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Wound Up; Mara / Fluttershy
Topic Started: Nov 14 2012, 04:13 PM (212 Views)
Mara
Member Avatar
A couple cogs loose...
[ *  * ]
The door opened to the hobby shop and a white earth pony with a brick red mane and tail walked in. This mare wore a purple bandana, that kept her short and cropped mane out of her light blue eyes that wandered around the store briefly, as though remembering a place she had been countless times before. Finding the front desk of the little hobby shop, she walked up and rang the service bell, and a lanky stallion emerged from the back, greeting her with a smile reserved for his most regular and thus most favourite customer, "Good afternoon Mara! What can I do for you today?"

The white mare gave a light smile in return, excited to be getting down to business right away. In a flat tone that irked with the slightest hint of excitement rarely seen in the mare's demeanor, "Greetings to you as well, Spring. Last week at approximately thirteen hours, twenty-seven minutes, and forty seconds, on this very same day, I placed an order for the new gearboxes that were recently shipped into town. I have come to procure them."

Spring chuckled at the mare's robotic tone before saying, "Of course Mara, I remember that perfectly. Let me see here..." He opened a cupboard and pulled out a clipboard that had all of last week's part orders and incoming shipments. After a few seconds of scanning the list, he gave an impressed hum as he said in a similar tone, "Interesting, the GB-278 Gearswitch Box Model 3.2?" He looked up at Mara and grinned, "A fantastic choice, as usual Miss Coglock. I got a good look at those when they came in, and they are something else, I tell ya. Gimme a sec, I'll go get it for ya."

He did just that, leaving Mara waiting at the front desk who waited patiently, barely moving a muscle. This place was like her home away from home, if she wasn't in the same flat that she shared with the two ponies who were taking care of the seventeen year old mare, she was here, perusing the stock of various sized gears, sprockets, springs, coils, and various tinkering tools to sustain her fascination with clockwork inventions.

There was a light clicking noise coming from her saddlebag and she glanced back to it, before saying, "Cogsworth, I know the dimensions in that bag are not ideal to suit your size, but please refrain from forcing yourself against it. It would be an inconvenience to have to replace those gears you would wear down doing that." The clicking resumed and something in the bag kicked lightly, much to Mara's alarm, "Cogsworth, please! You dislike confined spaces, I confirmed as much, but I cannot authorize you to run around during the high-traffic hours in Ponyville. The last thing I wish to happen is for you to go missing."

The clicking subsided almost defeatedly, and there was silence for a while before the white earth pony sighed once more before opening her saddlebag and lifting Cogsworth out of it and placing her on the front desk, saying defeatedly, "Then again, the tensile strength in your springs will only degrade the more you are confined, and the interior of this store is not as full of activity as the streets, for reasons I cannot confirm. Just don't run off on me."

Cogsworth looked at Mara and shook itself very much like a dog to loosen it's gears that had ground against each other for the entirety of the ride there. The foot-high wood and metal clockwork pony made several clicking noises as it then glanced around the store with it's glass eyes that looked incredibly lifelike, keeping its look of sad confusion that was sculpted for it's face, almost like a lost puppy as it started to take a few timid and hesitant steps around the countertop. The gears showing through on it's back slowly spun to keep the little pony mobile when it needed to be, but for now, it seemed more interested with inspecting a shiny metal socket wrench than running about.

The pony that was behind the desk came back, setting a box down with a sticky note that read 'MARA'S ORDER' on the counter. He looked as though he was about to speak but he caught sight of Cogsworth and stopped to chuckle at the innocent nature of the clockwork pony as it inspected everything with a childlike wonder, before looking up at him and shuffling closer timidly to it's owner and creator. "That bit of clockwork Mara, I have no idea how you pulled it off, but it will always amaze me..."

He trailed off as he looked back to his clipboard and wrote something down before saying, "So that will be fifty bits." Mara didn't hesitate to pull her bit purse out and count out the money she had been saving up for these gearboxes, dropping them onto the counter before she swept the box into her saddlebag, "Many thanks Spring. I cannot wait to start tinkering and experimenting with these-- Oh princesses this is heavy..."

