The Elements of Turmoil

By RadaVonVon

Chapter 4: Fear

“Ahh! Who the bloody hell are you!?”

“Who the hell are YOU!? What are you doing in my house?!”

The two ponies stared at each other for a long time, tension thick in the air. One mare, one stallion. The stallion, a sandy brown colour, shifted on his hooves. “Uh. I’m the Doctor.”

“What is THAT thing!? You’re not a doctor!”

“Oh. Uh, this? It’s the Harnis. And you’re right. I’m not. I’m THE Doctor, thank you very much. And who are YOU?”

“Who are YOU?! This is MY home!” The mare stamped a purple hoof indignantly. “SPIIIIIIIIIIKE!” She called, glancing over her shoulder for whoever she had evidently called for.

“I told you! I’m The Doctor! And this is the HARNIS! The Here and Relative Nowness in Space! H-A-R-N-I-S! Harnis!” The Earth Pony sighed. “I suppose you could say that I’m, uh, Doctor Whooves? But just call me the Doctor.”

“I’m not calling you anything!”

“I suppose that’s alright, too. Who are you, by chance?”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle! Now why in Equestria are you in my house!?”

“Isn’t this the library?” The Doctor began to trot through the area, glancing around passively, as if browsing books, and acting as though he hadn’t just appeared in a public police barn stall, materializing in Twilight’s library.

“Yes! But... Why are you here? And why did you just... appear? In... Harnis thing!”

The Doctor glanced over at Twilight, musing for a moment. “Hm.” He yawned, pulling out what looked like a small pole with an LED on the top of it. The Doctor’s gaze passed over it for a moment. He pondered it for a moment longer before putting it back, shrugging and shaking his head.

Spike hopped down the stairs while Twilight only stared at this Doctor guy. “Uh. Who’s he?” Spike asked, staring at the earth pony.

Twilight didn’t take her gaze away. “Uh. He’s the Doctor, I guess?”

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Come on! Would you doubt me?” Twilight grinned nervously, feeling her hooves shift underneath her.

"Sort of, yeah." He mumbled with a sigh, focusing his magic to the book on the table. "What if something explodes or gets set on fire or somethi- AH!"

A visible stream of purple magic shot from his horn as it encompassed the book in a shimmering, waving extra appendage. The colt took a deep breath as the book shuddered and lifted an inch off of the table that sat before them.

‘Come on, come on... So close!’ He was gasping for breath now as the book rose. Two inches. Three. Four. Five!

His focus broke for half a second, and the book clamoured to the ground.

Twilight Sparkle sighed, looking at the tile.

“Sorry...” He mumbled uncomfortably, shifting on his feet.

Twilight walked slowly over to a photo sitting on a bookshelf of her and a brown stallion standing outside a police barn stall, with her looking terrified and standing behind him. She picked up the duster in her mouth and dusted off the photo, looking distant. “It’s not your fault, Clockwork.” She turned around and smiled at him. “Some ponies are better at magic than others, and if you really want to work with magic, sometimes you just have to practice. You know I’m not making you, right?”

“Heh. Yeah.” Clockwork shifted on his hooves for a moment. “I know, Mom.”

A long silence passed before Clockwork looked up.  “So,” He began, shifting on his hooves and trying to take his focus off the picture. He got off the couch and looked up at Twilight to see her smiling sadly at him.

“He did love you, you know.” Twilight breathed quietly, staring at her hooves. “They don’t tell you how to be a single mother in books, you know.”

Clockwork blinked at her. “Oh.” He shifted uncomfortably. “Yeah. I know.”

Twilight looked over and smiled rather weakly.

OhmyCelestiaOhmyCelestiaOhmyCelestia.

Whooves. His coat. It smelled like... The beach.

Twilight was barely aware of the intense pounding in her chest. She’d never quite thought about the possibilities of going to the top of the tallest building in Fillydelphia with him. She examined the wide expanse of street and concrete buildings stretching out before her.

“Been up here thousands of times.” Whooves shrugged, jokingly shoving her off of him. “Why haven’t you? Aren’t you Celestia’s most faithful student?”

Twilight shrugged. “I suppose.” She mumbled. None of it mattered, of course. Since when was the sky so big? An immediate compulsion to map it out during the sunset overtook her. There was Gemini! And Orion... She moved to pull out a scroll and a quill when she looked up, Noticing Whooves had an eyebrow cocked at her, an amused smirk dancing on his lips.

