I stared at the dismal scene unfolding in front of me. Changelings, what looked like the whole army, were now crashing into every city, every town, and every home as far as the eye could see and feeding off the residents’ love and affection. “This is not good…” I said, stating the obvious. I looked down at Whirly and Ditzy Doo on the ground, admiring Derpy’s new cutie mark. “Well, think of something… how are you going to save the world this time?” I asked myself. After thinking a second I replied, “Same as always, I suppose… with planned clockwork and a bit of elbow grease. But of course, a friend wouldn’t hurt…” I said, concentrating.

I focused intently, searching through the eternity of Time looking for a specific energy signature. “Ah hah..” I congratulated myself when I found the energy signature I was looking for, an orange conic shape, constantly moving with a blue object at the front of it. “Let’s see if we can’t call you back, shall we?” I said concentrating on a more specific point of the orange worm-hole. I opened my eyes as I heard a familiar sound; a combination of screetching and grinding metal. I watched with a wide smile as I saw the familiar blue Police Public Call Box appeared on the ground next to the ponies below.

Carefully jumping down to the ground, I relished the sound of the blue box solidifying its presence in this time and space. Walking closer to the box I heard ranting, “…and you go off and stop in some unknown location in some unknown time with who knows what while I’m trying to get back to my own dimension instead of being stuck as a bloody horse on this bacon-less planet!” I saw a figure moving behind the door as it reached for the handle and swung the box open.

“Right then, let’s see where I’ve ended up this time…” the brown pony said while taking in the surroundings. His eye sweep stopped when it reached me, “You! Did you hijack my Tardis!?” he yelled more than asked.

“I may have locked onto her energy signature and called her to this time… but you don’t have proof of that, now do you?” I replied grinning even more to see my old friend.

“No, I suppose you’re right – but at least you admitted it.” He said, matching my grin.

“Doctor Whooves, haha. How’s it been?” I asked after we hugged.

“You know very well it’s just Doctor, but aside from that I was about to escape this bloody universe when you dragged me back down here.” He replied, looking at the Tardis once more.

“Fair enough but I’m sure you’ll change your mind when you actually look around.” I said, waving my hoof at the destruction and chaos around us.

“Ahh, yes... I suppose you’re right… But since when do you need my help, mister ‘I’m going to bend and warp one of the most delicate factors of the known universe so I can enjoy my sandwich longer’?” he mockingly asked.

“Believe me, it was a really good sandwich.” I replied, mentally re-living the memory of the particularly delicious sandwich Octavia made for me.

“I thought we could go on one last adventure before you leave this universe, Doctor. After all, I know how lonely you are – I’m in your same position minus the fact I don’t go abducting a bunch of random females to save my life when my flank gets handed to me.” I said, avenging the previous comment.

“Well it’s not like I have a choice, you locked the Tardis, after all.” He said.

“Oh did I? Oops, well I suppose we’ll just have to make the best of it then.” I said, accepting the win.

“First things first, what do we do with these two?” I asked, gesturing to the two ponies still admiring Ditzy’s flank a few yards away.

“Is – is that Ditzy? Clockwork! You know you can’t put me here, it could unravel all of time as we know it.” the Doctor yelled.

“All the more reason we figure out what to do with her.” I exclaimed. “Haha! You really planned this out didn’t you?” the Doctor marveled.

“Clockwork, my dear Doctor. I simply moved one gear while the rest fell in place. “ I explained while poking fun at a certain detective pony.

“Well I suppose we could stash them in that cave of a home you have… if that’s too far away, we could put them in the town hall basement – I’m sure that’s where everypony else is.” The Doctor suggested.

“As much as I’d love to drop them off in a nice safe town hall basement, the place is most likely crawling with most of the changelings in the city.” I explained my reasoning for not depositing them in the most obvious place.

“Still too slow, Clockwork, of course most of the changelings are at the town hall, so guess where they aren’t?” he asked leaving me to finish his thought.

“Brilliant… We’ll go to the place where nopony’s around. Any particular place in mind?” I asked, realizing his plan.

“It has to be someplace where there isn’t, nor was anybody” The Doctor pondered, revealing his affinity with a different dimension in his speech, “Like a cemetery.”

“Okay, I’ll take them to the cemetery, you stay here. Be back in a tick.” I said and stopped time entirely. I formed a bubble of regular time around the other two ponies and escorted them through the half-destroyed city to the cemetery.

“This is scary…” Ditzy said, walking closer to her mother.