With her saddlebag now completely occupied by the box, she looked at Cogsworth, who stared right back at her and immediately she could see that a problem has been presented to her and she started talking to herself, "Error, the dimensions of this container do not meet the required dimensions for these gearboxes and Cogsworth. Unable to rectify with new container, and gearbox box has no capability for unassisted mobility..." She looked at Cogsworth, "Cogsworth is mobile, but prospective situation conflicts with preexisting conditions. I guess I am required to suspend those conditions for the time being."

She sighed loudly, clearly not liking what she was saying, before she motioned to the door, "Come along Cogsworth, and try to remain in close proximity to me." The clockwork pony nodded hurriedly and clicked it's affirmative before crouching and jumping off of the countertop, landing on it's four legs with loud whirring servos designed to absorb the shock of the landing before it took to walking under its creator's legs, like a child following its mother.

Mara opened the door to the shop and walked into the bustling streets of Ponyville, looking around cautiously before she turned down the street and headed back to the flat she lived in. Cogsworth clicked behind her steadily, dodging legs of other ponies left and right, focussing on it's directive of staying as close to Mara as possible. Suddenly, the stray leg of another pony knocked into Cogsworth's side and knocked her over. It scrambled to get up as it searched for it's creator, but had to avert it's gaze to dodge a hoof that was about to step on it, then another, and another.

The clockwork pony frantically dodged out of the way, trying as hard as it could to preserve itself before finally ducking into an alley and hiding timidly behind a trashcan, shaking lightly as its gears spun fast to power Cogsworth's evasive movements. It looked up and down the street, but could no longer locate the white earth pony with the red mane and tail held up by the purple bandana.

Cogsworth looked once more before it hesitantly shrank back into the shadows behind the trashcan, following its backup directive of remaining in the area if it lost sight of Mara. It sat down almost forlornly, looking up and down the street with its permanent look of sad confusion as its glass eyes scanned the crowd almost hopefully, clicking plainly as it tried to locate its lost creator, like a lost puppy looking for its master.
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Fluttershy
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Element of Kindness
[ *  *  * ]
In the nearby market, a familiar yellow pegasus trotted around from booth to booth with saddlebags in tow. At first glance, it didn't really seem like she was doing anything special: she didn't have to visit the market nearly as much with the passing of her small white companion, but she still practically had an entire zoo of mouths to feed. Her bags weren't terribly full by this point, but she still had quite a few more stops to make. Again, nothing seemed too off about her from a distance.

But inside her head, her mind was racing. Mere hours ago, she had come to the rather shocking realization that she held strong feelings for a certain farm pony, thanks to the 'professional' analysis from Twilight. The lavander unicorn had done a great job in helping her calm down and think of a solid plan of action, but there was still one obvious obstacle in her way: She was pretty much the most timid mare in the entire town.

It was simple enough on paper: Go to Applejack, ask if she needed help clearing out the remaining trees in the orchard to get some time alone with her, and when the time and place was right, simply speak her innermost personal thoughts that could quite possibly jeaprodize their entire friendship, as well as put her in the possible position of a heartbreak. It went without saying that the last part was probably the most challenging part of the plan.

When she wasn't briefly speaking to shopkeepers or pouring bits onto counters, she was quietly murmuring to herself. Of course, it was hardly audible to anypony excluding herself, but she certainly seemed to be in deep thought. In actuality, though, she was mumbling various introductions to try and start up a conversation with Applejack, only to throw all of her attempts in the mental trash and try another. It felt like she was trying to ask her out on a date... And she wasn't anywhere near that point to begin with.

As she walked along, she hung her head low and let out a heavy sigh. There was just no easy way out of this, was there? It was either keep quiet and let her feelings bottle up like guilt, or speak her mind and face the possibility of rejection. She was sure Applejack would let her down gently, but that wouldn't make things much easier. Of course, she still had a chance, there was no doubt about that... But Fluttershy hated taking risks.

She eventually came to a hault in front of an alleyway in between several shops, taking in a deep breath as she simply stood motionless with closed eyes, likely looking rather strange to anypony that passed by her. As much as she would love to stall, the only real chore she had today was in the process of getting done: and she new the longer she waited, the more she would stall, and she might eventually miss her chance. Still, she didn't want to do this... Not one bit.

