• Published 14th Feb 2017
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PaP: Bedtime Stories - Starscribe



Earth used to have humans living on it. Now it has ponies, some of which used to be human. It will take ten thousand years for every human alive on earth to return. A lot can happen in that much time.

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Keeping Time

Winding Wheel heard his front bell ring with a familiar high-pitched tinkling, and he looked up from his work. Many tools hung in the air around him, a tiny mallet, a screwdriver, a chisel as fine as a hair. He lowered them with reluctance, replacing each in their assigned place. "One moment!" His voice rasped when he shouted, and when he rose, his joints cracked like the sinue was going to tear right off his bones. It didn't, though he knew that day would come soon. How many predictions did Wheel have left, one? Two?

Many hooves sounded on the floor in the next room. As Wheel made his way through, brushing orange mane gone gray away from his eyes, he saw the lobby filled. There were nearly a dozen ponies in his lobby. They wandered between tall grandfather clocks, elegant coo-coo clocks resting on the walls, and his glass display case of pocket watches and other smaller timepieces. Half of they were royal guards, wearing red and blue jackets of white trousers. Each one carried wooden rifles, though none had them drawn. This was a clock shop, not a warzone.

The others were mostly servants, each one pushing a small wheelbarrow in front of them.

The last of his guests was the king. Rudolph was a mountain of an earth pony stallion, wearing a white version of the uniform his soldiers wore and a thin golden crown on his head. No sooner did Wheel see him then he dropped into a bow, joints protesting at the strain. "Your grace. You did not need to come all the way down here. I could have sent--"

King Rudolph raised one hoof, silencing him. He was so youthful, so vibrant... and yet he was half Wheel's age. Some things in life just weren't fair. "No need, clockmaker. What I require from you could not have been sent to the palace, in any case." He gestured. "You may rise."

Wheel did so, hurrying to the edge of his counter, as close as he dared stand to the king. Guards watched him move, though none seemed terribly concerned. What danger could such an ancient unicorn be? "What do you require of me, King Rudolph?" He reached down under the glass, levitating an elegant pocket watch on a velvet pillow, one encrusted with fine gemstones which together formed the nation's flag. "This piece, perhaps? Wound by motion, you will never need to turn it. It--"

"The last watch you made for me ticks as truly as the day I received it," He reached into the pocket of his uniform, removing a similar piece, though it had only an engraving instead of the gemstones. Wheel's own marker's mark was stamped near the latch, a little worn with age but still intact. "No, old friend. My son will be of age soon; I will purchase him one of your watches when that day comes." He tucked his own away. "Today I am here for another reason. I suspect you may know what that is." He straightened, bringing one hoof down on the ground in a definitive way. As he did, each one of the servants opened the wooden box on their cart. Every single one of them held a fortune, though of a different kind. One contained gemstones, another small gold bars, and another had solid blocks of aluminum. One some sort of spice.

"I require the other service you offer, clockmaker. I am prepared to give all this in exchange."

Wheel's mouth hung open. To think how much more he had sacrificed for lesser offerings. If he took this one, it might very well be his last. His limbs still worked, his magic was stronger than ever... but what good would it do to be the wealthiest pony in all of Bern if he was senile in bed? "You wish to ask about the war?"

The king turned to his servants. "Out, the lot of you! Leave the offerings here. Guard as well, but watch the building. No one enters until we are finished." Ponies scampered to obey, and the bell sounded several more times before the door shut for the last time, and all was quiet. "How much have you heard?"

Wheel had no reason to lie, not to Rudolph. This man would not be king without Winding Wheel's involvement. "Fate swirls about this war, your Majesty. The consequences extend thousands of years."

"So you will accept my offering?" Rudolph leaned close to him, so close Wheel could smell the ale no his breath. "I require knowledge of the Teutonic army's plans. Reveal their strategies to me, as you did during the ascension war. Do this, and I will grant you anything you ask. If these rewards are not sufficient... I will bring more. I wish to put an end to this war before it begins. We cannot afford another conflict, old friend. My people are too weary, they have given up too many sons."

Wheel turned, walking over to the nearby window. He looked out on Bern, the ancient stone buildings, streets full of ponies, the ancient flag flying on a distant clock tower. The city hardly seemed to realize it was about to go to war again. I can stop this. But if I do... The Teutonic order had an important purpose to serve, far away. He had seen them by the thousands, marching against an enemy far worse than anything he had seen. What would happen to the future if he destroyed them now?

