From his early childhood, Clockwork was always fascinated with creation and inventions.
Regardless, Celestia had him apprentice as a chef. A far more "appropriate" skill, for a Stallion growing up in the 9th century of Celestia's rule.
Like a good stallion, he went to the lessons, but he was never passionate about them. Cooking just wasn't for him... nor were the etiquette lessons... the dancing lessons were of particular annoyance, as the Instructor kept acting scandalized, each time Clockwork tried to lead. Telling the mare it was subconscious habit... just made her foam at the mouth, by how "uncouth" the colt was.
Don't get Clockwork wrong, he was infinitely grateful to Celestia. Especially since she had every meal with him.
Dinner maybe have been a more formal event, with the nobles. However breakfast, Lunch, and even afternoon tea, were just the two of them.
Whenever she could, Celestia would poke her head into each of his lessons. Even help him where he was struggling... but she could see he wasn't happy with the strict life at the Palace.
Clockwork... wished he wasn't so miserable in her care...
He felt suffocated. As if his every breath was being analyzed and corrected.
That's when it happened. An envoy of the minotaurs arrived. Offering to build Celestia a train network... for a "Reasonable fee".
Clockwork saw the blue prints, just by chance. As Celestia was overlooking them, over tea time... and an idea invaded the Stallion's mind. He could improve these blue prints, enhance the train itself... he saw those blue prints... and ideas sparkled in his eyes.
It was more like remembering, then inventing. He stayed up for days. Making tweeks to the blue prints... and proudly showed them to his adoptive mother.
"Clockwork," Celestia sighed, looking at the blue prints. They were genius, beyond genius. Her ward had taken the steam engine, and completely revolutionized them.
They would run faster, for longer, with no need of coal. The weed like Crystals, which grew all over Equus, would fuel the machine. With no harm to the environment... with Clockwork even writing a paper, on how burning coal could lead to damage to their planet's atmosphere... this was... ingenious... and she knew she could never let it see the light of day.
She couldn't afford to let the Colt, that was in reality a god in hiding, shape their world in ways it wasn't ready for.
Trains were only recently put in common use, within the Minotaurs' territory. What Clockwork designed, jumped that technology by a few thousand years.
She looked up at her ward, and saw his smile... he never smiled like that. He found purpose in this. A purpose he couldn't find anywhere else. It filled him with clear joy... that she had been unable to supply.
She felt down right sinful for crushing it. "I don't think the Minotaurs will take kindly, to us cutting them out of their project."
Clockwork shook his head, "That's the beauty of it. They can still do the work to set it up. We show them the blueprints, and commission them to build us this!" He was so excited. Celestia had never seen him this excited. "We can offer them the patent, in exchange for an actual reasonable price to build it.
"Equestria lacks the necessary knowledge of metal workings, and mass production, to make this on our own. We still need the Minotaurs. But if we prove we are capable of improving their designs-"
"You wish to make this a regular thing?" Celestia felt a spike of true fear. How could she hide him, if he did things like this?
In the end, Celestia had caved... as Clockwork began to cry at her attempt to reject it. He had found such meaning in his creation... that the mere thought of rejection broke him.
Despite the initial begging that Clockwork gave to his adoptive mother, Celestia had still tried to talk him out of the idea.
Of course, Clockwork would not have a simple "no" as an answer. Insisting 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.
As the decades passed, Clockwork's inventions only got worse. Triggering Equus to undergo an industrial revolution, a thousand years before they were meant to.
Clockwork 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 Celestia's 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, back 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 a 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 required 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.
His inventions, in that first year after becoming Celestia's ward, led 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 led 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.
But Clockwork longed for the day he would be recognized.