“Oi, what’s that about?” He sat down next to her, pressing into her side and staring at the blank scroll. What were you intending to draw?”

“I-I, uh...” Twilight suddenly trailed off, staring into his eyes. Ah. His eyes. His blue, blue eyes...

At least seven seconds passed, the Doctor wearing a satisfied smirk. “You were saying?”

His accent, his voice. She stared at the orange and pink lights reflected from the sunset dancing in his eyes. “O-oh. I was... writing a letter. To, uh. Princess Celestia?”

“Oh, REALLY?” Another smirk played on his lips. “Would it, perhaps, have anything to do with how you’re sitting here on the tallest skyscraper built by earthbound ponies in Equestria, with the most HANDSOME pony in all of Equestria?” Whooves fluffed out his chest, cocking an eyebrow at her, and she chuckled, picking up the scroll and writing with her magic and a quill, reading aloud as she wrote.

“Dear Princess Celestia,

I’m stuck up here with a pony who I’m relatively sure has an extra chromosome, a-“

“OIII!” Whooves interrupted, snatching the scroll from her in his mouth. “Give me that.” He took the quill as well and crossed out what Twilight had written, save for her addressing the Princess.

He coughed dramatically. “NOW, I shall write a correct letter!”

“Dear Princess Celestia,” He began, stopping for a moment to think, and then a devious grin flashed across his face.

“I can’t recall the last time I took a shower, I kind of smell, an-“

“Give it back!” Twilight snatched it back, chuckling, before her giggles turned into an uproarious laugh, and Whooves stared at her, snorting at her. Finally, Twilight took a deep breath and tried to relax her aching stomach muscles, but the occasional snicker escaped her, sending a shock of ache through the entirety of her body. She glanced back over at him; he was just lying back, staring up at the sky, now nearly entirely dark.

“You know, I feel... sort of bad.” Twilight sighed, thinking of Pinkie and Discord, wondering if she now understood why they felt the way they did about each other.

“Why is that?” The Doctor turned his head to look at her, as they were both lying on their backs. “I guess I was sort of judgmental about this whole... Uhm.” Suddenly, Twilight became very bright red. “Never mind.” She paused and smiled.

Suddenly, his tone grew dead serious. “Twilight Sparkle.”

“Clockwork! I’m home!” Twilight called out into the house, but her voice echoed deadly through the structure, rather than being muffled by the wood and various books as it had been in the library in Ponyville.

The unicorn colt tentatively came down the stairs with a pencil in his ear. “Hey, Mom.”

“Hey.  Help me with the groceries.” Twilight grumbled, fumbling with the bags and putting things away using her magic.

Clockwork began to passively make an attempt in engaging in conversation. “So, I’m reading this book on time travel and I-“

He was interrupted by a large can of soup clattering to the ground as Twilight stiffened suddenly. She looked over her shoulder and paused. “Ah. Sorry.” She giggled nervously, partially to herself, as Clockwork stood there, dumbfounded, before going off to get a mop.

“Are you... okay?”

“Fine, fine!” Twilight’s expression was slightly twisted and Clockwork paused nervously. “Ah; If you... say so?” He mumbled, sighing to himself and mopping up the soup, picking up the demolished can. “Please be more careful.” He mumbled. “Do you need to lie down?” He cocked his head at the lavender-coloured pony.

“Y-yeah... I should.”

Maybe she should apologize to Pinkie and uh... What was his name? Discord. Discord.

He was just on top of her, forelegs wrapped around her back, their lips mashed together in some kind of mad frenzy. He smelled so nice. His brown mane carried the familiar smell of beach sand and crystal clear water. She wondered why that was. She couldn’t exactly think coherently.

“Ohh... Equestria.” She moaned as she gasped for breath and Whooves gazed back at her, smirking to himself. “Not right now.” He gently put his hoof to her mouth and gestured around him. He was right.

They were in some kind of desert oasis, with moons and other planets rising extremely close to the horizon, taking up at least a quarter of the sky. Each of the stars was plainly visible, but it was somehow light as day, the golden sands around them soft, but they didn’t give and crumble all over her mane.  Somehow, it had been polished by the gentle breezes that made it the perfect temperature, perhaps caused by the evaporation of the small pool of clear water next to them. Several subspecies of palm trees Twilight had never seen before were growing out from around the shoreline.

“This is crazy. I’m dreaming, right? Discord’s messing with me or someth-“

He moaned something nugatory while he drew her back into kissing him passionately, her head rising off of the caked layer of sand to meet him desperately as she hooked her forelegs around his back.

