“Is he going to be okay?” Twilight asked, pawing at the ground nervously.
“Spike is just suffering from shock. Give him sometime and he’ll come around.” The doctor replied with a considerate smile.
He glanced over Spike’s charts and walked over to the rainbow manned mare next to him.
“Now you, on the other hand,” the doctor eyed her wings sadly “will not be flying in the near future.”
“How long are we talking about?” Rainbow Dash demanded, wanting to know her fate but terrified that it will be too much to bear.
“Perhaps a few months of therapy and proper medication should be effective.” The doctor replied.
“A few months, be a little more specific.” Rainbow Dash pleaded her eyes full of grief of the possibility of a long recovery.
The doctor let out a sigh but answered anyway, “You’re lucky to even talking to us as we speak. You fell from about 75 feet in the air. Luckily, the cloud you rested on took up most of the shock of the landing. However, the impact on your wings took a fair hit and so did your legs, just some bruises though. As for how long to will remain grounded…perhaps three months. And this is along with the fact that you get plenty of bed rest and NO flying.”
“Three months…” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself. She gazed at her bandaged wings and let out a groan.
“I could supply you with pain killers…” The doctor considered. “But, that doesn’t mean I am giving you a pass on flying
though. The pain killers will only block out so much pain. At best, the pills will allow you to stretch out your wings without wincing in pain.”
Rainbow’s ears drooped sadly at the news “Eh, I think I’ll pass.” Being able to fly while not being permitted to fly was pointless. She rather suffer with knowing she won’t be able to fly rather than knowing she can fly but can’t.
“I need to check on your X-Rays. I will return to tell you the results, if there bad anyway.” The doctor said before leaving the
room.
Rainbow Dash flopped back on her bed; her wings ached at the sudden movement. Fluttershy, Twilight, Applejack, and
Pinkie Pie were sitting around the room. Pinkie was first to notice the lack there purple manned fashionista friend missing.
“Where’s Rarity?” Pinkie asked.
“Heck if I know, last time I saw her was back at Pinkie’s party.” Applejack replied, she looked at the girls hoping they had an answer.
“I gave Rarity a book about some basic spells a few days ago, but that’s it. Sweetie Bell was the once who told me where
Rainbow got hurt.” Twilight offered her input.
“Rarity canceled our usual spa date today.” Fluttershy said meekly.
“Safe to say, Rarity is avoiding us like the plaque.” Applejack said with a shrug.
“But, why would she do that? We are her friends after all.” Fluttershy said in a hurt voice. She feared she might have been a
cause of Rarity not keeping in touch with them.
“Oh don’t beat yerself up over this Fluttershy. If anything, Rarity has some explanin to do.” Applejack said with a hint of anger in her voice.
Spike palmed his pocket watch nervously, “I think I can help.” Spike showed his pocket watch to the girls. The girls were startled that Spike was even awake, let alone eavesdropping on their conversation.
“It’s a pocket watch.” Applejack mumbled without emotion. She didn’t see how a watch was supposed to help.
“As much as I would like to go into detail about this, I can’t bother anymore.” Spike groaned “Now, um, hand Rainbow Dash
the pocket watch for a second.”
Spike passed along the watch to Twilight, who stared at the watch for a few moments. Twilight passed the watch along to
Fluttershy, who then finally gave it to Rainbow Dash.
“I have seen that watch before.” Twilight said in realization, looking at Spike in the eyes.
“I guess, keeping it a secret is not an option anymore.” Spike mumbled. “Fluttershy, mind giving me the pocket watch again?” Fluttershy obliged and handed Spike the pocket watch.
So much pain the watch has caused. For once, it will help solve a problem rather than spawning more uncertainty and guilt in Spike’s heart. Looking over at Rainbow Dash, Spike knew she was in no condition to be moving.
“I’ll tag along-“ Rainbow Dash said, trying to move her bed sheets off herself but struggled.
Spike cut Rainbow sentence short, “No, you’re going to stay here.”
“What! You just expect me to sit here and do nothing!” Rainbow Dash demanded.
Spike got off his bed, his knees wobbled a bit as he tried to steady himself, and walked over to Rainbow’s bed. Was it him, or was Rainbow Dash looking softer and gentle every time he saw her? Her usually cocky smile and brash nature was immediately tame once Spike came into her direction.
“I am sorry Rainbow, but I don’t want to see you hurt anymore as it is. It hurt my bad enough to see you in the hospital once;
you can only imagine how I feel this time.” Spike said with genuine sorrow.
Rainbow motioned Spike to come closer, which he obeyed, and she whispered in his ear “You won’t be gone long will you?”
