Clock's Return

by Clockwork2003

Chapter 2: Sunny's Smoothies

Maretime Bay is pristine, tidy, and quite adorable. The Earth pony settlement seems to be quite lively, with ponies living their normal lives. There are a few pegasi flying around, with wares to sell, and Clockwork seems to be the only unicorn present right now. With Max on his back, Clockwork trots around, trying to get a feel for this new Equestria, one completely alien to him.

“No way, they have electricity now.” Clockwork thinks to himself, admiring the rather modernized buildings. Shops have lights on them, for example, “Banana Boat’s Banana Stand”, which is run by a chipper earth pony stallion of the same name. His shop has a neon banana lit up as an advertisement.

“Hey, Noah. All these ponies are so cute!” Max whispers to his cousin, with a wide grin on his face. Clock grins, and shifts his shoulders a bit, so Max is sitting upright on his back.

“Max, I’m Clock here. Remember that. And yes, all these ponies are cute, indeed.”

Clock replies, noticing his cousin’s astute observational skills.

There are many different shops in Maretime Bay, and one of them catches Clockwork’s eye. It’s a smoothie truck! Clock loves smoothies. An orange earth pony seems to be the owner of this stand. Clock grins, and asks Max:

“Hey kiddo, want a smoothie? It’s on me.”

Max nods in reply, which gives Clock all the permission he needs to canter his way over to the smoothie stand.

“Everypony try my smoothies! They’re the best in Equestria! I make sure all my ingredients are fresh, and it’s a certified Canterlogic nut free establishment. I don’t want anypony to get sick with my amazing smoothies!” The orange pony says, advertising her wares. Clock is the next pony in line, and the smoothie-selling pony immediately spots Max astride Clock’s back.

“Excuse me, Mr. Unicorn, but what is that…uh…that thing that’s sitting on you?” The earth pony asks, genuinely interested in learning more about what Max is. Clock smiles, and quips: “He’s my cousin, uh…what’s your name?”

“Sunny, Sunny Starscout.” She replies, smiling at the human child. Max waves to Sunny, and is quite friendly with her.

“Nice to meet you, Sunny! My name is Max, and I’m five years old. I’m a person!” The child says, introducing himself. Clock can’t help but chuckle at how freaking adorable his cousin is acting right now. Classic Max.

“So, what will the “person” and his unicorn be having?” Sunny says, pointing her front right hoof to the smoothie menu. Clock ignites his horn and levitates the menu to eye level, so he can take a gander at what smoothies are available for purchase.

“Hmm…banana-strawberry…or do I want Mango-blueberry?” Clock asks himself. Before he has a chance to order, Max pipes up with what he wants: “Sunny, can I please have a banana-strawberry smoothie?” He asks politely. Sunny smiles at the youngster, and nods. “Of course. I’ll make it foal-sized for you. And what about you, uhh…I never got your name, unicorn.” Sunny asks, waiting for Clock to make his order.

“My name’s Clockwork, but you can call me Clock. I’ll have what Max is having, but make it regular sized. Stallions have bigger appetites!” He says, laughing a bit. Clock spawns his old Equestrian wallet using unicorn magic, and doles out ten bits. Sunny examines the currency that Clock gives her, and says:

“Clock…what…what is that? We use Marestercard, Neighsa, or Pegasi Points. I can’t take whatever this is. It’s not money.” Sunny says, realizing that the unicorn in front of her is some sort of oddity.

Clock quickly remembers that Equestria has moved four thousand years into the future since his last visit. Of course his old currency isn’t legal tender. However, this might pose a problem. How can he pay for the two smoothies? Clock is a fish out of water right now. This really isn’t good.

A purple unicorn taps Sunny on the shoulder, quickly diverting her attention from the two quixotic patrons. “Psst. Sunny. Did that unicorn say his name is Clock?” She asks, her horn lighting up purple with excitement.

“Yes, Izzy. He did. Why is he giving me gold pieces? That’s so weird. You don’t use those in Bridlewood, do you? Is it a unicorn thing I don’t know yet?” Sunny asks the purple unicorn, who Clock and Max now know is named Izzy.

“No, it’s something much, MUCH cooler. Your customer right now is the Time Prince!” Izzy exclaims, waving excitedly at Clock and Max.

Clock goes completely pale, and his unicorn magic deactivates, dropping his wallet and the golden bits. On the one hand, it’s good that there is one pony who knows who Clockwork is, but on the other hand, it’s been four thousand years. He had no idea how big of an impact he had in Equestria.

“The…the time what?” Sunny asks, totally confused. This is a totally new development for her, and she’ll need Izzy to explain herself. Izzy is clearly more than happy to oblige on that part. “Well, I know you’re a hardcore history nerd, Sunny. SURELY you know that Princess Luna had a son, right?” Izzy asks rhetorically. Sunny takes a minute to think about this, putting her hoof on her chin in pensive thought.

“Luna was never my-” Clock tries to interject.

“Shush. Clock. I’m trying to help.” Izzy says, taking the floor once again. “Anyway, legend says that Luna found somepony who looked like Max over here…a “Human”, and raised him, making him a unicorn. Apparently he was some sort of time travelling unicorn prodigy, who did all sorts of cool stuff with the Grand Mage Starlight Glimmer…I mean…it’s legend, so I don’t know for sure. Ooh, Ooh! Can you see the future?!” Izzy says, clearly hyperfixated on Clock allegedly being the Time Prince.

Clock looks at Max for a second, and then turns to look at Sunny and Izzy. “Welp. You got me. I’m Clockwork Relativity, the Time Prince. I have no idea how I ended up being Luna’s son. She was just my teacher, similar to how Twilight Sparkle was with Celestia.” he says, shrugging his shoulders. “I’m just trying to buy a smoothie for my kid cousin right now. My hero days are long gone. It’s been four years-”

“Four THOUSAND, Clock. Why’d you say four?” Izzy interjects.

“Relativity is complicated, Izzy. Where I come from it was only four years since I was last here. All…all this” Clock points in every direction “is brand new.” Izzy seemingly nods in understanding, and then taps her unicorn horn onto a cube shaped item on Sunny’s register.

“Smoothies are on me, Time Prince. I paid in full. Always happy to meet a unicorn legend like yourself!” Izzy says cheerily. Sunny sees on her merchant console that, indeed, Izzy paid for Clock and Max’s smoothies.

“Well, mister Clock, you got lucky. Free smoothies for you. Two banana-strawberry smoothies, one foal-sized, coming right up!”

Clock watches in amazement as the earth pony in front of him seemingly transforms into an alicorn god. Her pale-yellow horn and wings appear out of thin air, and she uses magic to make the two smoothies, in a jiffy. Clock is clearly flabbergasted by this, stammering in sheer doubt. Max is totally clueless, and claps at Sunny’s trick.

“Wow. A flying unicorn. So cool!” Max says, totally oblivious to the sheer unimaginable feat that Clock witnessed. Once the smoothies are ready, the silhouette alicorn wings and horn vanish, leaving a regular earth pony Sunny Starscout, who hands the two smoothies to Clock.

“Here you go, Clock and Max. Two smoothies! Enjoy!” Sunny says, as Clock uses his basic telekenesis spell to levitate the two smoothies, handing the kid-sized one to Max.

“O…okay then…I think we should have our smoothies. How does that sound, Max?” Clock asks, sipping his banana-strawberry smoothie. “Sounds great, Noah…er…Clock. It’s so yummy! The smoothie’s the best I’ve ever had!”

Clock smiles, and realizes that even though nothing makes sense to him anymore in Equestria, as long as Max is happy, Clock will be a good tour guide for his cousin in this land of ponies.