A faint noise to her left caused her ear to twitch, snapping her out of her daze as her head perked up in curiosity. Her head slowly turned to her side, looking into the fairly dim alleyway with confusion. Something fell down... Which meant something was in there. Was it a stray cat of some kind? It wasn't uncommon, Fluttershy had sheltered many strays in her time as a caretaker, and she would do it again in a heartbeat if she was given the chance: And that's exactly what this seemed to be... a chance.

But she wouldn't assure herself of that until she knew for sure what she was dealing with. Cautiously, she turned her body and trotted slowly into the alleyway, eyes scanning the area with a mixture of curiosity and fear. As she got far enough in, she noticed a half-eaten apple lying on the ground, with a dry juice spot sitting atop the lid of the can behind it, likely the source of the sound she heard. Something knocked it down... But she didn't know what.

Looking past the can, her search seemigly turned up fruitless: the only thing she saw was what she could only assume was a slightly odd looking pony shaped toy, but there was no living creature in sight. Something about the toy seemed... Odd, though. She took a step closer to examine it a bit more, but as soon as she took a step forward, the 'toy' turned it's head towards her, causing her to yelp and leap behind the side of the trash that wasn't occupied by the toy.

She panted heavily and shivered in fear, rubbing her eyes as she tried to understand what she just saw. That... thing... that seemingly wooden, inanimate object, just looked at her, and not only that, it seemed just as terrified as she was, considering it leaped behind the cans itself. Was she starting to hallucinate? Was Applejack really making her that crazy?

Shakily, she took in several breaths and stood back on her hooves, cautiously turning the rim of the trash can to glance at it again. At the sight of her, it took several steps back, confirming that it was just as scared of her seemingly. She pulled her head back to her side, took in another deep breath, and trotted out to get closer to it: Inanimate or not, it was a small creature that was frightened, and she wasn't going to be able to sleep well knowing that.

She lowered her head and approached it slowly, as it took another few steps back, then stopped as if willing to let her approach. It's glass eyes were unnerving, but she put on a smile regardless. Once she was close enough to it, she layed down on the ground and lowered her head to it's level, speaking up in a soothing yet noticeably nervous voice. "U-Um... H-hello there little... um... G-guy...?" she said tentatively, not really knowing if she had it's gender right... if it even had one. "What are y-you doing alone...? D-did you l-lose somepony?"
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Mara
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A couple cogs loose...
[ *  * ]
The clockwork toy sat in the dark alley, looking around from behind the garbage can with its glass eyes. It had sat there for fifteen minutes, following its secondary directive if it were to become lost; it was to remain in the same general area that Mara left it. The toy was no stranger to this directive, as Mara did have a tendency to lose things, and that included the little clockwork pony. Usually the primary directive of looking for her worked, as when Mara set her mind on something, she never really moved until she was finished with it, and if not, Mara always ended up finding it again by retracing her steps, chastising the toy for not keeping up and commenting on how she should upgrade the servos in its legs to help it keep up.

Now may have been too late though, as this was one of the most open areas that Cogsworth had been lost in compared to the two-bedroom flat that Mara lived in with the two ponies that took care of her while she was here. It would take days of walking at its pace to get back to that house, however, and Cogsworth would not make the journey there, so it had to remain where it was, expecting that Mara would eventually realize that Cogsworth was no longer following her, drop what she was doing, and go locate her favourite clockwork creation.

Cogsworth's attention turned to the large form of a pegasus at the mouth of the alley, and afraid that a strange pony had spotted it, followed it's sub-directive of avoiding contact. It slowly started to back away from the alley and into the shadows where it would be hidden, but it accidentally brushed against a garbage can, and the half-eaten apple perched precariously on top of it's steel lid tumbled off, landing with a wet smacking noise just in front of Cogsworth. The toy gave several alarmed clicks as proximity alerts went off within it, and it scrambled away, putting the dirty silver trash receptacle between it and the foreign object.

It was no use though, the kerfuffle caused by the clockwork pony's caution had alerted the pegasus at the mouth of the alley, and now it slowly approached the hiding spot that the toy was hiding behind. The toy, receiving conflicting commands as a result of protocols that clashed with each other; both evasion and hiding seemed plausible courses of action, but the probability of either working was a perfect fifty-fifty split, and so the loophole in Mara's initial programming was exploited, and the toy stood stock still as it tried to process what to do.

