A/N:
This chapter takes place after the Doctor is newly regenerated into his pony form. Long before he met Derpy, had a daughter with her, or made plans to open his school.

###

Year 800 of Celestial Rule

Gods, there are many entities that mortals like to label their "divine creators". Despite most of them having nothing to do with the actual act of creation.

There is, of course, the spirit of the Universe itself. The conciousness behind the myth. She is nothing more then a living organism, a truly massive organism, trillions of years old, but an organism all the same. She is merely more aware of the organisms that make up her body then most lifeforms. From galaxies to single celled organisms. Although rumor has it sentient lifeforms are her favorite.

Then there are "Spirits", not common ghost but rather physical conciousness of the forces that hold the universe together. Some cultures would call them "Elder Gods" as they were the first.

These entities come in pairs, as one cannot exist without their opposite half. Harmony and Chaos, Time and Space, Life and Death, Reality and Magic, and finally Soul and Mind. These spirits don't typically take physical form, yet are bond to gem stones called "Infinity Gems". 5 Gems, each reflecting the two sides of a force binding the Universe together. However this does not mean a Spirit can't take a more physical form. Or, in the case of Discord, be given form.

A good few leaps below that are Deities, AKA sapient white blood cells for the Universe. These are beings such as Odin or Zeus. Beings with cosmic power that look after the well being of the universe.

In that same bracket of power are "God-Killers". These are mortal beings of advanced power. They typically have lifespans so long they might as well not be mortal, most living 10s of thousands if not billions of years, but can still die. These are entities like dragons and living planets (like the two sisters). They are powerful enough to compete with deities but still bound to mortality. Even the few that can't die of old age, can still die through injuries or disease.

Next we have Celestials. Mortals that ascended into beings of pure conciousness and capable of interacting with the world to a Cosmic degree. They have reached a state of "True Enlightenment". Not to be confused with "Self Enlightenment", which merely allows mortals a deeper understanding of one's own self and by extension their magic. Both give massive power boost but with "Self Enlightenment" they are still very much mortals. They might have a longer lifespan but they are still bound by their mortal body. For ponies these are beings like Alicorns.

Meanwhile, True Enlightenment comes with a single moment of clarity. An understanding of exactly how the universe works. A look into the Universe's soul. Deities are just Celestials that have been around for a few billion years.

Some Celestials unlock their status by force, either by sheer power or technology... like what happened to the Doctor.

He was once a mortal... and he missed those days. He would run around, saving planets as a time traveling adventurer. Really not bad for a mortal, but... if he was honest... he always tended to cause just as many problems as he solved... maybe more so...

The Doctor's head was spinning. He was newly regenerated. A skill Time Lords have to cheat death, although his worked a bit differently now that he left mortal limitations.

Regeneration usually works much like a Phoenix's ability to restructure their body into a new one whenever they get close to death. However a Time Lord is more... limited in this. Typically Time Lords have 12 regenerations, that's 13 lives to live if you count the original. Each life comes with a completely new body. New face, new height, new organs. However, Time Lord's usually stay with a humanoid form. As they were one of the first races to evolve after the Engineers seeded the Galaxy with their DNA.

Once the Doctor ascended into a Celestial, he started regenerating into other alien lifeforms, as he had a higher connection to the universe itself. Even more so then most Time Lords.

The Time Lord's planet of Gallifrey got caught in a rift in time early into it's development. This allowed their species to evolve as 4th dimensional beings. They could see the passage of time as if it all happened simultaneously. All the possible roads the past and future could take were as easy for their eyes to see as the two suns in their sky.

The Doctor was... a bit more special then that. He was born with a Time Agent class. Meaning he could alter the fabric of time to a minor degree. Still Time Lord's put a lot of stock in this random manifestation of magic.

All Time Lords can do magic, with the use of an Arcane focus, but usually studying it was something reserved for holy men of Rassillion, the god king of the planet. Though he preferred "Lord President".

In addition to typical classes for Time Tots, the Doctor was expected to study magic that way he could be a priest when he was older.

