Temporal Cogs

by Summonerx

Chapter 1 - Diamond Startle

Chapter 1: Diamond Startle

A small clipboard floated in front of the kelly green unicorn stallion with a purple mane and matching goatee. He checked off various things on a list as he stood on a small mound between some trees above a recently carved out cut in a hill. His handsome purple and indigo mane and tail were moved by the wind as it rushed past him. His indigo eyes darted around the clipboard looking it over as the sun beamed down. His cutie mark, a round gear sprocket with two smaller gears inside and a pair of wings, was prominent on his flank. Before him stood hundreds of other ponies, mainly unicorns and earth with a few pegasi flying around scouting as they laid rails down at a steady pace.

As he levitated the clipboard and quill with an over glow of dark purple magic, another pony approached him at a brisk trot. He was an earth pony of good stature with blue eyes, caramel coloring, dark brown mane, and a cutie mark of a hammer.

“Clockwork, are we on schedule or have we fallen behind again?”

“Neither,” replied the unicorn as he looked up; “We’re actually ahead by half a day now. We should reach Fillydelphia in three days if we keep this up. Once the rails are joined there, Manehattan will be connected to the main line.”

The earth pony nodded in approval. “Good...we can double time it tomorrow and cut our time down by another day. The sooner we reach the city the sooner the little steamers can roll out onto the tracks.”

“By the way, Forge,” Clockwork asked, looking up from his forms, “how goes the construction on the switch outpost?”

“Eh...” the caramel stallion looked down, chagrined. “Not so good. The switch post back by Rambling Rock Ridge had to be repaired again after those stupid dragons flew by. They ripped up parts of the tracks and took the metal with them. Greedy monsters; once it’s repaired the outpost there should be completed.”

Clockwork frowned slightly and looked back at his check sheet. “Grinder won’t be happy. He promised Princess Celestia months ago we would have a country-wide transportation system before the end of the year. We already have another group working to connect Baltimare but if we can’t link ours to theirs at Rambling Rock well... you know it won’t be pretty. With the Running of the Leaves commencing in all of Equestria in just a few days we need to hurry.”

“I don’t understand why we can’t drill through the mountains between Fillydelphia and Baltimare,” Forge said with a stomp.

“You know why we can’t, Forge; the griffins were promised that we would stay out of their lands unless they allowed us to. The Princess agrees we shouldn’t upset them since they were here first in some of the mountain regions and our truce is absolute.”

“Well, yeah, there is that. But why not go through Shadowdale Forest or by the coast then?”
Clockwork sighed; “I know you're new to leading the workers for the next week, but the surveyors who came out here back in early spring reported that the coast was too rocky at some points and Shadowdale was just too overgrown and dense for us to lay rails.”

“Yeah, yeah; anyway we need to start setting up camp. Care to help?”

“I suppose so...” The clipboard was lowered into a saddle pack he wore and the unicorn walked off his perch.
The trees were being remodeled into ties by earth ponies, while unicorns were carrying large steel bars for the rails. He walked down the hill to a large railcar filled with supplies that sat several yards away from the construction site. Clockwork concentrated and a few parts of a tent lifted into the air. They were moved from the supply car to a nearby spot where a fire was already being started under a large cauldron.

Forge came over and started pounding stakes into the ground with his powerful hooves. He used his mouth to help tie up each rope to secure the tent. Clockwork was joined by another unicorn whom he didn’t know all that well, but she mostly cooked for the working team. She was moving tent supplies as well so that the camp could get setup faster.

“Hey Sweetie Pie, what’s for dinner tonight?”

“Oh hey Clockwork, I’ll have some radishes done in a few minutes. Did you want to help?” She laid down her tent supplies and began walking back to the supply car as he passed her. Clockwork set his own tent down as other earth ponies and pegasi came over to begin setting up.

“Sure.” He smiled as he picked up more tent paraphernalia with his magic and began walking back over to the campsite. Sweetie Pie smiled back and continued to unpack the supplies as a few other unicorns started coming over to help set up camp.

As he helped unload more stuff, he looked over the large steam-driven machine made of barrels of reinforced wood, pipes of metal, and large magic-crafted iron pistons. It had no cover from the elements and was a primitive design but it pulled and pushed the load of cars around for the rails, supplies, and workers when the bi-weekly shift change occurred. No pony was allowed to work on the stretch for more than 14 days at a time, and was then given mandatory leave equal to their work days. The railroad had been under construction for the past two years and four months or 30 moons exactly.

The sun sat slowly and when camp had been set, he went to help Sweetie Pie with the cooking. A small task but at least something he was moderately skilled at by now.

“So when’s your leave, anyway?” She turned to him and asked as they finished boiling the water and started adding radishes to the cauldron.