The pleading, almost beggine tone to her words, in voice chewed at his heart painfully.
“I won’t be long. I promise.” Spike whispered in her ear. Good thing Rainbow’s mane was so long, it blocked there audiences view.
“You really promise?” Rainbow teased.
“Must I Pinkie swear?” Spike mumbled impatiently.
“I got something better in mind.” Rainbow Dash whispered with a grin.
She leaned in and kissed Spike right on the lips. Her soft tender lips were like silk against his. Soon though, Rainbow Dash
grew greedy and let her tongue mingle with his. Even when locked in a kiss, Rainbow Dash’s competitive side wanted to dictate on who had more control over the kiss. Spike tried to outmaneuver her, but let her win this one. After all, Spike had an odd feeling there was more moments like these to come. At last, they parted. A string of saliva was connecting from her mouth to Spike’s. Rainbow Dash let out a small giggle from the sight of this, which broke the string. She was red faced and Spike could only imagine how red he was at this point. Wanting to spare himself from the questions about his sudden red face, Spike froze time and took a moment to calm down; once he did he allowed time to continue.
“Again, how is that watch going to help us?” Twilight asked, eyeing the watch with confusion.
“I rather show you then explain. You guys better hold me arm though.” Spike replied, turning the hands of time just slightly
back.
Five hooves made a grab for Spike’s arm, slightly squeezing a little feeling out of them. Choosing to ignore this, Spike pressed down on the blue button. The girls were in shock to see the walls of the hospital room grow distorted and blurred. Fluttershy let out an audible yelp and Twilight analyzed the changes in the room with interest. Applejack looked a little scared of the sudden changes while Pinkie was just laughing hysterically at the changes around her.
Spike found that they ended up in Ponyville, right around Rarity’s boutique store. Spike could feel the hundreds of questions about to be asked darting towards him. Twilight fired the first shot.
“Spike, what in Celestia’s name did you do?” Twilight asked, eyeing the watch with a newfound excitement.
This is EXACTLY what Spike feared. Twilight would be asking millions of questions about the watch’s capabilities. And to be honest, Spike had no interest to be studied on like some sort of book. But, Spike knew Twilight’s thirst for knowledge will not subside if he just ignored her.
“Time travel is what I am doing.” Spike replied quickly.
“Who gave it to you?” Applejack asked.
“Um, I went to see the Time Smith. He gave it to me and gave me an assignment.” Spike confessed.
“So that’s why you have been acting weird lately. You kept it a secret from us.” Twilight said, putting two and two together.
“But you can trust us Spike!” Pinkie said in disbelief.
“Tick said I can’t tell anyone about this. But, since I am done with the research, I see no point to hide it anymore.” Spike replied.
“You can control time with that?” Applejack said in an awestruck voice. “Chores will take no time at all, literally, with that thing!”
“That’s the same exact thing Tick warned me about. Ponies and even my friends would take advantage of its power.” Spike said looking visibly upset. Applejack looked down in shame, knowing her greedy intentions were not right.
“Anyway, I didn’t do this to explain how this watch functions and why I kept it a secret. I am doing this because I want to know who made Rainbow Dash crash.” Spike said a little impatiently.
Rainbow Dash could be seen flying overhead. She looked remarkable, her long mane flapping in the wind, her slender form...Spike shook his head a bit; day dreaming can wait for later. Now, Spike knew that Rainbow fell, meaning she had no use of her wings. So either her wings were to sore from doing work or somepony magically shut them so she couldn’t use them. Rarity was standing at the front door of the boutique, her horn visibly flaring up and pointing at Rainbow. Before Spike could register what she was muttering under her breath, Rainbow became rigid in the sky and went instantly into a downward spiral. Fluttershy passed out from seeing the sight and Twilight tried to magically slow down Rainbow’s fall.
“Why won’t it work?” Twilight yelled out in frustration.
“We are just spectators. Nothing we do now can change anything that already happened.” Spike said with a sigh.
Rainbow landed right on her usual comfy cloud. But she was moving so fast that the cloud was taken down with her. Once she hit the ground, the cloud made a soft thump sound and broke into many tiny wisps of clouds. But, the cloud didn’t break enough of Rainbow’s fall and her body still hit the ground with considerable force.
Rarity looked over Rainbow’s limp form “You took something important to me. Now I took something important from you.” She whispered into Rainbow’s ear. She glanced of Rainbow’s wings; they were stuck at odd angles. Rarity gave one last sweeping look over Rainbow’s limp body and wore a mocking smile on her face.
Spike fumbled with his pocket watch a bit, “I think that’s enough.”
The girls and Spike returned back into hospital room. Time in the present was still frozen, so Rainbow was not yet aware of their arrival. Applejack was the first to break the tense silence.