The pegasus approached, entering one of the blind spots in Cogsworth's optical receptors, and automatically, the toy turned its head to place the subject back in the center of its vision, only to see the yellow pegasus with a pink mane back up rapidly, a look of fear on her face as she let out a yelp that overloaded its auditory receptors. The toy let out several high pitched clicks as its evasion protocol finally won out, and it ducked behind the garbage can, crouching down as the gears in its back whirred frantically, ready to power its legs to make a quick escape.

A few seconds passed, and slowly the surge of power provided to the toy's legs faded away as the stress on its gears forced it to reroute tension to other parts of its body, effectively locking up its legs. This lasted long enough for the same pegasus to stick its head from around the garbage can once more, looking at the toy pony as it shook in place, its legs unresponsive. The pegasus then did something that did not match the criteria for any of her evasive protocols to engage; she assumed a more submissive position by laying down and spoke to the robot, in a shaky and quiet voice that strained the limits of the clockwork pony's audio receptors.

With nothing else to follow, save for the one that made her stay in one place, Cogsworth reverted back to her primary functions, and it curiously looked at the pegasus, saving the memory of the pegasus' face and her vocal patterns. The pegasus inquired if the toy had lost somepony, and it tried to communicate the only way it could, by clicking its little code to her. It was something that Mara understood, as she created it herself, but to others it had always just sounded like clicking. The toy looked around with its expression of sad confusion that was permanently stuck on its face, walking closer to the yellow pegasus, clicking questioningly as it tried to discern if this pony was before walking mechanically around her, its curiosity leading it back in front of the pegasus as it once more clicked questioningly.

==========

Mara arrived back at the flat that she shared with Snowflake and Ma'Lynn, pushing open the door with the top of her head as she staggered in, legs shaking under the weight of the box in her saddlebags. As soon as she stepped inside, she collapsed under the weight of the box, giving an exasperated sigh as she wriggled her way out from under her saddlebags. A slightly strained smile stretched across her face as she doubled over, gasping for her breath as she said, "The sacrifice and... benefit ratio... is proportionate... to a beneficial... arrangement."

Giving herself a few more minutes, she straightened up and looked over the box, which was already being slowly swarmed by the many other clockwork toys that approached the new item in the house. She looked them over as though this was a common occurrence and pried the box open, removing the styrofoam packing pellets that kept the contents from becoming damaged during shipping. This was like Hearth Warming's Eve to Mara, and for a second, a childlike smile spread across her face as she remained oblivious to the clockwork toys that began to run amok with some of the stray packing pellets that fell to the floor.

She reached in and pulled out one of the new gearboxes, and for a moment she stood in awe as her eyes absorbed absolutely everything she could about them, "Galvanized steel casing, iron gears perfectly interlocking with each other, springs tight enough to keep it all in place... Oh boy Cogsworth, this item shall be the subject of my fascination for weeks!" She waited for a while before suddenly her wide grin faded to confusion before she looked around at her hooves, looking through the clockwork toys that seemed to notice Mara's sudden change of state and stopped suddenly.

There was something wrong, and it was evident on Mara's face as it slowly turned to one of confusion, to alarm, to panic. The gearbox was placed back into the box as she looked around more frantically, trotting around the house as she looked under couches, tables, in cupboards, and in her bedroom, her breathing slowly picking up pace until she was hyperventilating and her light blue eyes slowly began to discolour red and well up with tears. After a half an hour of extensive searching, she stood in the middle of the living room, surrounded by clockwork toys that stood stock still, only uttering one word that cracked with the teary emotion of a child that lost her favourite toy.

"C-Cogsworth...?"
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Fluttershy
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Element of Kindness
[ *  *  * ]
Considering the fact that the toy didn't have a mouth, Fluttershy didn't really expect it to be able to speak, and frankly, she kind of prefered it that way. If this thing had suddenly broke out into fully comprehensible rant, she may very well have fainted right then and there. Regardless, it made a few clicks, confirming Fluttershy's suspisions that the thing before her was indeed mechanical. And here she thought robots only existed in those scary sci-fi movies Dash made her go see...

This thing was far from being frightening, though, quite the opposite. It was the slight cuteness of it that had kept her from fleeing the toy to begin with. It was almost like a small animal, and if there was anypony that knew how to deal with small animals, it was her. The toy continued making the strange clicking noise, and Fluttershy could only guess it was trying to communicate with her.

