling of papers, and a playful giggle. He then felt a cold sensation as a shadow slowly crept over him. He quickly turned around. There was the mare again.
“Hiiiiiiithere, uhm,” she looked at his name tag. “PeeeepperPocket!”
“Oh, hello...” Pepper replied, nervously. “Welcome to ‘Just in Time,’ here we fix clocks, watches and timepieces of all kinds.” he rolled his eyes. “And sometimes, if we have the time, we make them.”
The mare’s face twitched slightly. “Ifyouhavethetime? You’rea clockshopthat sellstimepieces, butyou don’thave thetime?”
Pepper Pocket grimaced. He prepared himself for the slew of time related jokes that were sure to follow. “Nope, we haven’t the time for time here. After all when you have this many clocks, time flies trying to fix them all, Miss...” “There, got those jokes out of the way, now maybe she’ll go away!” The mare looked around almost as she was in a constant state of distraction. The purple silk top hat she was wearing had a card stuck in it reading 10/6. “What an oddball pony.”
“GoodthingIdon’thave thetimefortimepieces,” she replied. “Andplease, don’tcallme ‘Miss’, mynameis’what,’ mynameis’who’,” she slapped herself. “Excuseme, Mynameis Heartbreak. Or. HB. For. Short.”
Pepper Pocket blinked and looked over the counter, his eyes darted at the mare’s flank. There was a black broken heart cutie mark. When she saw that he was looking, she gave him a harsh, glowering glare. “Heh-heh, sorry, I just...” he began.
“Didn’tyourmothereverteachyou nottostare attheabyss?” she lifted herself up on the counter and looked at him with those icy blue eyes. “Ifyou’renotcareful, it’llstareback youknow.”
Pepper Pocket backed away. “Right, uhm terribly sorry, I didn’t mean to stare..”
She blinked and took a deep breath. “It’sallright, justoneofthethingsIhave togetusedto,” she rolled her eyes. “I’mamare,andIcanchange,ifIhaveto...Iguess.”
Pepper Pocket blinked and rubbed his temples. This pony wasn’t making too much sense. “Wait, you said that you didn’t have time for timepieces. Does that mean that you aren’t here for any clocks? Any watches? Any time pieces at all?”
She shook her head. “Nope,nope,andumNope!”
He frowned. “Are you just here to waste my time?”
She gasped. “Iwouldnever wasteanypony’s time. Wastingtimeisafterall almostasbadas killingtime, andbelieveyou,me, Ihaven’t anytimetokill, letalonewaste! Timeisagiftafterall!”
Pepper looked once again confused and baffled. “Well, if you aren’t here to pick up a timepiece or drop off a timepiece, then why are you here?!”
She turned her head and looked at her hoof coyly. “Well,” she stared out. “YouseeMr.PepperPocket, Iam amarewith amission, yousee, Ihave...a...need.”
“A need?” Pepper asked.
“Yes,aneed. Aburningdesire,” she walked to the side of the counter and walked around to the back.
“Uhm, you can’t come-” Pepper started, backing away towards the wall behind him.
“Iamamarewithmany...needs,” she continued. “Andlookingaroundthis clockshop, Ithinkthatyou arejustthe ponythatcan fillthoseneeds.” she said getting rather close to him. Pepper ducked out and slipped away from her. She of course only pursued him.
“I’m not sure what you are getting at miss, but please!” Pepper shouted, backing into his working station.
She grimaced and glared at him, but then took a deep breath. “Please,don’tcallmemiss!” she calmed herself.
“Heartbreak or HB, ‘miss’isso formal,andIreallydon’t likeit. Nowback to myneeds.” Pepper found himself edging his way to the back of this room as the mare in front of him slowly encroached. “Ihaveanew...emptinessinme PepperPocket. Ahole thatneeds tobefilled.”
Pepper found himself backed up against a wall again. He attempted make an escape but Heartbreak slammed a hoof up next to the side of his neck. “Please! I’m a married stallion with a wife and two foals!”
Heartbreak blinked and looked confused. “Whatdoesthat havetodo withanything?! Theydon’thave toknowaboutthis!”
Pepper felt himself on the verge of tears again. He had so many clocks around him, constantly ticking, and now suddenly he found himself in the back of his clock shop with some strange mare making moves on him! “Please! Stop this! I’m not comfortable with what you want!”
“Butyoudon’tevenknow whatIwant!” She said, her head lowered down..
“Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea of what you want, and I want no part of it!” Pepper shouted.
Her head jutted back up. “ButMr.PepperPocket. Ihaveaholethat needsfilling, itneedsfilling soIcan expressmy...specialtalent withallofEquestria! Thisholeneeds tobefilled withsomething...longandstiff!” Pepper Pocket looked horrified. “AndIam amare thatwantssomething, andwhen I want something,Iintendongettingit.” her head lowered down.
Pepper Pocket didn’t know what to do. “I’m sorry Jewel Movement, please forgive-”
“AndIneed thathole thatImade inmyhoof tobe filledwiththis!” she said as a flurry of papers nearly thwapped Pepper Pocket in the face. Pepper blinked, sweat dripping off his brow. They were the papers he had picked up earlier. He lifted them up with his magic. “Afterall! IfIamgoingto gotoallthetrouble ofputtingaholeinmyhoof, Ibetterfill it withsomething!” she said, backing away. She lifted up her right hoof. There was a neatly drilled hole on the inside of the hoof that extended all the way through to the bottom.
Pepper’s left eye twitched, as did his mouth. He didn’t know whether to be relieved or horrified. “Wh-wh-why is there a hole in your hoof?” He finally asked.
“SoIcandraw!Duh!” Heartbreak replied. “Justlookatthediagrams!”