The Doctor did well enough in school, though that might just be him being modest. By 12 he had earned the highest degree in every field of study known to Time Lords... except medicine, BUT HE DID QUALIFY AS A FIELD MEDIC!!!

However his mother never saw these accomplishments. She died when he was 7 and the Doctor was forced into an orphanage. There he learned why his mother had been so poor. Why she never talked about her family, and why she tended to be so overprotective...

Most of all, he learned why so many of his teachers spoke of their amazement at his advancement "despite his disadvantage"... the Doctor's father... was human, a primitive creature without magic and thereby not recognized as sentient by most "civilized" civilizations.

Apparently his mother had gone through her heat well visiting a backwater planet called Earth and mated with some human king. It wasn't her fault, heats are hard to resist jumping the first willing partner. No that wasn't the problem... the problem came later... when her parents learned she was going to keep the baby that resulted from the union... they kicked her out. Her entire clan disowned.

Then she died when the Doctor was 7...

She didn't even get to see the Doctor choose his title

"To never be Cruel or Cowardly,
To never give up,
Never give in"

That is what Doctor means on Gallifrey. That is what it meant to be the Doctor... but that name came to mean other things. After he left Gallifrey, other lifeforms began developing their own meanings to the word "Doctor". Most came to know it as "Healer" or "Wise man", but others... some civilizations come to associate the title with "Mighty Warrior"... or even... "Predator"...

That could not be allowed to stand. While the Doctor had good intentions fact was he was doing more harm then good at this point.

Waking up with a new face can be confusing, not to mention the experience of regenerating is basically bursting into golden flames which change the body at a cellular level. Even the Time Lord's brain changed. As a result they remember everything about all their lives with fresh eyes... and this new pony face saw it as one big mistake.

When he was 12, the Doctor fell down into the catacomb archives of Gallifrey. There the Collective conciousness of all Time Lords that ever lived was stored in a computer mainframe. Their collective wisdom guiding the Council of Gallifrey... they told the Doctor that he would be responsible for the destruction of the universe. That he would burn all of reality... so the boy ran, left his home, went to live with his mortal father on Earth and fell in love with the planet.

There were many close calls, many incidences where he nearly followed through with the prophecy. He tried to save as many lives as he could, devoted his life to saving planets and eventually entire dimensions... but at his heart he had long since forgotten what "mercy" was. He was too old, lived too many lives. He couldn't relate to mortal creatures anymore... all he could do was inspire them to die in his name... like so many thousands had.

In his heart he was far from a good man... and he knew... the prophecy was still out there, waiting for him. Just knowing your destiny can insure it happens. He couldn't stand for this. He still had one gambit to play. He would stop being a coward running away from his own nature...

He was going to fix this...

The Doctor looked up at the 'Princess' on her throne of gold and cushions. She had a deep aversion to Queens, thanks to the Alicorn Dynasty some thousand years ago.

"You owe me a favor." The Doctor calmly informed, staring down the avatar of a living planet, Celestia, herself.

Starswirl chose her name to relate to a planetary body well also playing up the "Divine" nature of a god-killer. Though this Avatar was much weaker then her real body, it was still very powerful.

Celestia simply raised an amused eyebrow at the true Celestial entity.

"I plan to live as a mortal and I need you to hide me and keep me in check." The Doctor pulled out a fog watch, "My mind, and my power, will be trapped in here. Never open it unless the situation is truly dire."

Celestia gave a teasing smile, "And I should agree to this because?- You have many enemies Doctor. Just attempting to hide you could draw them here."

The Doctor lower the watch and glared, "You're a living planet. This pony shell of yours may have become weak, from spending too long away from your true body, but if you wanted, your sun could blast a fleet from the sky long before it reached the planet." That was a lie, Celestia couldn't handle a fleet like the one coming for him. However, it was unlikely they would think to look for him here. He prefered to let his Refugee planets develop naturally, without his interference, "Besides, you owe me. I saved you, and your sister, from certain death during the Time War! I'm calling that in."

Celestia stiffened, her face becoming serious, "That's a rather large favor to cash in."

"I realize that. What I'm asking for is equal payment."