Suddenly, Discord could screw with her until he worked his little chaotic heart out.

“We should get back to the Harnis soon...” She murmured.

He didn’t respond, trailing kisses down to her neck.

“Aahhh- or, or that!”

“Clockwork.” Twilight mumbled quietly several days later, staring at her book without looking up, though it was clear her eyes were not focused on her book, she was staring at nothing; into oblivion.

“Yeah?” He looked up from his school studies, raising an eyebrow.

“... What would you think... about moving to Ponyville?”

“PONYVILLE?” Clockwork’s expression contorted. “Good Celestia of Equestria! Why would we ever move to Ponyville!? I thought you liked Canterlot!”

Twilight sighed, glancing back at him for the first time in several days, since she had dropped the soup the minute he had mentioned Time Travel.

He didn’t understand why that was such a sore spot with her. Every time any kind of interdimensional travel or space travel or deserts or Fillydelphia was mentioned, she’d get all silent and freaked out.

It probably had something to do with his father, but he didn’t dare ask her any questions about him. He didn’t know if he was just dead, or missing, or whatever, but it seemed like every time some odd thing was mentioned, she’d get all depressed and quiet.

It wasn’t her that was forced to grow up without a father, now was it? No, it wasn’t!

Suddenly, Clockwork felt anger boiling in his veins. That BASTARD! Who did he think he was? Did he just up and leave? HAH! He probably did.

It was only when he looked up at Twilight Sparkle that he saw a sad smile forming on her lips. “I got a letter from the mayor, the local librarian passed away and they want me to come back and take over the job again.”

As indignant as he wanted to act, he needed to get out of this hellhole. He nervously shifted on his hooves and sighed. “I guess that’s okay.” He smiled weakly. This would make her happy. It would definitely make Twilight happy. Maybe, all she needed was to move back to Ponyville and to see her old friends, and she’d cheer up.

Perhaps, she’d even be the cheery mare he constantly saw in photographs with five other ponies or even his father, whatever the guy’s name was. Maybe this would finally be it.

Twilight smiled, her eyes suddenly lighting up. “Really? Okay! I’ll move all of the books around and... and... And I’ll see who’s still living back in Ponyville and we’ll arrange a big get-together, okay? I think Pinkie Pie is still living there, with...” She suddenly scowled. “No one in particular.” Venom dripped from her voice, and Clockwork jumped. He had never, in the time he had known the mare, (His entire life, mind you.) heard her speak with such malice before.

Her expression did fade gradually as she paused and smiled feebly. “Don’t worry about it, I just, uh, have a history with the... erhm. Person she fell in love with. But- oh! You’ll get to meet Spike!” Suddenly, Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Oh, you’ll love Spike! If he’s anything like I remember him...”

“Wait, you mean Uncle Spike? The dragon?”

“Yes!” Twilight grinned, her eyes gleamed. “Heh, he could tell you some pretty wild stories.” She reminisced. “Oh, and Applejack and Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash... Oh, Fluttershy, too!” Twilight was still grinning excitedly as she trotted off to her room upstairs. “Start packing, Clockwork!~”

The couch. Spike was out for the night. Said he’d be gone for a while. The Doctor was on top of her again, as they had been back on the oasis planet. There was no noise, but his heartbeat and their occasional sighs and gasps for breath as their lips mashed together.

Finally, Twilight pulled away. “Whooves?” She gasped.

“Yes?” He inhaled sharply as he spoke.

“I love you.” She murmured before striking again, pushing their mouths together, but something was lost. He pulled away after a shorter amount of time. His muscles were tense, and he sat up, staring at the floor suddenly. He bit his lip.

Twilight stared at him. That certainly wasn’t normal. Had she done something wrong? Had she... Had she perhaps become so accustomed to him that she had done something stupid? Oh, no... But... This was her fault. She should have just done what she knew how to do correctly, let him kiss her on the cheek or something. Nothing... Like they’d been doing. Spike had almost caught them the other day.

She felt her face go red as her thoughts trailed off, but she shook them off.

“Wh... what’s wrong?” She asked softly, pushing herself to her haunches so they were both sitting upright.

Whooves sighed. “Twilight. I... I love you, too.”  He stared back at her; his bright blue eyes were now moist and rigged slightly red. When had this happened? That was good, wasn’t it? He loved her back? Right? That’s what that damn draconequus always said to Pinkie, right? (Of course, whether he was lying was another matter entirely. She understood it slightly better now, but still held little more than bitter resentment for the chimera.)