“Truth be told, there’s no safer place than this graveyard. Now,” I said when we reached the graveyard keeper’s building, “you can see Ponyville from here so you’ll know when it’s safe to come back. Tell the gravekeeper Clockwork sent you, you’ll be safe with him.” I said leaving them and returning back to town.

The Doctor watched as the three ponies were there then instantly disappeared. “Quick enough for you?” I asked him from behind.

“Well you certainly took your time. Or wasted it in this case…” he said.

“Fair enough. Got a plan yet?” I asked him as smug as my emotionless face would allow.

“Three actually, 4 if you include a backup plan.” He said, just as smug as me except with emotion. “But you’re the time controller here, what does your ‘clockwork’ dictate now?” he asked.

“Well we could go straight to the source and nip this problem at the bud, effectively draining more of my power. We could also take the slow route and individually dispatch each and every changeling individually – or we can continue the current clockwork I’ve got setup and you save the ponies while I dispatch the changelings, spending less power on frozen time and clearing up the city quick enough it shouldn’t be that long before we reach Chrysalis. At which point we’ll have to defeat her again…”

“Well at least you learned something from being around me… I’ll take that third option, thank you. Around the borders first then circle inwards?” the Doctor suggested.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” I replied as we set off systematically “curing” ponyville from the changelings. I increased my time speed and dispatched numerous changelings while the doctor took the harassed ponies to safety. Once Ponyville was clear of the changelings, we Eventually we made it to the city center where the bulk of the changeling army surrounded the metal fence that circled town hall.

"There is no way I would last long enough to defeat them without my powers, Octavia would, but my power wouldn't last that long.” I said remembering the hours I spent teaching Octavia to fight. She picked it up like a natural and eventually got better than me in fighting when I didn’t have time on my side.

“Did you even hear me?” the Doctor said, pulling me back to reality.

“No, sorry. I didn’t hear you say you have an idea and to cover you as you went to the fence.” I replied, having to go back in my memory to figure out what he said in the middle of my daydream.

“Haha, you ready for this?” the Doctor asked.

“I’ve got time to spare.” I joked.

“Right then… ALLONS-YYYYYYYY!” The Doctor screamed, drawing the attention of every changeling in the city towards us.

Speeding up our time, we darted for the gate, the Doctor ducking under and around the slower changelings while I made quick work of the ones he couldn’t go around. After 2 minutes of testing our flexability, we finally reached the gate. “Slow or not, Doctor, you don’t have the time to waste.” I said as he fumbled for his Sonic Screwdriver in his pocket.

“I still don’t understand how that pocket works, nor how you can hold items in your hoof so easily.” He complained through a mouthful of screwdriver.

“You’re going to send the vibrations through the gate? That’s not going to be powerful enough to do anything.” I said as the Doctor awkwardly put the sonic device up to the gate.

“Not on its own, but what if you were to trap the sonics in a time bubble, amplifying it then releasing it?” he asked.

“The result being a sonic blast amplified exponentially the longer we hold it.” I finished his thought again.

“Just tell me when to return time to normal, Doc.” I said after I had started a time bubble that trapped the sonic vibrations into a single beam of the gate.

“A few second longer… Oh, and Clockwork, when you resume time, you might want to duck.” The Doctor answered.

“Yup, I figured considering releasing an amplified sonic blast into a metal beam doesn’t exactly make for the most structurally sound beam on the fence.” I replied.

“Haha, not entirely, how are you holding up there?” The Doctor asked.

“Well disguarding the fact I’m right next to you and there’s a changeling 2 inches away from your flank, pretty good.” I answered.

“Oh all right, release it already before the anticipation kills you, might want to cover your ears as well.” He said releasing the screwdriver and putting it back in his pocket with some effort.

We covered our ears and hit the ground as I released the bubble of sonic. The metal beam shot outwards at some supersonic speed right into the head of one of the changelings while quite possibly the loudest sonic boom in the universe reverberated throughout the metal fence, instantly knocking out any changeling within 50 feet and even knocking back some airborn changelings within 10 feet. All were knocked out within the first 10 seconds though, and probably all quite deaf. We got off the ground and headed back to the changeling covered road that led to Canterlot, where Chrysalis was now.

“This is fun, why don’t we do it more often?” The Doctor said, dusting his legs off.

“We should, shouldn’t we?” I said wiping dirt off my shoulder. “So where’s Derpy?” I asked as unconscious changelings began falling from the sky.