"I'm sorry," he turned away, looking away. "I don't have the magic to give visions anymore, your grace. You see how old I am. I have nothing left to give."

King Rudolph met his eyes, bright blue eyes scrutinizing with vigorous intensity. As though the king were searching for signs of the lie. Of course, no earth pony could cast truth spells, so Wheel knew he would not see anything. His personal discipline was as perfect as the timing on any of the watches he sold; there would be no traces revealed.

"I see," Rudolph sat back. "You dreamed of this, you say? Is any detail of those dreams useful to me?"

City in flames. Ponies thrown dead into the Aare. A black and yellow flag lifted on a broken clock tower. "Yes," Wheel spoke very quietly, avoiding Rudolph's eyes. "Do not send your son to fight, and do not leave him here. Send him to your summer palace, along with anything else you consider precious."

Rudolph sighed. "I see. Enjoy your retirement, old friend." He left. His servants hurried in behind him, collecting their chests of offerings. Rudolph watched them go without a word, returning the watch he had tried to sell the king back to its place beneath the counter.

He did not get much chance to work on his own projects after that-- Wheel had never taken an apprentice, and so he had to man the front himself. After a personal visit from the king, there were many visits that day. Noble stallions and mares were certan Wheel's work would be coming back into fashion, and so several made lavish purchases. The coffers swelled a great deal that day, though nowhere near the wealth the king had offered to give.

Eventually night came, and Wheel could finally lock up for the night. He turned the open sign around, latched the door closed, and went about winding his clocks. It was far easier to wind them in the evening then to wind and then set each one in the morning. The chore brought him all through the shop and required fairly precise magical coordination. Of course his clocks came with tools to allow any kind of pony to use them, but Wheel couldn't use those anymore. His hooves shook too much when he tried to hold them still, and he'd already broken one of them that way. It was not a mistake he would repeat.

Nearly an hour had passed since nightfall by the time he was finishing up. Gaslights had come on outside, illuminating the streets as many other shops stayed open. Wheel's shop was uptown, where the richest and most influential ponies came to do their shopping. Many now hurried past in expensive suits and gowns, on their way to the theater or the opera. Wheel did not watch them.

He was heading into the back room when he stopped, hearing the front door open and the bell ring. Had he forgotten to lock the door after all? Was his memory going? "I'm sorry..." he turned around. "Whoever you are, we closed an hour ago. Didn't the sign..." It did. The "open" side faced inward, he could see it plainly. Winding Wheel's sight was the one thing magic hadn't stolen from him.

"I apologize," the pony standing in the doorway was a mare, tall and elegant and wearing an elegant yellow gown and silver jewelry around her braided basil mane. Perfectly groomed wings with lime feathers emerged from the dress, and a hat as broad as his largest wall-clocks covered most of her head and her mane, with long animal feathers making her head seem even bigger. She was exactly the sort of pony Wheel hated. "My business simply can't wait, Mr. Wheel."

She had a slight accent, though Wheel couldn't place it. Almost British, but that wasn't quite right. Another foreign diplomat come to glut herself on his broken country.

"Whoever you are, the door is right there." He gestured with one aching hoof. "I open at eight tomorrow morning. Your business may return then." Wheel levitated the door open, letting in the autumn draft. It made him shiver. "The fault is mine for forgetting to lock the door. Return tomorrow, and I will do an engraving free of charge."

"I can't do that," the pony said, her expression turning sad. She walked toward him, away from the open door. "My business is too urgent to wait, Mr. Wheel. I think you will agree once you hear it."

This pony is tall, even for a pegasus. What country is she from? "I don't--" Wheel began to say something rude, but then something strange happened. His magic abruptly stopped. It was a terrifying sensation for a pony who depended on magic to do anything with his life. Without the force of his levitation, the door smacked closed under the force of the autumn breeze, the bell sounding loudly. It moved so forcefully that even the latch smacked closed. At least the glass hadn't cracked.

"Oh..." Wheel reached up with one hoof, touching the side of his horn. It didn't hurt, it wasn't tender... and at his will, the wheel on his nearby lamp turned, and the room it up a little brighter. "I see." he sighed. "What is it then, Lady..."