"How long do you plan to stay?"

"... Until I die,"

Celestia tried to contain her shock, "You... wish to die..."

"I want to live one final life. A real life. I'm tired of living forever, of constantly making a mess of things... I want to take my place on the great wheel. See this life to it's proper end..."

"You will just go back to being a Celestial once you die." The living star tried to reason, "It will be a temporary break at best."

"Not if you never open this watch... if I die in mortal form, with the godly power locked away in here... I will die permanently. Will even get reincarnated as something new eventually, with no memories of my previous life, just like the rest of you... just so long as you never open this watch... please... I need this."

###

A/N:
The Doctor currently has his mind trapped in a Fog Watch. He has been living with Celestia for 200 years as a pony named Clockwork, with no idea to his true identity.

Feel free to skip this Chapter if you have already read "My Little Galaxy: First Steps" Chapter Two.

● Celestia's Castle
Morning Before the 1000th Grand Galloping Gala

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!!

"Bloody useless doohickey." Why did he ever invent such a horrible thing!? Clockwork grumbled internally as he clenched the blanket with his hooves. His teeth gritted against each other as the agonizing sound of the clock pierced through his ears.

It was not his fault that his bed was surprisingly comfortable. When he was a foal his old bed made his nights restless and eager for the morning to arise, along with the need to reunite with a tall piping mug of coffee... okay so he snuck coffee as a child, other foals did worse!

Nowadays Auntie Celestia kept giving him more and more comfy beds, rotating them frequently as the centuries passed.

His birthday was just last week and of course, among his many presents, was a new bed. Not just the mattress but with a fancy new frame and everything. An even comfier bed then ever before, like all the ones before. What was with Celestia and beds? As comfy as this bed was, it meant what ever wake him up had to be extra annoying.

"Be quiet, you screeching banshee!" The earth pony hissed, as overdramatically as possible, before slamming his hoof on the clock, finally silencing the annoying ringing. Maybe he needed a new clock? Or stop using the bed, as it made him sleep more than ever. Or better yet, stop staying up late to work on his daily routine of slapping together junk.

The latter would be impossible. After all, it is in his blood to slap junk together, or "spend productive time inventing instruments to better ponykind," as he preferred to call it... nah, slapping junk together sounded better.

Jumping out from his bed, Clockwork trotted to the calendar on the wall to refresh his mind on the schedule for today. Glancing at the calendar, he spotted the words: Year 1001 of Celestial Rule. It really has been a while, hasn't it?

He let in a breath of fresh air, finally having his mind refreshed. The thing was that it was not for the schedule for today, but rather for his life so far.

Not many ponies know this, but he was one of the orphans Celestia took in since the incident with Nightmare Moon. His birth mother was only a teenager when she got pregnant. Although her high class family was willing to forgive that. She was an important noble of a high-class unicorn family. They expected so much of her, wanting her to continue their upper-class legacy and their sophisticated bloodline. She failed to meet their expectations the second she met a certain lower class Earth pony. What started from a small fling led to her pregnancy. Her parents disowned her when they saw with their eyes that their grandchild was an Earth pony and not a unicorn.

His mother was alone; no parents, no family, not even the lover she had met. The only bloodline left was now her son. She raised him the best she could until Clockwork was 19, when an accident took her away. He was alone, no one to look after him. Seeing as ponies aren't legally adults until they turn 30 he couldn't exactly live on his own.

Sadly he was too old for an orphanage and didn't have money for an apprenticeship. He did something truly desperate. He knew Celestia had a habit of taking care of orphans and according to his mother he was actually related to her... so he got a private audience with her. She was a benevolent matriarch and never considered herself to high and mighty to talk with the peasants... it wasn't a dirty word back then. Anypony could get an audience with the princess.

He went to her, told her who he was, and asked her for help... he didn't expect her to adopt him. She took him in and began spoiling the hell out of him.

He was 221 now, almost middle age, and still living in the castle as a pampered prince. Only the staff and more nosy nobles knew who he was. It wasn't like he advertised himself the way Blue Blood did.