He took another breath, and time seemed to stop. ‘Please don’t say ‘but,’...’ was all Twilight could think as she watched him slowly form the horrendous word. “But,”

Twilight opened her mouth to immediately interrupt his train of thought. Something, anything.

The Doctor paused, gently putting a hoof to her lips. “Wait, okay? I’ve known this is something I’ve needed to say. I’ve felt horrible about it for the past few weeks now, and I think it’s about time I said this, or I think it’s going to tear me apart.”

Twilight felt her eyes begin to water. “No...” Her mouth fell open.

“Hang on!” The Doctor insisted, looking at her and sighing. He slowly pulled out the strange pole with the LED light she had seen him holding the first time they had met. “So...” He held it in his hoof, quivering. “This is...” He coughed as if he had been choking. “This is a sonic screwdriver.”

Twilight suddenly jumped back. “N-no... I’ve read a-about those. No! That’s something Time Ponies have, right? N-no...” She scrambled backwards against the couch, her eyes suddenly red and tearful.

Whooves tensed up, staring at her desperately. “There’s nothing I can do. You know too much, you’ve travelled in the Harnis, and you can’t be my Companion because of your relations to the Princess and your duties to her.” He suddenly shivered. “Twilight, I’m so very sorry.”

Twilight clenched her eyes shut. “No! I won’t let you!”

Whooves paused. “Twilight, I have to leave, you don’t understand. I have... I have duties! I don’t want... I want you to be happy, okay?” He took a shakey breath. “And I want you to find a nice stallion who will be with you always, not like I will. I want you to find someone who... who makes you laugh and makes you happy who you love.”

“... But... You’re that stallion.” Twilight murmured, a large tear rolling down her cheek. “YOU make me happy, and you make me laugh, and... and... No one’s ever... made me so comfortable. And I love YOU.” She finished that last line with over exuberant confidence.

“I’m very sorry, Twilight.” The Doctor leaned forward, kissing her, before planting the sonic screwdriver in front of her face and wincing, clenching his eyes shut.

Twilight let out a horrible, ear-piercing, blood-curdling wail, and Doctor Whooves stopped, staring at her, and throwing it down, mashing their mouths together passionately, while Twilight sat in shock, tears still running down her face, flowing freely now as a single constant stream, as opposed to individual tears.

He sat there with her, his forelegs around her as a single tear went down his cheek.

Suddenly, he took a sharp intake a breath. “Y-you know what? I’m going to fix this. I’ll fix it right now.” He steadied his shaking breathing, picking up the sonic screwdriver and walking over to the Harnis, it hadn’t left its position in the current Equestrian dimension since he had somehow ended up in the library.

“Uh, Twilight.” He walked inside. “Listen, I’ll be back in five minutes, okay?” He smiled, moving forward and kissing her before disappearing into the Harnis.

Once he was gone, she managed to illicit a quiet, trembling, “O-okay.”

She waited five minutes. Then ten. Twenty. An hour. Two hours. Five hours. Eight. A day. Two. Five. A week. Two weeks. A month. A year.

He never returned.

Of all the things that could have happened that could have led to the circumstances she was in now, this particular situation would have never even crossed her mind. He’d be back in five minutes. Then he just... was gone. No goodbyes, no sorries, just that he’d be back. But he wasn’t. He had disappeared into thin air. Nopony seemed to remember him except those who knew Twilight, as he was oft so antisocial.

Sure, he’d go to things like the gala and the summer solstice. He’d always just... oddly stay in the background. Twilight never saw him again after that, nor did anypony else.

She had her speculations. He had skipped town. Disappeared off to Manehattan, or Fillydelphia, or Canterlot or maybe he’d gone to some other alternate universe like the ones he so liked to show her.

She didn’t know. But he was gone. Her stomach dropped every time somepony mentioned it. Or him. She still held the smallest amount of hope. Every morning she’d wake up with the tiniest amount of belief in her heart that perhaps... Maybe, just maybe, he’d come back today.

Clockwork nervously shifted back and forth on his hooves in the carriage that the pegasi were controlling. His heart jumped into his throat when he looked down to see just how high they were above the ground. He had always been aware that Canterlot rested on a cliff, but this was to an outrageous extent.

“Hahh.” Twilight sighed, relaxing more than he ever thought she had seen her relax. “I remember the first time I made this trip.” She grinned like an idiot, and Clockwork stared.

“Are you kidding? I’m terrified.” He gulped, glancing over the side again before coming to the conclusion that he should simply stare blankly at his hooves.

