Chapter 1: Clocks
Somewhere, perhaps in another universe, or some parallel dimension, there existed a place of magic, of adventure, and of brightly-colored talking horses. This universe was relatively peaceful, if one was to judge it against our own, but was not without its trials and tribulations. We shall call it Equestria. Because that was its name.
You might laugh at the idea that these problems typically fell along the lines of relationship problems, friendship troubles, strife between pals, and- well, you get the point. You see, when you live somewhere that has never seen plague or genocide, your friends not liking your parties suddenly becomes the worst possible thing.
But I digress- we're not here to pass judgment on a land such as this. I wish to tell you a story of how this land came to know of and fear such atrocities that trouble our world. Or rather, came to know of the idea of the possibility of fearing such things that could maybe happen at some point sort of. Or something. I'm not really clear on that part right now, but I have you here, and you're listening, so there's that. I'm the story-teller, and you're the reader, so I get to say what happens and you have to listen. Or you don't. Either way, that's how stories work. Now, what was I talking about? Oh, yes. Equestria.
========
“I didn't eat THAT much... I mean, there was that one cupcake. And that one. Oh, and that cake. And that tray of cookies.” Pinkie Pie scrunched her face up pensively for a moment. “Well, there were also those milkshakes. And those fritters you gave me. And those pickles! But other than that.” Applejack nodded inattentively, still fumbling with the stubborn jar of pickles she had been wrestling with for the past hour. She sighed and set the jar on the fence that bordered her farm.
“Nah, ah don't think it was that, Pinkie Pie. This looks different,” the cowpony said as she looked more closely at her friend's strangely bulbous stomach. It all looked awfully suspicious, but Applejack couldn't quite put her hoof on it. She gave the pink pony's stomach a poke which was met with a giggle.
“Applejack, that tickles!” Pinkie said, half-complaining. AJ sat down in the dirt and scrunched her face thoughtfully. She didn't know why her good friend didn't go see a doctor, or even talk to Twilight. They'd know better than a simple cowpony like herself.
“Pinkie, why don't we go talk ta Twilight or somethin' about this?” she said as she stood up decisively. Pinkie looked at her, confused.
“Twilight's not here, silly!” She started hopping- or at least, she started hopping as well as she could with the giant bulge that was her stomach impeding her movement. “She needed to get a new clock but nopony sells clocks around here and Rarity was out of her fancy cheese that she likes so she went with her and Fluttershy needed to get some special medicine for Angel Bunny because of that one time he got into that rat poison and-” She stopped took a deep breath suddenly. Applejack looked at her expectantly for a few seconds. The pink mare held it for a little while longer until she simply said, “That's it.”
Applejack frowned. Somehow she had forgotten about that. “Well, we might as well get you to the hosp-”
At this exact moment, Rainbow Dash apparently decided she was better off diving headfirst into the very spot that Applejack had been occupying rather than continuing to practice her fancy moves and stunts. The two of them became a jumbled mass of limbs. They looked at each other for a moment, dazed, until the pegasus finally spoke.
“Hey, Applejack.” Rainbow stood up and brushed herself off, ignoring the glare she was receiving.
“So, Pinkie-” She stopped suddenly. Pinkie Pie's cringe was very noticeable, but the brash pony paid little attention to anything other than the grotesque bulge coming out of her dear friend's stomach.
“Rainbow Dash,” Applejack started, pausing to stand up and brush herself off as well, “Somethin's wrong with Pinkie Pie.”
Rainbow Dash gave her a flat look, as if to say: “Yes, I can see this. Obviously.” The cyan pony inspected her friend's problem thoroughly, giving a poke here and there, and receiving a giggle in return each time. She looked up at Pinkie and grinned. “Looks like all that everything you eat is catching up with you.”
The party pony scratched her chin thoughtfully. “I thought all the fat goes to your haunches. Or your rump...”
Applejack shook her head, then cut off Pinkie's rambling with a tap on her shoulder. “Hospital. This could be somethin' really bad for all we know. Can you walk okay?” She looked over at Rainbow Dash solemnly as the pink pony nodded and stood up. Rainbow gave a solemn nod in return, to which the cowpony nodded. And then off the three friends went. Applejack, nodding to herself, decided Big Macintosh could take care of things while she was gone. Right now, she needed to get her friend some help. And her neck was sore for some reason.
========
Twilight barely contained a squee of delight. Getting Angel Bunny's medicine turned out to much simpler than she had feared, and she had even managed to find a store that sold both clocks and fancy cheese! Rarity had been appalled at the very idea, but eventually Twilight convinced her to at least take a look, and now the white mare was fawning over what was obviously an amazing assortment of the finest fromages. At this rate they might even have time to see a few sights before having to head back to Ponyville!