"Haggard." The pony walked away from him, though not towards the door. Instead she went to his windows, shutting each one in turn.

Wheel could do no more than stand there, dumbfounded. Can she be here to rob me? This pony will be in for a surprise... unless my magic fails again. But if Wheel's magic was running out, where was the headache, where was the drained feeling? He felt nothing like that. "Lady Haggard." He sounded more forceful this time. "This is my shop, and I will not be trotted about in this manner. I demand to know what could be so urgent that you could not wait one evening."

"Oh," The Pegasus finished with his shutters. Wheel didn't mind, so long as she wasn't about to attack him. He was about to have to do that. She returned to the counter, standing exactly where the king had. "You know about the invasion. I suspect you know more about it than most in this city."

Void take every damn diplomat who ever crawled into my country. "If you think I'm going to sell you information about the king's visit today--"

"No," The pegasus removed her hat, setting it down on the counter beside her. Except... she wasn't a pegasus. She had a horn, longer than his and ended in a sharper point. The hat's massive size had been hiding it. "I don't need magic to see what he will do,"

Wheel clutched at his heart and nearly choked right then and there. He backed away from her, pointing with one weak hoof. This was no "Lady Haggard," whoever the hell that was supposed to be. There were not very many alicorns in the world. One ruled far to the south, over a country where summer never ended. The other was invading Switzerland. "I-Idyia-- you're past the lines... you're in the capital... you've come to assassinate the king, haven't you?"

Deathless Idyia, the divine warlord, stood in his shop. She had even been wearing her blood steel crown under the silly hat. Its dirty yellow gemstones sparkled in the light of the Gaslamp. She watched him with a smile, obvious amusement on her face. "Nothing like that." She sat down on her haunches. "I want to make a purchase, Winding Wheel. There is a service only you can offer, and I must have it."

Wheel settled back onto his hooves, taking a single deep breath. This explained what had happened to his magic--a pony stood in his presence who could kill him with as little effort as he wound a watch. His most powerful temporal magic would not hurt this pony--accelerating time would do nothing to harm an ageless immortal. There was no sense pretending. "If you think I'm going to give you anything to help you invade, you can take your flank right to the Nameless. You can kill me, but I won't betray King Rudolph."

The alicorn's smile faltered a little. "You will not speak of that one to me, Winding Wheel. Insult me, hate me, do what you will to me. But not that." She straightened. "I wish to swim against the river of time, Oracle. Will you help me?"

He glared. "If you know the power I've discovered, you must also know what it costs." He held up one wrinkled, shriveled hoof, the joints swollen. "How old do you think I am, Idyia?"

She sighed. "You're forty-two. Your birthday is next week."

"Not even close, I'm..." he trailed off. She was exactly right. Of course, she would be. There are ponies worse than diplomats. Just as smug, but they're infuriatingly right. "Yes. I refused King Rudolph to his face only today. I believe my next glimpse will be my last. What could you possibly offer worth that?"

"I am aware," the Alicorn spell. "That's why I waited until now. Perhaps you've heard rumors of the lifespell, the effect on any magic death can have. That transition lends immense power to a spell. In this case, it would grant fidelity to see the future as you have never known it. Your last sight will make you Oracle indeed, before you die."

Wheel swore under his breath. "I can't believe what I am hearing. You are the sworn enemy of the crown. If I shouted your name, a hundred soldiers would be here in minutes! Your army crosses the Alps even now! Why would I die to help you? You know there is nothing you can offer me no secret, no wealth..." he trailed off. "Wait. You're going to offer to turn back your soldiers. Is that why you're here? To hold the country for ransom?"

"Oh, no." All the humor was gone from her face, and behind it was only a storm. "This is the only nation in all of Europe that permits slavery, did you know that? As my army pressed east, most did not emancipate their slaves. They brought them here. Many of those in chains are refugees or their children." She shook her head. "Rudolph is determined to impale himself on this."

"We'll see," he said, confused. Of all the things to care about, how could someone so powerful go to war over something so pointless? "Rudolph has hired every mercenary east of the Rhine. You don't have one pony to his ten."

"I did not come to discuss this," she waved one hoof through the air, dismissive. "Winding Wheel, I have been watching you. You have discovered incredible new magic, but the cost was too high. You have squandered centuries of life, and now you die before you complete your masterwork."