Glancing at the calendar once more, Clockwork soon regained the motivation for today as he headed for his second favorite room, beside his bedroom, his workshop. Everything in there made his mouth turn into a grin. The devices lying around the floor, the blueprints scattered across the environment, even the smell caused his creativity to hustle.

From his early childhood, he was always fascinated with creation and inventions. Unfortunately Celestia had him apprentice as a chef, learning a useful skill for a stallion growing up in the 800s, but he was never really passionate about it.

He loved to tinker, to invent. Tartarus he even loved to just sit around and think. He was always coming up with ideas and theories that were written into mountains of notes. It was at his discretion that this occupation was not widely known.

Things are different now, but growing up back then was hard for stallions. Stallions were... sheltered, to put it nicely. There were far more mares than stallions, 6 to 1. With so few Stallions being born the population hardly rose, sometimes even falling, and there was the constant fear that the next generation could be the last. So to preserve the species, mares believed they had to keep Stallions at home, sheltered and protected, so that they could give their wives as many babies as possible. This eventually led to Mares denying Stallions basic rights when Equestria was originally founded.

Stallions were expected to stay home, cook, clean, and raise the foals. A stallion with a paying job was looked down on, as Stallions just weren't thought of as equals. This meant mares didn't hold much stock in a Stallion's opinions or, even, scientific theories, no matter how right they were.

Clockwork was very clever, along with being Celestia's adoptive son, but he was still just stallion in the eyes of the scientific community. An impertinent one, that seriously needed to learn his place. So all of his scientific theories were published under the pen name Time Turner, allowing the masses to believe he was a she.

In addition, he was quick to decline any public interviews or any events that require him to show himself in front of others. As far as everypony knew, aside from himself and Celestia, this certain inventor was a mare.

And what a brilliant inventor "she" was.

One of his earliest and most useful creations was the bullet trains that run solely on lyrium crystals, magic compressed into a physical mineral. He had an idea for a steam engine first but never bothered building any after coming up with the bullet train idea.

After so many nights of constant note-taking and multiple tests with a pot of coffee at hoof, Clockwork was finally finished and proceeded to present the designs to Celestia. His hope was that she will fund a free public train network throughout Equestria, paid by the sales tax that was increasing at the time. After all, it was illegal for any of Equestria's city states to issue federal or state taxes, only sales and business taxes were applicable.

Despite the initial begging that Clockwork gave to his mother, Celestia tried to talk him out of the idea. Of course, Clockwork would not have a simple no as an answer and insisted that just because he was a stallion doesn't mean that he can't contribute to society.

Celestia had just sighed and said that wasn't it. She had long since fought the senate hoof and tooth to give equal rights to stallions, but when she restructured the Equestrian government she gave the Senate the right to veto her. It was meant to insure she wouldn't fall to corruption, and to give the ponies a say in her rule, but it also meant progress she thought was necessary couldn't be done if the Senate was opposed to it.

Celestia said he needed to keep his head down for different reasons, but refused to say what those reasons were... eventually he was able to whine and guilt her to get what he wanted. He was just a little boy back then, a genius but still very much a child. Clockwork was rather embarrassed thinking back on his behavior but if it wasn't for his literal tantrum Equestria wouldn't be nearly as prosperous.

His inventions, in that first year after becoming Celestia's ward, lead ponies from the intellectual dark ages into an age of enlightenment. He was known in scholarly circles as the "Father of the Industrial Age", but only by modern scholars, nopony else. He stayed hidden for his greatest achievements, why he was so little known now, but he was responsible for practically every invention made in that year. Back when Clockwork was a child ponies only had basic, medieval level, technology.

Ponies lived so long, over 500 years, so they didn't really feel any sense of urgency to leave their mark. As a result ponies didn't really... invent... things.

Magic covered all they needed so they saw no reason to improve. It was sad but true. Ponies didn't feel father time creeping on them... but Clockwork did. It's the reason he chose the alias "Time Turner". He... felt... time... every second, every microsecond, he felt them passing him by and was compelled to give his life meaning. Even if the world didn't know who he was, he had done more for it then anypony could ever claim.