"Oh... I wish I could understand you little, um, toy but I don't... um... Speak clicks." she said with a frown. "But... I'm guessing you must belong to somepony..." a small part of her was somewhat frightened at who could've made something like this. What if this thing belonged to some crazy old scientist who would freak out if he figured out his greatest creation was missing? What if he attacked the town, or kidnapped her to preform experiments on her as punishment, or...

She really needed to tell Dash to stop taking her to those movies.

She let out a small sigh, deciding to take a moment to weigh her options. On one hand, this toy could be intentionally waiting here, though judging by how sad it looked, that likely wasn't the case. Regardless, it wasn't hers, and she had no idea how she'd ever be able to find who it belonged to. That pony was probably looking for it at this very moment.

On the other hand, what if the pony couldn't find it? She wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing she left it here, and not knowing if anypony else found it. Plus, as much as she hated saying it, this would give her a perfect excuse to delay her inevidible meeting with Applejack. That would be really nice. After biting her lip for a moment, she looked back at the doll and smiled gently.

"Um... If you'd like, I can help you find your owner." She said gently, using her wing to pry open her saddlebag in case it wanted to crawl in. "I don't think it's really safe for somepony like you to be here alone... I'll do everything I can, and you'll be reunited with your owner in no time." she said happily, smiling genuinely at Cogsworth as she awaited it's choice.
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Mara
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A couple cogs loose...
[ *  * ]
The clockwork pony took a few tentative steps back as the yellow pegasus unfurled a wing and used it to open the saddlebag that was on her back. When Cogsworth had seemed the action to be one that lacked hostile intent, she once again relaxed and looked curiously at the saddlebag, stretching it's neck joints to their limit as it tried to cautiously lean forward as far as it could to investigate the saddlebag, still hesitant about the intentions of such an action.

Then the yellow pegasus spoke up once more, and the clockwork pony returned to its original stance and looked at the pony with its sad glass eyes, its head cocked to the side as some sort of indication that it was listening. When the pegasus finished stating the offer, Cogsworth started to process the information, weighing the pros and cons of each choice in its subsystems as fast as it could. A slow and rhythmic clicking could be heard from it as it stood stock still while it did so, which lasted exactly seven and a half seconds before the clockwork pony shifted its head back to the saddlebag, and gave a few more rapid clicks before walking closer to the bag, hesitantly inspecting it further.

Travelling in such confined spaces was something that Cogsworth tried to avoid, as dictated by its self-preservation protocols. Travel in such a confined space restricted movement, which was something that Cogsworth always seemed to attempt to keep doing to fulfill its primary directives. While its first directive was to stay as close to Mara as possible, two of the other directives completely contradicted this; its exploration and curiosity directives. Cogsworth's fascination with simple objects, tasks, and routines stemmed from these two strings of programmed behaviour. This made Cogsworth constantly make efforts to not stay in one place, and the proximity directive always conflicted with that.

Propping two metal front legs up on the mouth of the saddlebag, Cogsworth peered in, clicking once more in hesitation as though it was having second thoughts stemming from its self-preservation directive. It had already confirmed its final decision though, and with a few more clicks and whirring gears in effort, it climbed in, its hind legs scrabbling on the side of the bag to try to find purchase enough to push itself all the way in.

It landed in the bag on its front legs, followed by its back legs, standing on what appeared to be various vegetables. After some careful analysis of a particular baby carrot that was three millimeters to the left of its right front hoof, ensuring that it wasn't in fact a cabbage, Cogsworth lifted its head out of the saddlebag and propped itself with its front legs back out of the bag, its curiosity directive kicking back in as it glanced around at the world from this new perspective.

The logical circuits in the small clockwork pony had deduced that accompanying this pony would allow it to fulfill its proximity directive in the long term, allowing the clockwork pony to reunite with its creator. A culmination of the pony's previous actions also built a profile for the pegasus in the toy's memory, almost like a psychological profile that went alongside the ones already made for Mara, Snowflake, and Ma'Lynn. All that was missing was a name and various other bits of unnecessary information, but what it had was good enough, this pony was both docile and worthy of whatever a clockwork pony's trust could be called. The toy glanced at Fluttershy and clicked a few more times before ducking back into the bag, bracing itself for the trip and also trying to figure out what distinguished the celery from the asparagus.
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