But first things first: she needed to find a suitable replacement for the small clock she lost during that unfortunate experiment. She hadn't quite worked out the whole time travel thing yet, but soon. Yes. Soon. Rows of clocks passed her by as she shuffled through the store, her body on auto-pilot as silently inspected each device, though none seemed suitable for experimentation. In fact, she was starting to notice something a little suspicious-
“Twilight?” A quiet voice snapped her out of her mulling, and she turned around to see that Fluttershy had been following her. Her hair was obscuring her eyes which meant, as Twilight had come to learn, that she was terrified of something. That happened sometimes.
“Fluttershy, they're just clocks,” she said, placing a hoof on her shoulder and giving the most comforting smile she could muster. She received a timid smile in return.
“I know. It's just-” But Twilight's attention was already back on the task at hoof. She was missing something. Something huge. Something obvious. But what?
“Twilight!” She frowned and turned to face her friend again, giving her the most patient look she could.
Fluttershy retracted into herself even more. Apparently, her patient face was not patient enough.
“It's okay,” she repeated, going as far as to give her a hug this time. She couldn't concentrate like this. Something was out of place.
“But-” Twilight squeezed her harder, losing track of reality as she poured over every possibility, every detail. Fluttershy began to squirm uncomfortably in her grip, but the unicorn didn't notice, as deep in thought as she was. There were clocks. Lots of clocks. Clocks were in no short supply in this store. A place for every clock and every clock in its place. She was actually rather impressed by how tidy the whole shop was. An endless supply of timing-keeping devices, and not a single one was even slightly askew.
None of them were ticking either (that was obviously something that clocks were supposed to do), but she simply waved this off: perhaps the store owners activated them at the counter. Each clock face was beautifully crafted and set, belying their decidedly pedestrian purpose, yet each clock ran contrary to her sensibilities. She just wanted a bucking clock.
And suddenly she realized what she had failed to noticed until now. Despite there being rows upon rows of clocks, there was little variety. In fact, it seemed like the vast majority were antique grandfather clocks. She supposed that made sense, what with the fancy cheeses and all. The purple pony gave herself a congratulatory nod for being so smart.
“Twi... light...” She suddenly snapped back to her senses and let the poor suffocating pegasus gasp for air.
“Ah, sorry.” She gave a nervous laugh and waited for her to recover. Twilight put her focus back on their itinerary for the day. She didn't know of any other places that sold clocks off-hand. She was not familiar with Fillydelphia like she was with Canterlot, but she knew Fluttershy could only get what she needed in this city. And with Rarity needing her cheese, or whatever, it had all worked out far too well for the three of them to pass up the trip. Maybe Rarity would know a good store; she was quite familiar with the city, after all.
After making sure Fluttershy was really okay, she attempted to trace her way back to Rarity- the store was strangely labyrinthine with its rows of almost completely similar clocks blending into one another- but eventually gave up and found herself at the entrance again. While she was here, she might as well have a word with the clerk.
“Excuse me? I was just looking around, and you have some really nice clocks here, but-”
“Yeah?” The unicorn sitting at the counter was currently more interested in filing her hooves.
“Do you have anything else?” With a sigh, the pony set her file on the counter and hopped off of her stool.
“Wait a minute. I'll go check.”
She disappeared into a backroom and returned with several ornate clocks, each more delicate and dainty than the last.
“Those are very nice, but-” The clerk made a show of climbing back onto her stool with the obvious intention of staying there come hell or high water. Twilight frowned, but continued.
“I need something that's not so... fancy.”
“Not fancy?” the impatient unicorn repeated incredulously.
Twilight thought for a moment, then noticed a clock up on the wall. She figured it was worth a shot.
“What about that clock?”
Suddenly, Rarity.
“Twilight, dear, you can't take THAT one. It's horrid!” The clerk shot her a malicious glance.
Twilight looked at it again. It was a typical wall clock that you might see in any hospital or school. It was actually rather confusing that the store would use such a pedestrian unit. Twilight narrowed her eyes.
“It's a clock.”
The clerk shook her head. “If I wanted to sell that, it'd be out there with the rest of them. Not for sale. Why we even keep that thing is beyond me. I almost feel like killing myself each time I have to even look at it.”
Twilight bit her lip. This threatened to delay everything. And delays messed up schedules. And without schedules she might even be late. Such a thought shook her to the core. This was simply unacceptable. Maybe if they hurried they could make it to another store without throwing off things too-
“Twilight, didn't Fluttershy go with you?” Twilight's eyes shot wide open as she looked around, alarmed. Fluttershy was conspicuously absent. She moaned at this revelation.
“Let's go find her,” she said, her frustration almost boiling over.
Meanwhile, a small sad pile of yellow quivered in some featureless aisle. Giant monoliths of wood and metal towered over her menacingly. Time itself seemed to slow and light seemed to fade as the evil contraptions leaned in like predators anticipating the kill. Fluttershy had long since covered her eyes, and she dared not open them to face these... things. Even then, despite her best efforts, she still was painfully aware of that incessant sound of nightmares: a simple yet horrible “Tick. Tock."
A stallion stood nearby, fidgeting nervously as he tried to figure out what exactly he was seeing. Eventually, he just shrugged and slowly walked around the strange pegasus. He was starting to remember why he stopped coming in here.