Equestria still utilized many of his early inventions. His creations started the film industry, with instant film cameras and film projectors. These lead to film movies in monochrome pictures with sound. He created factory machines and medical equipment to further help the worker ponies. He convinced Celestia to build state funded hospitals in each city, armed with his equipment. They were completely free to the public.

Transportation was later improved with his blimps, airships, and helicopters. These were more luxury transports though and their patent helped fund the national treasury

To this day, most ponies, unfortunately, do not know the true identity of the pony who caused the world to skip over the natural development of technology.

After a brief period of reflection, Clockwork began working on one of his projects, fueled by his love of inventions and the hope that someday ponies would recognize him as the pony who forged the way of a new era of technology.

... Unfortunately it wasn't long before Celestia found him. She lightly scolded him for getting covered in engine grease when he should be getting ready for the Gala, Maker did he hate the gala.

###

"I hate the gala," Clockwork muttered for the tenth time that day as he walked into the ballroom of the castle.

His fur all cleaned and nicely brushed well he wore a horse of a suit specifically designed to ruin said fur. Oh, how he wanted to be in his workshop with his toys and machines. Not dressed up like some stuck-up snob when he could be dressed up in engine grease like a mechanic.

Another reason Celestia wanted him at the gala was the fact he was almost middle age and still didn't really have any friends outside of family. She wanted him to go out and socialize. Clockwork was never really good at the whole... talking... thing... He tended to ramble gibberish and annoy ponies.

True ponies are, by their nature, herd animals, but he always felt... odd well trying to chitchat. He didn't have much in common with ponies and had very weird values when compared to them. He was always suffering from the common "hoof in mouth" disorder that plagued so many brilliant minds.

Shaking his head, Clockwork decided to at least make an attempt, as he does every year. He just knows, despite himself, that he will most definitely do something to embarrass his adoptive mother. Then she'll send him off to his room and pretend not to notice that he actually sneaked into his workshop. That's how these nights usually go.

Looking around, he found his foster brother, well cousin... it's complicated. Anyway he was flirting with some pretty unicorn mare. Clockwork did not bother to resist his laughter as he saw said unicorn levitate her drink towards the stallion, splashing him in the face with red wine as she trotted away with a sour mood on her face. Clockwork walked over to his cousin, who stood there with a blank expression welp dripping wine.

"You always did have a special kind of charm with the ladies, Blue Blood." Clockwork quipped as he hooved over a handkerchief towards the white unicorn.

"Oh, pish-posh." Blue Blood muttered as he kindly levitated the cloth and began to wipe off the liquid from his face. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in your room spending productive time making advancements for ponykind?"

"You know, mother." Clockwork replied as he crossed his forelegs with a peeved frown. "She doesn't want me interacting with machines, only ponies. And I prefer the term, 'slapping junk together,' thank you very much." he snarked.

He turned and saw the same unicorn that Blue Blood had interacted, still in the same sour mood as when he saw her talking with Blue Blood. "So what was wrong with her?"

"I have absolutely no idea." Blue Blood answered as he put his hoof on his chin. "I cannot differentiate what I hated about her the most. Her stuck up, beyond all belief, attitude or perhaps she did not find my topics interesting unless money was involved."

"What makes her so different than the other ones you dated?"

"It's SOOOOO obvious that she has kids and is middle age, but nooooooo. She thinks putting on too much makeup and doing some wrinkle magic will fix everything."

Clockwork put a hoof on his cousin's shoulder. "But you have to admit, it looks good on her."

"Clockwork, you know full well I was never interested in mares in the first place." He paused to let out a blush and a dreamy sigh. "But what I wouldn't give to go out on a date with that masseur I met last week."

"Yes yes, so strong and muscular. He's like an angel from the heavens. You rambled about it enough." Clockwork rolled his eyes as he placed a hoof on the side of his head. "Have mercy on me."

Blue Blood grunted as he looked down. "I wish Auntie Celestia wouldn't force me to entertain these mares. She says it is what is expected of me, after all."