Her words rang true. The last and greatest of his creations would never be finished. Even if he cast no more forbidden magic, his years would be up long before he finished. "If that is true, then I have even less reason to help you. What would you do if I refused... kill me?" He laughed bitterly.

"No." She didn't move, didn't seem discouraged. "If I did not require supernal accuracy from your magic, I would offer you the return of youth in exchange for your help. But that would not accomplish my purpose, and would be a waste of valuable talent."

"Hold on," he interrupted. "D-did you just say you could make me young again?"

It was her turn to laugh. "When I was young, an angry unicorn gave me seven years. I have had nearly a thousand years to study."

"Do it," he said. "Let me finish my masterwork. When I am done, I will be old again. I can cast your spell, and die knowing I succeeded."

"Sorry." she shook her head. "This city will be ashes soon. I cannot risk your mortality, and I cannot spare the energy to watch you."

"Then there is nothing you could offer me," he turned away. "Kill me or depart, Indya. I will not help you."

She was suddenly beside him. He had heard no teleport, not even a breeze from displaced air. She put one hoof on his shoulder. Wheel didn't have the strength to shove her away. "Will you at least hear my offer? It may change your mind."

He only grunted in response. This day had gone on so long, and he was so tired...

"This spell will kill you. What happens after that..." she shrugged one shoulder. "It might not go the way you think."

"Are you trying to offer me salvation now, Indya?" He mustered the strength to stand, walking away from her and into the back room of his shop. She followed, of course. Alicorns were infuriating like that. "You can shove your salvation right up your ass. I know what you are. Magic is real; it is measurable. It ticks like a clock, no matter who winds. You have power, but you aren't God."

"This is true." She stayed close to him as he made his way through his workshop to the single table, where his unfinished watch was laid out still. "And no, not salvation. I don't know what that is... but I can give you something else. In exchange for your help, I will give you some advice. Take it..." she gestured down at the watch. "I was once like you, Wheel. I grasped vainly at a truth my whole life, one I knew was there just out of reach. You have walked that road your whole life and not known it." She gestured at the watch. "You think your job is to build a watch. I thought my job was to build a country, but I was wrong too. It was that building a country taught me what I needed to know. If I had realized then what I know now, I could've made the transition much sooner. I could have spared many ponies much suffering."

She lowered her voice to a whisper. "I need your help to see the future, Wheel. Something is coming, a threat I fear will drive civilization to the brink. With your vision, I might be able to prevent it. This vision will kill you, I can feel it. You walk so close to death it haunts your dreams. Your death-vision will bring Death Herself to come for you. Her presence will teach you more than any watch ever could." She rested a hoof on his tools, holding them down, preventing him from raising them in his magic.

"Do this spell for me, and you'll get more than the satisfaction of knowing you're helping preserve the planet. You'll receive more than treasure, more even than youth. Help me, realize your truth, and become it. Claim your immortality. Earth needs more Alicorns, and I need more friends who won't get old and rot away." she extended a hoof. "Please."

Wheel had watched her, he had listened, and he heard only sincerity. He had spent so long with diplomats and politicians that Wheel knew a lie when he heard it. This Indya believed what she said with complete sincerity... believed it so strongly, he wanted to believe her too. "When I was..." he coughed. "When I was young, I used to sell my services cheap. I did not understand what I was giving up. Ponies age so slowly... back then, I judged ponies based on their questions. Tell me what you want to see, and I'll judge."

The alicorn took a deep breath. "Far beneath the sea is a God far stronger than I. His name is Charybdis, the Piercer. He bides his time, preying on the feeble, taking a few ships each year, enslaving a few villages far away from my eyes. By the time I notice and react, he has already retreated. I suspect he intends to take the whole planet. His kind cannot create, cannot give, cannot improve. Everything they touch rots. In time he will have no choice but to invade in earnest. I wish to see this war to come. I must know what he will do so that I can prepare the planet for him. This is my request."

Wheel looked back to his unfinished clock. With this decision, it might stay unfinished. Yet the more he thought about it, the more Wheel realized he did not care. His life had been full of mistakes, errors in judgment that had cost him most of the years nature had given him. His visions had put a tyrant on the throne and condemned his homeland to an alicorn's wrath.

