Clockwork-Canter

The icy November winds blew and kicked up dusty snow at the window. I stared into the steam rising from my dingy, dirt-coated cup of coffee in the dim lighting of my library. It did little to comfort me, but then again, nothing seemed to do that very well when I stayed up as late as this...not even the coffee helped me focus as well anymore. I glanced into a mirror by my side, my slightly-disheveled mane being one of the many things I noticed about myself right now. Bags bigger than my saddlebag hung below by eyes and I looked as I had for many a week now: spent. I was spent, and there was no denying it. I was a thirty-year-old mare and I'd d

It was a simple existence. There was never any serious demand on Fresh Tap for anything, nor was it hard to keep the place running. The Royal Merlot Bar in Canterlot was his legacy. He and his niece Berry Punch managed the establishment after Berry's father Red Merlot, who had built the bar from the ground up, had passed away. Tap was his number-one employee, and Merlot could think of nopony else to hand the bar down to than his daughter and his brother. Like a good bartender, Tap always listened to the customers that came in with problems, and he usually did his best to talk them out of washing their troubles away with enough alcohol to lea

THUD! The sound of something heavy and thick landed against the door to Twilight Sparkle's library. It had done absolutely no damage but it definitely disturbed the slumber of the lilac unicorn, who up until this point had been sleeping soundly, dreaming sweetly of Celestia-knows-what. Twilight tossed and turned, not wanting to rise from her comfortable bed but also not wanting to disregard who or what might be waiting outside her front door. Conflicting thoughts aside the librarian unicorn came to the first logical conclusion. "Spike, could you go see if somepony's at the door?" The purple baby dragon, stretching his way out of his small

The morning after Discord's appearance before Twilight and her friends, despite the return of pure chaos into Equestria, the library was still as quiet as usual. There was no discussion of the current situation, nor were there inquiries regarding the status of the two princesses. The six mares just looked at each other awkwardly, not even sure of what to say. Twilight was still impossible to communicate with. The sight of her mentor in stone had broken her. "So," Rainbow Dash finally spoke. "What are we gonna do now?" "Ain't much we can do without Twi," Applejack retorted. "She's been completely silent since last night," Rarity added. "I'v

It was a bright and sunny day in Ponyville. At least, that's what the forecast had originally specified. Due to an unexplained phenomenon, most of Equestria was covered in a blanket of ice and snow. Within the Cloudsdale Weather Factory itself, voices elevated and blame and accusations were tossed all around. The pegasai yelled back and forth just outside the cloud-crafted boardroom, arguing the current issue as they awaited the call of their commanding officer. "Are you seriously blaming this on me?" shouted an angry rainbow-maned pegasus. "I don't see anypony else who could have screwed up this badly!" returned another, his mane a deep b

"Hm? What's this?" An expression of shock became plastered across the face of the draconequus. He saw, standing before his throne, the six mares he had turned against one another, now fully restored in color and preparing to finish him off. "No." With a flash of light, the Elements of Harmony activated, and a beam of prismatic energy arced upward and pierced downward toward the spirit of chaos. This was it. This was the end of it all. "NO!" The blast of rainbow light crashed into the ground, surrounding Discord in its magical power and starting to wrap around him, shifting his normal body to solid rock. He struggled to resist, but it did

The next morning, Vinyl's eyes opened to a familiar pair of lavender irises. "Octavia? What...what happened?" "You passed out from the shock," she answered. "Oh, and you might not want to move your right foreleg too much. It's not in the best shape." Vinyl looked over at a clock on the nightstand, almost jumping up when she realized the time. "I'm late for class!" The pain shot through her body from her sudden movement, and at the same time, she took notice of something else wasn't amiss. "...You're...not in class, Octavia..." Octavia smiled. "I worked something out. I went to the principal this morning and explained the situation. Rev

"Dubstep!" "Classical!" "Dubstep!" "Classical!" The familiar voices echoed throughout Princess Celestia's castle as the regal cellist Octavia exchanged a verbal battle with the disc-jockey Vinyl Scratch. The Grand Galloping Gala had just ended, and upon Vinyl's self-proclaimed 'fashionably late arrival', the two rivaling musicians had once again sparked up a pointless debate. "You just couldn't possibly understand the true beauty of classical music!" Octavia exclaimed. "You just refuse to let some good music rock your eardrums for once in your stuffy, miserable life!" Vinyl yelled in reply. "Why, you obnoxious little party freak! You w

Gilda awoke with a start, looking up to realize she had fallen out of the bed, the covers strewn across the floor beneath her. She stood up, still feeling slight pain all across her body, walking around a bit to shake it off. "That...that wasn't a dream...that was way too real. I can't let something like that happen to Ponyville...and I can't just do it for Dash's sake. I have to actually be...nice." Gilda fixed up the bed as best she could, glancing around the room to ensure that she had woken up. It was real enough, but so were the visits from the ghosts. She double checked and triple checked everything in the room, looking out the window

Gilda entered the annihilated husk of a town that was once Ponyville. Buildings were utterly wrecked and not a single pony could be seen anywhere, but there were figures walking around in the wasted homes. Dogs. Mongrels wearing flashy jeweled collars scurried in and out of the wreckage of the Ponyville huts and buildings, carrying anything they find valuable out and to one particular location; the only last standing structure: the tree-built library at the edge of town. Gilda made her way to the library, seeing all the dogs crowd to enter through the small door, which was clearly not built for their bodies. Looking around for another way i