“In three days exactly.” He smiled and looked at her; “When do you get your leave?”
She giggled; “Same as you it seems. I plan on catching the pony-mover back to Canterlot to see my sister. What about you?”

“I actually don’t know; I was debating on going back to Manehatten to visit my family but wasn’t sure yet.”

“Well that sounds like a nice visit either way.” She grinned, levitated the cauldron with her magic and together they yelled “SOUP’S ON!” Needless to say, it did not take long for everypony to come rushing forward.

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Hours later the moon rose in the sky as the cauldron sat empty; every last drop of food having been consumed by the hundreds of workers, and the whole campsite was full of stew-stuffed bodies.
Clockwork sat down inside his lantern-lit tent. His bedroll was set up already but he didn’t feel like sleeping. Instead he was reading over various notes, about schedules put together by himself and another group of workers on their way to Baltimare, that was flown to him by massager pegasi.
“There’s so much to do that I don’t know how we are going to do this.” He stated to himself as he sat the stacks of papers down and walked over to his makeshift desk. For a while it had only been a couple of crates, but he’d been able to improve it a few days ago by adding an old railroad tie that had been ruined. He blew the candle out and laid on his bed thinking about the next day to come.
He dreamed a wonderful dream of pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows, strange stories of mixed histories, and of the sun and moon controlled by the great Princess Celestia. He also dreamed of distant yelping and cries for help. It took him a moment to realize that he was hearing a real event. He opened his eyes feeling very groggy, as he attempted to roll off the bed he kicked at his simple blanket getting tangled in the covering. A moment after coming to full consciousness he was able to leave his bed roll and rushed out of the tent to find various large, hunkering dog-like creatures attacking and thrashing through the camp while attacking the crew. Clockwork recognized them as Diamond Dogs; strange creatures who mostly dwelled underground and collected gemstones as an odd racial obsession.

Forge and his predecessor’s had been very stern about tossing gemstones into large piles far away from their work zones to ward off the creatures along with dragons and the occasional minotaur whom might seek out such tiny prizes. While the stones had some modicum of value to the ponies of Equestria, it was deemed far better to dump them for safety than it was to keep them and risk what was going on right now.

“Somepony’s gonna pay for this..” He groaned and sought out a good place to start an emergency escape route, as it was his job to do that in case of danger, along with scheduling. He knew the best tactic was to distract the greedy creatures rather than outright fight them, as not even the earth ponies with all their great strength could keep them at bay for long. He concentrated on moving forward and held the image of two circles of blue light in his mind. In an instant he was teleported several yards away from the fray and he began scouting an easy exit to start shoving his fellows out through. However as he did so he caught sight of something which made him realize the beasts weren’t as stupid as everypony thought; they weren’t stealing gemstones or anything of the like. In their strong paws they held several pony workers! They were abducting the workers, not stealing treasure! His inner moral obligations swirled and he didn’t know what to do. He needed more time to tell Forge and the others what was going on. If he waited too long it’d be too late for the others.

He knew what he had to do, and he didn’t like it one bit. He focused and teleported as close as he could, taking off running at full speed after the mutts who were already starting to vanish into the forest. For him, teleporting was not as exhausting as most thought, but the next trick was sure to be. He concentrated on magical symbols in his mind; some he had been taught by a private tutor in Canterlot but had really never practiced often. The symbol was of an hourglass within two circles with a gray hue. His magic built up and he strained to force it out and around himself.

He felt the magic burst outwards from his body, covering it in a thin layer of brilliant dark purple over glow. The world around him swiftly slowed to a crawl. He looked around as time slowed; the Diamond Dogs now moved so slowly that even at a walking pace he could catch up. Instead, he ran as fast as his hooves would carry him while simultaneously concentrating on his magic to keep himself at an advantage. He counted the beasts and found that six of them were carrying off his fellow workers, including Sweetie Pie!

‘Crap!’ He thought as he turned around to buck the first one within range; the beast was taller than him by several feet but his hyper-speed powered kicks sent the creature falling forwards at an extremely comical slow motion. The beast’s husky face started to show signs of surprise while they released their captive at the same time.

Clockwork couldn’t keep his spell up any longer, but the damage was done. As he dropped the mystical energy around himself things sped up and like a stack of dominoes the remaining five Diamond Dogs fell forward on top of one another due to the closeness of their lumbering bodies. Their no-longer captives ran, flew, or teleported away as swiftly as they realized he had become a rescue party of sorts. As he turned around and began running back to catch up with the others, his back left hoof got caught on a tree trunk and he fell face down into the dirt hard and fast.

“By Celestia....” He spat in anger as he tried to pull himself back up on all fours. It was then that he felt one and then twp spindle-like paws with large digging claws pick him up off the ground and swing him onto a set of broad shoulders.

“I gots the ponies!” The brute holding him called out with a deep, gruff voice. The stench of decay and earth crept around Clockwork’s nose and he felt like he was going to gag from the odor.

