Temporal Cogs

by Summonerx

Chapter 2 - Noise Amongst Nothing

That evening, four guard pegasi and two earth pony nurses came into the camp. They were accompanied by the two messenger pegasi whom had been sent off to get the guards in the first place. The two returning pegasi greeted the leaders of the camp and then went off to rest from their long flight as the guards and nurses came walking in.

A dark brown pegasus with golden eyes and brownish red mane approached them, his demeanor making it clear that he was the leader of the group. He was followed by a slate gray pegasus with a white mane, an eggplant purple pegasus with light blue mane, and lastly a peach colored one with green mane. The two nurses came up next, one was white and gray with a cutie mark of two hearts, and the other was aquamarine with darker green mane whose cutie mark was a heart with a red cross inside it.

“I’m Diver,” the leader said authoritatively. “I was told you needed some help. This is Silver Maelstrom, our metallurgist.” He pointed to the silver pegasus who stood next to him and for the first time everypony could see behind his armor was his cutie mark, a shield with a heart and a sword behind it. Next, he pointed to the purple pegasus, “This is Crucial-Point, he is my right hoof pony and strategist. And that’s Dart,” he pointed to the peach soldier, “both our runner and fast hitter.”

“Pleased to have you here.” Forge said as he greeted the guards.

“I’m Ariana and this is my cousin Duet.” The green earth pony spoke for herself and her companion. She then walked over to the silver pegasus and seemed to accidentally bump into him a little to make him smile. Clockwork got the feeling they were dating but it wasn’t very obvious to anypony else.

“Pleased to meet you.” Forge bowed his head then Diver spoke up.
“I heard you had tools that needed mending, Silver Maelstrom will be helping with that and repairing any damaged weapons we need. Dart and Crucial-Point are going to be lead and rear guard in that order, and I will be going back and forth patrolling the air looking for threats during the early morning and late evenings. There will be another set of guards arriving tomorrow morning to swap shifts for us to rest during the day. For now; as we have traveled all day, we are going to take a small rest before starting our guard duties. Do you have a place where we might do that?”

“Yes, you can use my tent for now and we will set one up for you tomorrow.” Forge responded.

“Well, Duet and I want to know where your wounded are; we are anxious to start helping.” Arianna stated loudly.

Clockwork spoke up; “You can find the five injured ponies down in the green tent.” He nodded to his left and the two girls walked on over to the tent.

It was then a strange melody began to echo across the work area. It was the sound of a strummed guitar but it sounded as if it were moving closer to them. Everypony ceased what they were doing to listen.
The music grew ever louder with each passing second. It was then the sound of wheels against rails began to be heard as an undertone to the music. The Pegasus guards suddenly became very defensive, and immediately all the workers followed suit.
Then around the bend came a small steam engine pulling two coaches and on board were a few worker ponies. It appeared that the shift change was happening already for some.
Clockwork was highly confused by this as the shift change was supposed to have happened earlier in the day, but when it hadn’t, everypony had already figured they were waiting until the next morning. Obviously something had delayed the train this morning, though that didn’t explain the music. Clockwork stared towards the approaching engine and then realized that several of the ponies on board were holding instruments.

It was then that a few of the pony workers pointed out three of the musicians were well-known. One was a stallion, a tan colored earth pony with a beard whose Cutie Mark was a small acoustic guitar, who sat singing and strumming from his spot at the far end of the train. He had a closed-trimmed beard that gave him a rugged look. Beside him was an earth pony mare of pink and gray coloring whose Cutie Mark seemed to be a violin with a star behind it; she played rapidly along to the melody, her hoof moving with mesmerizing speed. However it was the third one, a pegasus pony of darker purple and silver coloring, who every pony seemed to recognize more despite the fact that his flank was covered up by a robe. He overshadowed all the rest, his voice booming out with the song...

Down the line we go today
Working hard thats our way
Going down the line today
Hard working is our way

Clank clank go the wheels
of this monster of a mobile
We ponies aren’t use to coal
But with this mess we sure do know
About the Big Train so low....

*woo woo*
*woah woah*
*woo woo*
*woah woah*

The Big-Train is coming, watch it keeping on running
The Big-Train is coming, it won’t be stopping
The Big-Train is coming, you better move along
The Big-Train is coming, come listen to our song...

They sang out loud as the rest of the work group disembarked the carriage. Once all the other ponies were off, the three musicians packed up their things and walked off the train car themselves. The only one who didn’t disembark the train right away was a large purple stallion carrying a large chest on his back. Though he was not seen at first, he seemed a bit broader than the singer and sported a mane with a very bright pink hue. It was then that two other ponies helped him off and he began walking towards Forge while the pegasus guards began patrolling.