“Don’t worry, this is perfectly safe!” Twilight Sparkle insisted, jumping up and down in the carriage, making it rock. The guard pegasi didn’t even glance back, and Clockwork’s eyes bulged out of his head. “Holy Celestia...” He groaned to himself, staring back at Twilight.

Everyone suggested she find a new coltfriend. They all were convinced he just skipped out on her in the night, as that was the story she had insisted upon them, not wanting to speak of the Harnis or any of its capabilities. She would just sigh longingly and stare at the closest window, or the floor, or the ground, or the sky. Whatever was really available.

She never did find somepony else. All of her friends went off and got together with other ponies, (or draconequuses.) to be with, though there was no reason for Twilight.

As luck would have it, she had a foal.

Who looked almost identical to him.

She loved him. She did. She taught him everything she could. Anything and everything she knew about the alicorns, magic, Equestrian history... All of it. He was very intelligent and could read and write from a young age. By the time he was four years old, he was reading Antipone, by Clopocles, and the rest of the Thebarn Plays.

He made her happy. Yes, he made her very, very, and outrageously happy. Twilight loved Clockwork. He was her foal.

She understood, however, that it would be difficult to raise a colt without a father. She had to accept that Whooves was she never going to come back. Either he had left her or died or forgot about her, but he wasn’t coming back. She’d waited long enough.

He grew to be intelligent. She had no doubt of that, he was incredibly intelligent. His unicorn powers were far below average, but it didn’t exactly concern her. She didn’t care. She’d seen far worse.

They landed in Ponyville. By this time, Twilight was full-on smiling. She took their suitcases, only around three, as Twilight had left all of her books, claiming there would be far more at the library. Clockwork doubted this, only responding with a skeptical glance, but Twilight had just smirked.

“Oooookayyy.” She had chuckled before bounding away to leave Clockwork with his book.

“Come on!” She finally looked over her shoulder and called to him several  feet away. “Come on!” She repeated, making a face at him and chuckling.

Still, in a sense, she still kind of waited for him. Every day, still the smallest amount of hope. It never quite left. She saw him in the corner of her eye. Sometimes, she thought she might simply be hearing things, but she could swear she heard his voice, accent and all.

She dreamed about him. Every night, almost. There would be a knock at the door, she’d sit up, and Spike would have answered it to reveal him standing there. Of course, every time, she would wake up not long after, sweaty and with her eyes teary. Not in Ponyville. Not in the library.

In some dumpy, whitewashed apartment in Canterlot.

Upon examining his surroundings, Clockwork glanced around. An apple stand, run by a humongous red pony and a small orange filly with a blonde mane, braided and in a bow, with her tail in a ponytail, wearing old leather workboots and a cowboy hat. She had her front, right leg bandaged tightly in a splint.

Twilight turned, seeing the large red stallion and gasped. “Big Mac!” She cried out, galloping over at full speed.

Big Mac’s eyes grew large as he stared in shock. “Miss Twilight! Howdy! Ah thought Ah’d never see you again since you left for Canterlot. Applejack’s been worried ‘bout’cha!”

Applejack? The name sounded familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.

Twilight smiled widely.  “Well, I’ve come back since the librarian left.” She glanced down at the filly, and her eyes grew wide. “MacIntosh!”

The filly galloped in front of Twilight, dramatically clearing her throat. “Hello there, fellow Ponyville and/or Everfree Forest citizen. Could I interest you in buying an apple this fine day?”

Twiligth stared at Big Mac, then smirked. “And what’s your name, miss?”

“Applecore! Ah’m gonna be famous!”

“Who’s the lucky lady, Mac?” Twilight pried, cocking an eyebrow at the stallion.

“Oh. Ya mean my mom? Fluttershy!” The filly, Applecore, interrupted.

Twilight stared. “Fluttershy?” She looked down at the foal, then at Big Mac, and smirked. “Well, well.”

Big Mac turned a slightly darker shade of red. “Now, uh, Applecore, you mind yerself.”

“Eeyup.”

Big Mac nodded to her as she went to the back to sell more apples to people, and stared back at Clockwork, who suddenly was unable to move as Twilight beckoned him over.

“Mac, this is my son. Clockwork, this is Mister Apple.”

“Mac is fine, but thank ya’, Miss Twilight.”

“Uh... Hello... Mr... uh, MacIntosh?”

She was still waiting.

Image credit to Inkwell-Pony on DeviantART.

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