"Look on the bright side," Clockwork responded with a smile on his face. "Seeing you torment those bucking gold diggers is much better than the cinema nowadays."

The two stallions shared a chuckle before they quietly glanced at the gala, seeing the ponies mingle or dance with one another. Clockwork could see a special kind of joy coming from those on the floor and began to ponder dancing just for the experience. Auntie had made him take dancing lessons daily for the best 200 year, might as well get some use out of them.

"Blue Blood," Clockwork asked as he turned to the prince. "You're been around mares and such. Know anything about asking a mare to dance?"

Blue Blood let out a tiny gasp as he shook his head. "Dear cousin, that's a terrible idea," he harshly whispered as if the very fact he asked was scandalous, "You should wait for mares to ask YOU. It's just not gentlecoltly to approach a mare. You'd think you would know that with the number of scandals you've forced on our Mother," Blue Blood rolled his eyes, "Honestly if I did half the things you did I'd never be allowed out in public again!" He exclaimed at the injustice of it all before sighing.

A teasing smile appeared on Blue Blood's face as he said, "Now then, if you'll excuse me, our youngest brother asked if I could entertain a friend of his and I plan to make him regret that request," Blue Blood gave a mischievous grin as he imagined torturing the young dragon's friend. Spike was really asking for it after all. He knew how much Blue Blood hated how their mother forced him into this role, "Try to spice up your daily routine, act like a noble instead of a street urchin, okay cousin?" Blue Blood said as he gently punched Clockwork on the shoulder as a form of motivation, "You'll find you can still have plenty of fun,"

"Yeah, have a blast," Clockwork muttered as he trotted away from Blue Blood with his head down a bit.

The not so young Earth Pony sighed and wandered out of the hall. Eventually he was all alone, finding himself trekking through the gardens of the palace. The loneliness did not bother him. It just gave him plenty of time to reflect back to his conversation with Blue Blood.

What his younger brother had meant was rather obvious... Clockwork had created a number of scandals that burdened Celestia. He had a habit of having "low standards" for whom he brought to his bed, caring little for things like gender and species. Mainly the barely grown children of exotic dignitaries from distant lands... those were somewhat of a favorite of his. He was just fascinated by different things.

The fight for male equality was won but not without flaws, as they were still considered the weaker of the sexes. Although it was a matter of common sense for mares to couple, with how few stallions there were, stallions doing so just wasn't done in high society... at least not publicly. Mare commoners had some kind of exotic fantasy about Stallions coupling... strange as most of those Stallions just weren't interested in them. Unfortunately nobles were much more... traditional... That's why Blue Blood has to keep his interest secret.

Clockwork involuntarily sat on a bench that had a better view of the garden. He stared into it but not to marvel at its exotic features. Tears began to gently drip from his eyes as more thoughts entered his mind.

Clockwork wishes he could be more like Blue Blood. The blonde prince is respected and obedient, doing his best not to shame their adoptive mother... where Clockwork has always had such a hard time not to be an embarrassment by his mere existence. True, Blue Blood has done some things to humiliate his aunt from time to time, but they were usually minor and didn't retain the levels of what Clockwork has committed. It would be nice to be like his cousin from time to time. Be known by other ponies instead of relying on a pen name or never having to embarrass Celestia... She had taken him in, was his mother for over 200 years... and all he did was bring her shame.

"Hi."

Clockwork looked up and saw a gray fur with a blond mane, dressed in a simple light blue dress, looking at him with a shy smile on her face. He quickly wiped the tears from his face, hoping that she hadn't seen them.

Speaking of seeing, her eyes were looking in multiple directions, moving about randomly like a lizards. He found it... exotic... he loved new and different things even though it was likely nothing more than a birth defect.

She looked at the bench Clockwork was sitting on and, understanding the subtle gesture, Clockwork quietly moved a bit to make room on the bench. The mare silently sat down and calmly looked at the garden. Clockwork did not know what to make of this; a mare sitting next to him at her own request. The only thing he could do was to copy what the mare was doing: looking at the garden silently.

After approximately 32 seconds, Clockwork was good with time after all, the mare decided that somepony had to do something about the silence and it looked like it was up to her. "Nice garden."