The beasts chuckled as he heard some other pony was recaptured and he realized that he had failed in two ways; he didn’t rescue anypony and had gotten himself captured. He was too weak to use his magic and no matter how hard he tried it seemed he couldn’t muster the energy to teleport free.

A few moments went by and Clockwork, who was now starting to feel too exhausted to try any more, had all but given up.

“LET THEM GO!” Came a strained voice from behind them, Clockwork looked up just in time to see Forge and four other stallions come charging into the forest. They ran forward and in unison slammed into the beast carrying him before it could react. Clockwork fell, rolled, and got up unsteadily.

“GO!” Forge called out and without even thinking, Clockwork took off back towards the clearing. He could hear the sounds of fighting while running to safety with the other re-rescued ponies. He would have to ask how Forge had known to come to his aid, but at the moment he located Sweetie Pie and a few others and ushered them forwards.

He could hear the grunts and low calls of the Diamond Dogs as they fought against the ponies. As Clockwork and the others reached the remains of camp he could see various torn tents, tossed supplies, and the first wave of workers were already preparing for another assault just in case.

“You there, get everypony that you can and start packing up camp now!” He called out to one of the directors of the work group, who didn’t even question him, just nodded and bellowed orders. “Escape plan 2-B is now in effect; we are packing up and moving back several miles! Get the drivers to ready the steamer or prepare to pull it; either way we must hurry!”

There was no lack of running that happened after that and things all went by so quickly. The engine was started and warmed, the camp was packed, and as Forge and the others came back from their rescue party the machine was ready to roll. And roll it did.

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“...And that’s when we noticed the last of ‘em running off with taking nary a thang. So Forge and the rest’a us followed and that’s how we saw ya.” A rust-colored earth pony explained to Clockwork matter-of-factly. The sun was hitting midday as they munched on grass sandwiches and discussed the events of the night before. That morning, the Diamond Dogs had ambushed a few workers as they attempted to lay rails, but they got lucky and escaped. Already the work was slowing down as the ponies feared an attack at any second.

Clockwork had been allowed to sleep until an hour ago due to being up until the near crack of dawn helping ponies get settled and organizing an emergency plan. He was still pretty groggy as he sat eating and listening to the tale of heroics from the previous night and the horrors of the latest ambush.
Forge spoke directly to Clockwork then; “I sent Flitter-Foul and Splasher to Canterlot last night to request reinforcement guards for the rest of this work trip. He said with luck they’d be back here before sun down with some guards to help protect our camp. I also requested some nurses to tend to our wounded a little better than our cook and wood crafter can.” Forge paused, a thought seeming to strike him. “Clockwork, the shift change steamer is due here before noon. as the scheduler and organizer, do you think we have a day to wait, or do you feel we should press on a few more hours?”
The green unicorn scratched his goatee and thought a moment; “Well on one hoof we are still ahead by a day even with the cautious slow down you took this morning from my calculations. If we waited for the guards we would be back to just on time, but if we pressed on at a slow pace we might only lose half a day at the current speed of laying.”
Forge thought and looked over to his forepony, the rust-colored earth pony named Cinder; his red and orange mane clashed with his dark blue eyes and against it all his cutie mark, a nail and board, stood out prominently. “Cinder; “ He asked, “I know you and your crew were able to fix most of the broken equipment, but how much more is still in need of mending?”
The other pony thought a moment and sipped on some cider from a flask; “Eh..We got nearly all o’it fixed tha’ we could, but sure did find more’n half the tools are broken beyond repair. We’d need to get a shipment from either Fillydelphia or Baltimare before we could be back to a hundred percent use.”

Then Forge looked over to a unicorn mare colored charcoal gray with yellow hair and a cutie mark of an autumn tree, she spoke up before he could ask her anything; “I’ve organized a fruit and berry gathering group to start in a few minutes,” She pointed a hoof to a few other ponies gathering nearby and watching the four eat. “We already plan on going back along the tracks and gathering those apples, strawberries, and squash we saw two days ago. We should be back before late evening.”

“Good; then here’s the plan; Clockwork, I’m calling it quits today since we are so far ahead of our scheduled time, so go ahead and get what planning for tomorrow you can. Cinder, you and your crew keep working on what you can with the remaining tent and tools. And Goldenrod, go ahead and get going; your group doesn’t look like they can wait any longer. Meet back here before sunset so we can welcome our new escorts.”

Clockwork nodded, he had not worked for the newly formed Baltimare & Ohayo line very long at all but knew when to listen to his forepony’s decisions and as such began checking things off his list and preparing for a rest. He turned in for the evening with a sigh and feeling of dread as if something bad might happen.

Author's Note:

Updated 8/5/2014 - grammar corrections & then additions