//------------------------------// // A Clockwork Heartbreak // Story: My Little Heartbreak: Creativi-Tea // by Jet_Black1980 //------------------------------// Chapter 24 A Clockwork Heartbreak. Heartbreak’s face was broken out in a wide, excited smile. Around her floated gears, cogs, pendulums, screws, wires, crystals, her pencils and a thousand other assorted clock related objects- All which glowed with a silvery light. Her hooves clopped together happily as she watched what seemed like pure chaos form into ordered shapes. And the pony orchestrating this all was standing atop his work desk. “Amazing! Incredible! Fantastic! I have done more work in the last five minutes than I have done in the last five weeks!” he bolted together several clocks at once, several more were brought to new shelves, and in front of him a device was taking form. “And you were right, the graphites from these pencils will do just fine if I can rework the leads to be of a smaller size! The only problem I see with that is, that you will have to come to me if you run out of leads...” “Howis thata problem, PepperPocket?” the mare asked. Her speech seemed to have calmed down from the time he had taken those scant three sips of her tea. It was almost like they were two different clocks and he was almost now running at the same speed she was. “Doesn’t thatmean yougetmore businessfromme?” “I’m not sure I need more business, but after this...maybe I shall! However, I am going to be really busy filling out paperwork for once! There has been clocks backed up since last July, but now I have nearly half my work load gone! I keep this up, and I might actually might be able to not only start one of my own projects, but for once I will be able to get home in time for supper! Oh, Jewel Movement will be ever so delighted!” he replied, wires, springs and little fiddly mechanical bits floated together in front of him. The mechanical pencil was finally looking like the pencil in the crude diagrams. Heartbreak approached the hovering device. She was almost squealing in delight. “Yessss, howsturty isthis going tobe? It’snot goingtobreak if Ijustdrop itisit?” She asked. “Oh heavens no, it can take quite the pounding, but that’s not to say that you should purposely run it through the wash, pound it with a boulder, or use it in either a sword fight or as a baseball bat!” Pepper Pocket replied, as the parts screwed themselves together. “There...now for the final part.” A single ruby red crystal floated to the two of them. “Its heart. And no heart is complete, without a heartbeat.” he lowered his horn to the crystal and in a silvery flash of light, he imbued it with a bit of power. The crystal started to pulse and glow on its own accord. Pepper took the pencil and pushed down on all five of the buttons at once. The top part blossomed open and the crystal slid into its new home. Pepper tapped the top again, closing the whole thing up. “You’respeaking inpose. Zecora wouldbe pleased,” Heartbreak said, her eyes affixed to the new device in front of her. “The real question is, are you pleased with this work, Heartbreak?” Pepper Pocket tugged at her right hoof. Heartbreak lifted it and watched the pencil slide in through the drilled hole ever so easily. “All you need to do to adjust the pressure, is tap this little dial on the side to the appropriate colour.” Pepper demonstrated for her tapping on orange. The barrel expanded a bit in her hoof, it still felt loose, so she tapped to yellow-green. It fit perfectly now. “I even added a bonus feature! Watch!” He tapped the middle of the dial, almost instantly numbers flashed on the face. They read 11:45 am. “Now, you will always have the time,” he tapped on the middle of the dial again, “for the time!” Heartbreak looked so happy she could cry. In an uncomfortable instant she grabbed Pepper Pocket in an awkward hug. “OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh! Youhavemademethe Happiestmare inallofEquestria! Icouldkissyou rightnow, butIdon’t findyouattractive intheslightest!” Pepper was momentarily distracted and the objects in the shop drooped but then jumped back up. “Uhm...thank you? I dare say that I am actually quite relieved to hear you say that, with how you were acting and talking earlier, I thought...” Heartbreak pulled back and blinked. “Thoughtwhat? I toldyou, I hadaneed and itneeded tobe filled. Thankstoyou, thatneed hasbeen filled!” she replied, obviously. “Well, it’s just that...” Pepper began. Heartbreak looked rather confused and worried. “It’sjust What?” Just then, Spike burst through the door. “Heartbreak! There you are!” he was panting. “I have been searching every shop on this block! I need you to come back to the library this instant!” ======================================================================= The sight that Spike was met with was that he had only seen used by Master Magic Users back in Canterlot. Clock pieces were floating everywhere, a near maddening haze of gears, wires, springs and other things all floating in the air. Clocks were almost spontaneously forming from this soup of silvery grey magic and random jumble. In the middle of it all there was Heartbreak doing something very unHeartbreak like: Hugging the shop owner. Heartbreak turned to look at Spike, she lifted up her right hoof. From any angle, what he saw just looked wrong. There was a pencil of some kind that was embedded in her hoof. The top half was in the inner side of the hoof, while the end of the pencil came out of the bottom edge. “Twilight isn’t going to approve of that at all!” he thought to himself, grimacing. “Icannotthankyouenough, Mr.PepperPocket,” she turned her head and flipped open her saddle bag. She then tapped on the side of the pencil. The device churred with a mechanical whirring and she plucked it out with her mouth, before slipping it into her saddle bag. “Thismeanstheworldtome.” Spike looked exceptionally concerned. Last he left Heartbreak, he could at least understand what she was saying, now her words were just slurring together. “You-you actually put a hole in your hoof...” Heartbreak turned and smiled at