“I have been sent here from Princess Celestia's Royal Magician's Research Guild, on behalf of her Royal Highness I am on my way to Fillydelphia to meet up with other members of the guild to test some very ancient and precious magical items I am carrying.” He then reached into a small vest he wore and yanked out a royal seal.

“I require a private place in which to guard this cargo. For your crew's trouble..” He reached into another pocket and yanked out a small pouch of golden coins; “Princess Celestia has informed us to pay you handsomely.”
Forge nodded and picked up the little sack of coins with his mouth and pocketed them into a small saddle pocket and turned around. “Sure, thank you and your guild for me. You can have that car over yonder.” He nodded towards an empty carriage car that use mostly used by several worker ponies to rest in.

“I and the Guild thank you.” The purple stallion strode off to the car and locked himself inside. Nopony was getting into that car anytime soon.
---------------------------------------------------

Later that evening as the sun was lowered behind the mountains, the guard ponies began a shift change as Crucial-Point and Dart came back to rest.

The musician ponies, who had introduced themselves as Vibrant (a lead vocalist), Whispering Breeze (a violinist), and Lazy Chords (an acoustic guitarist). They were busy playing an old pony’s folksong about picking flowers in the rain while the train crew packed up for the night. The guards had successfully thwarted a secondary attack by the Diamond Dogs and the train had moved another few miles forward. The exchange train had dropped off and picked up workers already and headed back, the reason being that the pegasi had scheduled a downpour back near Canterlot so the train crew decided to head out and back early.
Clockwork was busy ensuring everything was moving according to his new micro-time table. Maelstrom had fixed half their tools and the nurses had done their job to heal and ease the pain of several ponies. Some of them had to be sent back on the exchange train for better treatment but others were back to work now.
It was at this time a light rain began to fall over head. The musicians, not wanting their instruments to get ruined, packed up their stuff and went to a newly erected tent. As Clockwork was making his rounds, the stallion musician known as Lazy Chords bumped into him at a brisk trot.

Clockwork was knocked back on his rump and the floating clipboard fell to the ground as the magic around it collapsed. Lazy Chords, being an earth pony, was relatively unphased from the collision.

“Ooops sorry!” Came his reply in haste,
Clockwork got back up and rubbed his rump. “No, it’s alright, I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was going.” He was about to walk off when the other stallion asked; “So ...where can a pony get a good meal around here anyway? We haven’t really eaten all day.”

“ Well if you go visit Sweetie Pie over there;” The green unicorn pointed to a tent with a large cooking pot nearby, “She can offer you and your crew something to snack on. By the way, are you planning on traveling with the train crew?”
“Yup, well that was the plan, Vibrant thought we should offer to work some and sing some to earn our way to Fillydelphia.”
Clockwork nodded; “Well have you spoken with Forge yet?”
“Sure did!” Lazy Chords stated with some enthusiasm, “We planned on showing what we could do first but he and some pony named Cinder asked us to play some songs to raise the morale around here.”
The unicorn smiled and levitated his clipboard and quill back up into the air, “Well, we certainly can use that. Anyway I have to get back to checking on what has and what has not been done yet. If you’ll excu--”

A large explosion of light and sound caught them all unaware. It emanated from somewhere near the camp. It was so brilliant and opalescent that everypony had to cover their eyes and some even crouched down in fear as the light and sound burst forth out of nowhere.
From within a unicorn appeared, his coat was a reddish orange with a darker orange mane with a small streak of peach coloring, and the overglow of light orange magic upon his horn. The next to come out of the light was a blue pegasus with dark blue mane with a touch of silver within. Finally, an earth pony stepped out of the light just as it faded. He wore dapper clothing, glasses, and his his coat was a light green which matched his coat of soft teal with a dark purple streak in it. The unicorn ran towards the third train car without heeding any of the guards, whom were all caught by surprise. Silver Malestrom attempted to jump in and fight, but the unicorn whose cutie mark looked like an exploding hour glass with a ring around its center, simply vanished only to reappear several feet behind him. The blue pegasus then swooped in with an amazing speed, knocking Silver on his back in an instant. The earth pony merely walked past him without a second glance.

The other pegasus guards came forth, prompted by the attack on Silver but the unicorn continued to vanish and reappear; not teleporting, just fading in and out with in the blink of an eye. The guards split up; two heading towards the speedy pegasus and the other two towards the unicorn.

“Not so fast gentleponies...” The earth pony spoke in a demure style of speech. His cutie mark was a like a scar full of stars, and he twisted around and bucked at the sky. At first the pegasi guards were confused at his action, but then an amazing and terrifying thing occurred: the very space between the guards and the earth pony rippled and suddenly they were flying in place, never going forward but unable to land either. They were held, fully conscious and kicking, in a suspended state by ripples in space. The pony on the ground trotted on, ignoring the calls of the guards.