If Winding Wheel could die helping protect the whole world from what this Alicorn spoke of, then... maybe it didn't matter that most of his time had been wasted. Wheel could make his last few years count.

"Very well," he reached out, snapping his toolbox closed. "I will help you."


King Rudolph stormed the clockmaker's shop the next day. His soldiers broke down the locked door, smashing their way inside, shattering several of the delicate clocks in the process. King Rudolph entered right behind them, his hooves scattering gears and shattered wooden clock-faces.

Lieutenant Sure Blood saluted. "Your majesty, he isn't here! We searched the whole building..." he pointed to a pair of ponies near the glass display at the front of the shop. A tall, elegant pegasus and her son, by the look of it. It was a terrible pity that a mare like this was already married. She was pure elegance, from the brim of her feathered hat all the way to her perfectly manicured hooves. Rudolph had not enjoyed a pegasus in far too long. Even as he watched, the pegasus bowed low to him, spreading her wings in a way he was certan had been calculated to be accidentally seductive.

He hardly spared a glance for the colt beside her. Not full grown, orange mane and brass coat, his feathers disheveled. He also wore a hat, though nothing else. Many children wore little, though ponies in this mare's social class did.

His soldiers had surrounded the mare, who held her colt to her with a reassuring wing. The child seemed to be in a terrible shock, crying near to hysteria as he looked around the broken shop. His crying got Louder as Rudolph kicked over another Grandfather to reach them.

"Your Grace, do we take them for interrogation?" Sureblood asked, his voice crisp. "They may know where the clockmaker has gone."

"No," Rudolph gestured. "Have your men give us some space. We've frightened this poor child." King Rudolph reached out, lifting the mare's chin with one hoof. "Forgive me, Lady..."

"Aebischer," she said, blushing fiercely. Just the way he liked.

King Rudolph could not have this flower for himself, not yet. There was one task more important. "Lady Aebischer," he said. "What brings you to this particular shop this morning?"

She could barely even look at him. Rudolph was used to having that effect on mares. If only the damn child could stop crying...

"For a clock," she pointed under the counter. "M-my son here... he is of an age, you know... and I came to buy him one. But Mr. Wheel wasn't here. This seemed very strange to me, since I heard Winding Wheel kept good time like his clocks. He wasn't here. I thought, maybe he went to the cafe for a plate of Rösti or something, you know... but he hasn't returned. Did we do something wrong?"

"No," Rudolph answered at once, turning slightly away from her. Let this mare get a glimpse of what was in his uniform. No pegasus stallion could compete with a king! "Mr. Wheel, however... he refused to help the crown win this war. You do know about the war, don't you?" He didn't wait for an answer. "In any case, Mr. Wheel's possessions have been confiscated. He will be found, and he will assist the crown. Which means..." he gestured to the glass display case. One of his soldiers smacked the butt of his rifle into the glass, shattering it and raining shards down on their contents in a spectacular shower.

"Here," King Rudolph reached in with one hoof, lifting out the very pocket watch Wheel had tried to sell him the day before. He pushed it towards the little colt. "Take it, please. Consider it a gift from the crown."

The cold hid his face away from Rudolph, quaking like a deer who had looked up to realize Rudolph had just sighted it with his longbow. This was not an entirely unexpected reaction from a child, though it was strange to see it from a colt so old. No doubt this mare's husband is an inferior specimen. No son of mine would be so spineless.

The mare took the watch with another gracious bow, slipping it away into the pocket of her dress. "Thank you, your majesty. W-we... are truly undeserving of this gift."

"Nonsense." He turned away. "I'm afraid I must return to the hunt. Tracking down Mr. Wheel is critical to the safety of my kingdom. Perhaps you would join me at the palace? I will have a place reserved for your husband and your son at my private table."

The mare seemed to melt under his ministrations, as they always did. She fawned over him, begging that she wasn't worthy of such an invitation, but he insisted on it. He spent long enough on it that he was certian Sureblood would give him grief over it once they were in private. To the void with Sureblood, King Rudolph would enjoy his pleasures.

He nodded politely to the mare as she hurried away down the street, having to drag the colt along behind her. Well, that was no matter. A governess was an easy thing to purchase.

Now, if only he could track down the damn clockmaker...