“She’s back in the Constant, either delivering mail or making some of her delicious muffins. Or doing something completely random and making a mess of Ponyville…” the Doctor answered, referring to the term we invented to describe the main time stream time to avoid getting confused.

“So nothing new then?” I asked. The annoyed doctor turned his head my way slightly but continued moving along the path,

“She’s just a bit bubble brained is all – she’s got the best qualities a person could ask for.” He said yet, again proving he was from a different universe.

“Oh, I know, I was there this morning when she got her cutie mark. Apparently the bubbles mean enjoyment and lifting thoughts instead of just bubble brained.” I replied.

“You ju- did yo- she di-“ the Doctor stuttered.

“It was her special talent, I simply moved some gears to help her realize it.” I said, internally smiling.

“You’ve got the powers to reverse the entire history of the universe and you use them helping little girls get their cutie marks. That’s a valuable waste of time.” The Doctor said, clearly enjoying himself with this new information despite his comment.

I spent the rest of our walk explaining what happened since I first started to follow Derpy, all the way up to the point when I dragged the Tardis back here. “It should be unlocked now, by the way, so if you want to go now and leave the rest up to me, I’d be happy to oblige.” I offered when we were nearing Canterlot.

“Naa, I’ll just finish what you started. How did you drag the Tardis here anyways?” he asked.

“Your tardis has a small bit of the Rift in it, all I have to do is find that bit of the Rift and drag it back here.” I explained.

“Yes, I figured as much but how did you know that it was me and not some anomaly?” he asked.

“A few years back from the Constant I was experimenting with my powers, I accidently released a particularly large burst of power and broke a small bit of the barrier between your and my universe. Exploring your universe, I came across the Tardis – something I’d never encountered before. I drug it back to this universe. That’s probably how you came here originally.” I answered.

“Haha, well isn’t that brilliant! I suppose it worked out then, I also know how to get back as well!” The Doctor said, excitedly.

We reached the edge of Canterlot with the Doctor mumbling to himself about coincidences and fate and misguided fools while I mumbled to myself about machinery, levers and gear connectors. As one would mumble about the possibility of one thing the other would start explaining the results and possible possibilities connected to it, subconsciously connecting and crossing our thoughts without being aware of the other. “Wait.” I said stopping right on the edge of Canterlot. “Were you just…” I started.

“I might have…”

“So we…”

“Possibly.”

“So now…”

“We could…”

Then we both said simultaneously, “Naa.” Then laughed as we continued walking.

“So was it you or me that attached the gear of the dual Constant?” I asked as we walked straight through Canterlot through the city center.

“Mind slowing the time a bit?” He asked. I slowed time for everyone but us as we continued walking. “I think that was you that started that particular parallel paradox theory.” The Doctor continued while sidestepping a slow blow from a changeling.

“Oh, so then it was you that suggested the connecting medium should go from the duel Constant to the branching cogs?” I asked, casually deflecting a punch and giving a changeling a good jab in the gut that he’ll remember when time continued.

“Yes, I believe I did suggest a connected double string that crossed the Constant.” He said.

“Where did we go from there? Oh, right an entirely new gear connected over the two.” I answered while ducking under a hook from one changeling and redirecting a kick from the next.

“Yes but what factor could have such a solid pattern in the Constant to solidify the parallel strings without paradoxing?” the Doctor asked after giving a strong donkey kick to one changeling and punching another square in the nose.

“I told you, we could add the nuts and bolts to the two original cogs given the specific gear size, the one just perfect enough to fit.” I answered while dispatching 4 other Changelings in a blink of their eye.

“The pattern of the rift in the Tardis? That’s perfect!” he concluded while dropping several more changelings.

“Shame we’ve reached Canterlot’s center so soon, clocks to watches time talk is something I don’t have very often.” I said stopping in front of the huge building and looking back at the large trail of fallen (or falling) changelings.

“Did we really take out that many?” The Doctor asked, looking back as well.

“Indeed… Time flies when slowed to the rest of the world.” I said, laughing a little.

“Ready to face Chrysalis?” He asked me, getting ready to push open the doors to Canterlot Hall.

“I’ve sent her back to her own realm 3 other times already, different methods each time as well.” I responded. “I have to admit though, this is the most powerful I’ve seen her.” I said.

“No time like the present then?” The Doctor asked.

“Yeah, so let’s get this over with so we can get there.” I said.

My name is Clockwork, and this is but one of my many adventures.