In Clockwork's opinion, it was alright. Or, in a more honest opinion, it looked like any dang garden he'd ever seen. "Uh, I guess it seems...lovely?"

She coughed a bit as she shot him an apologetic frown. "Sorry, I was just making conversation. The silence was getting to me."

After his discomfort melted into sympathy, Clockwork let out a small smile. "It's alright. I may have ended up being the pony to break it anyway. Probably would have mentioned something random like custard or muffins."

"Ooooh, I love muffins!" The mare cooed as she clapped her hooves.

"Well, glad to have something in common then," Clockwork responded with a chuckle. After all, he had a sweet tooth for honey bran muffins. "My name is...Clockwork."

Clockwork extended a hoof for a hoofshake. The mare returned the gesture. "My name is, Ditzy Do."

"So what brings you to the gala? A date?"

Clockwork's question was initially met with a blush before an answer was told. "Oh no, I won a ticket through a contest."

"You must have stupendous luck, Miss Do." Clockwork commented.

"Yeah. I don't even remember entering the contest." Ditzy giggled. "And you can call me Ditzy."

Clockwork smirked back, "Alright, Ditzy."

"I think I got the ticket by accident." She said as her hoof was placed on her chin. "I think one of the tickets got into my mail or something. I don't really know. I'm a mail mare in Ponyville."

"Ah, Ponyville. I've heard so many things about it."

"Like?"

Clockwork crossed his hind legs together as he began reflecting back to the nobles' opinions.

"How it's too boring and nothing to do. No potential there. Nothing there but ponies doing pointless things. Of course, this is what I heard nobles say and I take their opinions with a grain of salt. My youngest brother is currently living in Ponyville and he seems to like it well enough," Blushing over how much he went on, but the mare seemed interested.

"Ooooh, You have a little brother? Probably 2 since you called him the 'Youngest'," she reasoned.

Clockwork just smiled brightly at her, she was clever to, "That's right. The middle child is already in his early 50s, working as a diplomat already despite his youth, but the youngest is only ten. Mother has him apprenticing as a scribe,"

"Apprenticing as a 10 year old must be hard," Ditzy realized.

"He loves it," Clockwork smiled well shaking his head. Clockwork redirected the conversation before it went any further into his family. Ponies tended to flip when they found out just who his mother was. "So, about the ticket thing?"

"Oh yeah. Well, it was weird how I just got this ticket, but I decided to come anyway. I wasn't doing anything important and I thought it would be fun."

Clockwork can sense some of the tension inside Ditzy as she bit her lip lightly.

"I guess I heard too much from the mares who always squeal about going to these kinds of parties. Everypony here is sooooo stuck up!" Ditzy started to chuckle a bit as Clockwork cracked a grin at her, "You're probably the only one here who isn't like that. And yet you dress the part. I, sure as Tartarus, couldn't afford a getup like that,"

Clockwork looked down at his suit and rolled his eyes. "I hate this thing." he muttered, "It will take hours to brush the matts out of my fur after this,"

"Tell me about it," Ditzy muttered as she looked at her dress. "The girls at the Ponyville Spa said that this is the latest craze but I'd rather wear my mail carrier digs."

"Looks like we have a lot more in common, Ditzy," Clockwork admitted before jumping from the bench. "Tell you what. Let's spend the last hours of the gala together. Just you and me."

"Oh, I dunno. I don't want to be a bother." Ditzy grumbled as she twirled around with her hair a bit before Clockwork grabbed her hoof gently.

"Nonsense, love!" Clockwork shouted as he pulled her from the bench, causing the mare to giggle heartily. "The night is still young and we must take advantage of it! Now then, I saw an orange mare selling apple snacks. How about we check for any apple muffins?"

Ditzy let out a toothy smile. "Lead the way, Clockwork!" She responded as the stallion ran through the garden with Ditzy at tow and full of glee. Clockwork smiled back at her as they carelessly ran through the garden.

"What a charming mare." Clockwork thought to himself. "I hope to see her more in the future..."