The blue pegasus flew near the camp, watching as most of the workers had already split between those who would fight and those who would hide for safety. The only one who did not was the purple and pink stallion who was guarding a chest in the third train car. Instead, he began barricading the windows and door in preparation for what he was sure would be an outright theft.

That didn’t stop the unicorn from simply walking up to the door and opening it. Right as the door opened a spear came out to meet the pony in the face but the unicorn faded out and suddenly the spear lunged forward, along with the purple stallion holding it. Clockwork suddenly realized what was going on and spoke out loud without meaning to. “Time magic...that pony is using time magic!” He seemed a little bit elated and worried all at once. This did not stop him from running forward like a crazy horse and attempting heroics. With a burst of his own magic, which had a dark purple overglow to it, the world instantly slowed to a crawl. He concentrated on his spell while simultaneously watching as the other unicorn casually walked around as if time had not slowed for him.

This had proven Clockwork’s theory in a split second but as he galloped closer to the train car, it was already becoming too late. The thief levitated the chest out the door before suddenly slowing to a crawl. Realizing his chance, Clockwork did a dual-focus and yanked the box away but his magic imploded and he too returned to a normal temporal stance. The other unicorn looked over at him sharply, releasing the hold he had on the box momentarily and he vanished from sight. Clockwork thought fast and tossed the chest over towards the camp before feeling an extremely heavy and powerful kick against his face, knocking him back with such force he thought his jaw might break.
The box popped open as it hit the ground near Lazy Chords’ hooves and out tumbled two items - a shiny pendant in shape of hour glass with opalescent sand, and another pendant in the shape of an 8-point star with what appeared to be glowing star-swirls and motes of light with in. Lazy Chords realized these were the very items the ponies before him were after. On impulse, being the just pony he was, he grabbed at both pendants with his mouth and on instinct took off away from the fight, but he didn’t get far as a blue streak slammed into his back and forced him to drop the items. The hour glass pendant bounced one direction and the star pendant another. Amazingly his guitar was left undamaged by the attack, as it had fallen to the side of his flank when he had been hit.

The green unicorn got up just as his rival reappeared in front him snickering, and with a quick thought the two pendants began rising and floating towards him wrapped in an orange glow. Clockwork pulled himself up and began pulling at the items with his own magic, which wrapped around the items leaving streaks of the other’s magic in between his own. As the two strained to hold the items, the earth pony trotted right up behind the unicorn.
“Oh surely you're not overpowered or anything there Flux, now are you? I could help..”

“NO...I have this....Tear! You and Rift go back to our entry point...ugh...”

The earth pony, now known as Tear, huffed and casually trotted back from whence he had come from. Rift followed suit as the unicorn’s voice was loud enough for even him.

“Look you don’t know what you're doing or what you’re fighting against; give up this pointless feud and we’ll leave you in peace.” Flux spoke directly to Clockwork.

“Uh....ugh.....I don’t think stealing really counts as pointless fight to lose or win. You..” He spat as his purple magic began to intensify and block out the other’s orange magic around at least one pendant. But Flux began walking backwards, yanking the pendants along and thusly Clockwork as well.

“He-YAW!” Came an unexpected voice from a certain bearded earth pony, who had regained his composure by now, and ran full tilt towards the orange unicorn. Flux quickened his pace and narrowly dodged the swift kick to his face. Clockwork had to take several steps back to avoid it completely, but never once did he let go of the pendants.

“Really now....you too?” Flux sighed and began yanking harder and pulling faster until he and the other two strange ponies were within a few feet of one another. “Well I warn you now...we want what we have here...so if you will excuse...” The brilliant light burst forth, and their eyes began to glow white as if lit from within. Lazy Chords, not giving up yet, rushed headlong into the light but was held in place by it. Clockwork, fearing he would lose the pendants and not sure what the light was, ran in behind him but found himself stuck and paralyzed by a tingling sensation all up and down his body.

The light began as a rainbow of colors but quickly turned a blinding white. Just as it did, Clockwork gave up on both pendants and focused on one of them blindly hoping to at least steal one away before the three vanished. The hour-glass pendant flew towards him, surrounded by a rainbow hue of light which twisted his horn overglow into a vivid display of color which spread to his own body and Lazy Chords’ with a vibrant rainbow aura.

Then the flash of light intensified into a brilliant, eye-searing beam forcing them to shut their eyes. Even closed, their eyelids did little to abate the pain. Then, a sound like a thunderclap and rush of air bombarded them with such force that both were lost in total darkness.

Author's Note:

Update - 6/7/2014 - Fixed a few scenes and rewrote the song portion.