“That back stabbing no good-“ Applejack voiced her rage before Fluttershy cut in.
“I can’t believe she would do such a thing.” Fluttershy mumbled so softly it was barely audible, when with the pressing silence around them.
“Come on girls, we need to confront Rarity about this!” Twilight said, raising her hoof high.
“I’ll bring along mah finest rope. Make sure she don’t get away, you know.” Applejack said, holding back on her rage but the fire in her eyes noticeable.
Spike let time continue and let the girls go and interrogate Rarity. But he stayed behind to be with Rainbow Dash. She looked at him with a mixture of confusion and happy smile. Spike returned the smile, a little awkwardly, and glanced at the watch. More problems and fewer answers were being made from this stupid thing. Spike grew angry and threw the watch violently against the wall. The force of the impact forced the lid of the watch to pop open. Once the face of the watch was visible though, there was a blue beam that shot from it and hit the wall that it recently collided with. Spike knew who was going to come through it before the figure even made its way out of the portal. Tick came clambering out of the portal, which made Rainbow give out a stifled yell. Once Tick found his balance, he looked at Spike with pitying eyes.
“I see you told ponies about the watch then.” Tick said, looking at Spike directly in his eyes.
“I just couldn’t hide it anymore. It became too much for me to handle.” Spike said, trying desperately to defend his actions.
“I can see that. In a way, I am happy you did so but also disappointed by the results.” Tick admitted with a little grin.
“You expected me to fold?” Spike said in disbelief. Tick was always planning ahead, but this much?
“Spike please, you aren’t like me. I am cold and many people know I am the Time Smith. Ponies don’t dare ask me to use my power to give them an edge in life because they know I will transport them to the beginning of time when there was nothing but rocks everywhere.” Tick said with a smile chuckle.
Spike had to take a moment to really take then information in “You aren’t mad?”
Tick raised an eyebrow at Spike “Of course not! In fact, I think you composed your elf well throughout the short time that I
made you supply me with details about your friend’s life.”
“What?” Rainbow Dash said in mild annoyance.
“She is a friend of yours Spike?” Tick asked with mild interest.
“Yep, she is.” Spike replied.
“So you made Spike look into our lives?” Rainbow demanded.
“Yes, only because I was far too behind in studies to come here to Ponyville to collect data myself.” Tick answered promptly.
“Can’t you see how much pain you been causing him!” Rainbow accused.
Tick looked down at the ground “Ah, yes, I have been the main source of Spike’s grief lately. And for that, please forgive me
Spike.”
“It’s alright; I was in over my head when I took the job anyway.” Spike mumbled darkly.
“So, will you take me up on my offer?” Tick asked in a business man like fashion.
“What offer?” Rainbow interjected.
“For a friend, you sure like to get in his business a lot.” Tick said with an air of impatience.
“We are more than just friends.” Rainbow retaliated.
Tick’s eye’ narrowed a bit “A deal that I take the watch from Spike but in return I free Spike of his burdens.”
“Which means?” Rainbow asked anxiously.
“That none of this ever happened.” Tick replied grimly. He wasn’t willing to notify them of this, but Discord’s statue has been developing a lot of cracks lately. The rate their friendship has been falling apart, Discord will be out and about in no time. This wasn’t only for Spike sake…it was for Equestria too.
“Does that mean Rainbow and I never…” Spike said, looking at Rainbow Dash sadly.
“I am afraid so.” Tick said with a bow.
“You should take the deal.” Rainbow said suddenly.
“What? That means that this never happened! I don’t want to lose you!” Spike said, holding Rainbow’s hooves. She was crying a little but she firmly spoke again.
“I don’t want to make you suffer for me Spike.” Rainbow said, pulling in Spike for what could be there final hug. She looked at him in the eyes and shared one last kiss as well together.
Tick was brought back to the days of him and Jewel. How happy she was...it reminded him of Rainbow Dash a bit. She willing
to sacrifice but knows when the line needs to be drawn.
“What will it be Spike?” Tick asked again.
Spike parted from Rainbow “Okay. Here it is.” Spike mumbled, handing the pocket watch to Tick.
Tick levitated the pocket watch in the air. The watch sparked violently for the last time and ejected the entire amount of blue aurora that was confined in the watch. The aurora made its way into Tick’s own watch. After the transaction was complete, Tick eyed the sad couple one last time.
“Maybe, we will meet again Spike. Hopefully, on different circumstances though.” Tick said. His eye’s glowed blue and the entire room was engulfed in blinding whiteness.
“Such a shame it ended like this.” Spike heard Tick say, before passing out.