Spike. Everything about her right now was unsettling. Her eyes were nearly glowing, almost twinkling. Her mane, along with her tail, seemed to frazzle a bit. Her face twitched here and there. Finally, she lifted up her hoof and Spike found himself morbidly grossed out. He could see light coming through the hole in her hoof. “Yupyupyup! Thegooddoctorwaseversokindinhelpingmewiththat!” She carefully set her hoof down. “HesaysthatIshouldn’tputtoomuchpressureonitandgiveittimetoadjust!” Spike was at a loss of words for all of this. The pictures, the drawings, the drillings, the hat chewing on his head, the fact that there wasn’t a single breath in anything that Heartbreak said. He wanted just to panic and find a nice quiet cave to curl up in. But what would Twilight say? “No Spike, be strong. We got to get her back to the Library, back home. Safe and Secure, so she can’t do any more damage to herself or others. Then we wait until Twilight gets back,” He thought to himself, he took a deep breath. “Right, so, uhm are you done with everything?” Heartbreak thought about it for a moment, and then her head bobbled in a nod. “Oh,yes,yes,yes,yes,IthinkImade achecklist foritall!” she pulled out a scrap of paper. “Stepone. Finddentisttodrillhole. Check. Steptwo. QuestionmarkQuestionmarkQuestionmark? Huh.” she shook her head. “Stepthree getpenciltofillhole!” she looked over the paper. “Yupyupyup! Everythingonmychecklist ischecked, nowIamdone andcangobacktodrawing!” “Which means we can go back to the library right? Go back home, yes?” Spike asked. Heartbreak nodded and gleefully clipclopped up next to Spike. “Yes,yes,yes,yes! Homeagainhomeagain, marketisdone!” she looked back at Pepper Pocket. “IknowIkeepsayingthis, butIcan’tthankyou enough! NotonlydoIhaveawonderfulnew pencil, butIhavethetime!” she grinned from ear to ear. “Onlyifeveryponyhadthe time! Thenmaybeyou’dhavesome’me-time’!” Spike tugged on Heartbreak, rolling his eyes. “Come on, Heartbreak...” As the two of them left ‘Just in Time’ a thought ran through Pepper’s head. “I would have some me time if everypony had the time...” he looked at his clocks. “But they can’t always get to the time...” blinked. “If they can’t get to the time...Maybe the time can get to them! Brilliant!” He set to work on the idea that was burning in his head. ======================================================================= Spike is looking at me disapprovingly, “Oh, when Twilight gets back...You are going to be in so much trouble!” I blink. “Trouble?WhywouldIbeinanytrouble?” I ask. Really, it doesn’t make any sense that I would be in trouble. Spike turns around and stops me in my tracks. He then grabs my hole-y hoof. “Oh, you went out alright! And then you had some dentist drill a hole in your hoof! Not to mention that you were giving your tea to pretty much almost anypony out there!” I pull my hoof away from him. Angry Spike isn’t a fun Spike. “ItseemedlikeagoodideaatthetimeSpike.” I rub my hoof against my leg. “Besides!ThoseotherponiesneededthatteamorethanIdid!” I blink at hearing what I just said. There is a slight lightheadedness that comes over me, but nothing that I can’t handle. Spike frowns and motions me to keep walking with him. “Listen to yourself, Heartbreak! I can barely keep up with how fast you are talking!” he looks at me with concern. “Not only that, but you are starting to seem really out of it! We need to get you back to the library, that way we can wait for Twilight to get back.” I blink. “Ithinkyoumightberight,Spike. BesidestherearestillmoredrawingsIneedtodo! Ponyvilleisnice andall, butitisn’t therightplace todoanydrawings! Leastnotrightnow, Ineedtopractice withmynew pencilandnewhoof!” I can see Spike rolling his eyes over something. “You mean after we clean up that mess in the library. I have never seen the library in such a state of disarray. Papers everywhere! I know I’m not the most organized of dragons, but really, that was just like a creative explosion!” Now it is my turn to roll my eyes. “Ihadalotofthings onmymind, Spike,itwasliketherewasa universe inmyhead. Andwell...Itwantedout. Itneededout. Whyareyousoupsetanyway?” Spike looks at the sky. “Well...I don’t want to freak you out here, but Twilight said something about the tea that you have been drinking had too many tea bags or too much honey in it, it could cause the pony drinking it to become unstable.” I pause. “Unstable?Hmm,wait,IthinkIremember,unstablelikeburstingintosong,unstable?” “How is that unstable? Ponies burst into song all the time, it’s not only a common occurrence, but also an important part of Equestrian Communication.” Spike replied. “It’snotpartofcommunicationwhereIamfrom, Spike. WhereIamfrom, it’snotnormal.” I reply. We turn a corner on the main street. It’s a quiet day in Ponyville it seems. “Sounds like a pretty boring place, Heartbreak. Machines that control everything...energy drinks...giant spoons with-” he continues to talk, but I have lost interest. I know I should be paying attention but really, he’s getting boring. So boring that I have started paying attention to the cracks in the sidewalk. You’d think they would keep up with things like that in Equestria. Where there is a pony that fills in any crack he or she sees before it can get too big. Huh, maybe Spike is right. Normally I wouldn’t find cracks in the sidewalk this interesting. I- “Oh! Hello!” says a familiar voice. “Fancy running into you, Miss Heartbreak!” The words, ‘Miss’ and ‘Heartbreak’ together trigger something inside of me as it is. However, the voice that is speaking them has caused a whole slew of other uncomfortable reactions to happen inside of me, it is an icky feeling. Looking up, I see a pony I don’t want to see right now: Ghost Writer. I need to make this icky feeling go away. Just then I feel the top of the sipping cup touch my lips and a few drops of tea trickle down my throat. The cup is on my hoof, but I don’t remember taking it out of my saddle-bag and putting it there. In the background I think I can hear Spike calling out to me to stop what I am doing. However, I fear it is too late for that. Because everything is going white.