Spike was out in a lovely field filled with flowers and the moonlight illuminating the field with its faint glow. It was a beautiful sight, but not as beautiful as the sight of Spike's crush, Rarity. The moon light was reflecting off her elegant white fur and made her purple mane shine. Spike couldn't help but appreciate Luna's handy work a little more while staring fixedly at Rarity.
"Oh Spikey, you're so charming and strong." Rarity said seductively to Spike.
"Rarity, I have wanted to tell you for the longest…I love-"Spike started to say to Rarity in a low whisper when Rarity transformed into Rainbow Dash.
At first, Spike was caught off guard by Rarity turning into Rainbow. But he realized that the sudden change in mares really didn't bother him. In fact, he felt more comfortable with Rainbow around then Rarity.
"Yes Spike?" Rainbow said with a twinkle in her eye.
As Spike was moving in for "the move" his hand started to burn badly. He tried to dismiss the pain, but it was only getting worse, the purple scales on his hand were getting burnt and black. He started to faintly hear a hissing sound which worried him. As he looked up from his hand, Twilight and Pinkie had taken the place of Rainbow Dash.
"Oh Spike, you are so crazy!" giggled Pinkie.
"Wonder how long it's going to take him to notice his hand is really burning…" Twilight asked Pinkie.
"Don't tell him that! It's more fun to see him catch on by himself." Pinkie stated.
Spike woke up in his hospital bed with pain growing ever worse in his hand. The pocket watch was so hot it turned a blinding white color. Spike yelled in horror at the sight of his mangled hand. He threw the watch across the room and tried to cool off his hand by blowing on it. The pocket watch's lid popped open and a purple beam shot from the face of the watch. The purple beam shot to the roof of the room and started to form a large portal.
Tick fell from the portal and landed on the floor with perfect form. Spike was annoyed with Tick's landing as he himself always landed on his face after traveling through the portal that Tick kicked him through. Spike stared open mouthed at the sight of Tick in shock. However, Spike started to feel angry and nervous as Tick's appearance in his room started to sink in. Was he here to strip him of his duties or punish him for not being able to handle being Tick's assistant.
"Well Spike, how you holding up?" Tick asked Spike.
"Aren't you here to punish me?" blurted out Spike. Spike felt terribly cold and clammy as he said this.
"Punish you? Please Spike, why punish you when few creatures can sit down and watch the death of friends on a daily basis. You have feelings and entitled to feel sorrow and all the things that go along with having feelings." Tick said matter-of-factly.
"Then why let me do this? Can't you see I have fallen apart with knowing how my friends will die?" Spike lashed out angrily. He felt betrayed that Tick knew Spike would crack and not bother to warn him about it.
"Let's agree to disagree…" Tick said with controlled anger. Spike felt like he stepped on the toes of a large dragon and regretted his outburst now.
"You claim, that I have not warned you that this task is not for faint of heart Spike. Which you and I both know, is a complete lie. Do not blame me for things that I told you would unfold." Tick said with his voice rising with every word, Spike cringed ever time Tick raised his voice.
"I didn't…" Spike mumbled but was quickly cut off by Tick.
"Yes, I know Spike. You felt that it wouldn't be so bad and that you could handle this. Evidently, you were wrong." Tick simply. Spike let his head drop down in shame.
"Anywho, I am not here to chew you out. In fact, I came here to offer some support." Tick said with his usual happy tone.
"Help me? How so Tick?" Spike asked skeptically.
"If you like, I will go back in time now and take the watch from you. You no longer need to suffer the strain of knowing the downfall of your friends." Tick offered.
Spike was about to say yes but stopped himself just short. He wanted to say yes but at the same time it felt like he was admitting defeat, which didn't sit well with him.
"Let me finish up the research and from there I'll think about it." Spike finally answered.
"You're really determined to see this through aren't you?" Tick said with a raised eye brow.
"Yes, I started this and I will stick through it!" Spike said with some regained confidence.
"Very well, when the time comes I'll ask again. Have you told your friends of the job I am making you do?" Tick said.
"No, not even Twilight knows. Why you ask?" Spike asked with curiosity building inside him.
"I fear your friends will use your new given abilities for their own benefits, which isn't the purpose for Time Smith's. We analyze and write down information on the process of history and what is yet to come." Tick simply.
"My friends would never take advantage of me!" Spike said in shock. Why would Tick even think of such a thing?
"You say that now, but you fail to realize that many creatures grow greedy with this kind of power. You can alter and stop time at whim. Name one friend who wouldn't be interested in having that watch right now." Tick retorted.
"Well, Twilight wouldn't…no how about Rarity…that wouldn't work either….nor will Applejack." Spike said with slow realization. Now that he thought about it, his friends would use the power of time to be ahead of their jobs and help themselves get ahead in life.
"See? Not so easy is it now Spike?" Tick said with a smile on his face. He knew he had Spike on the ropes.
"Okay, you got me." Spike confessed.
"Very good, I think that settles that. Before I go Spike, how many of your friends futures have you looked into?" Tick asked.
"Well, I got Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie." Spike said while ticking off the names with his fingers.
"Three then I take it. Well, it's been barely a week. To be fair, you’re moving through this quicker than I expected Spike for I thought you would have only have done one or two at best." Tick said in surprise.
"Low standards don't you think?" Spike asked dully. He was surprised that Tick was happy at the speed Spike was working at while Spike felt he was taking too long to complete his job.
"Considering you're giving this a lot of effort while assisting others when they need your help is remarkable." Tick said trying to compliment Spike.
Spike smiled so wide, he hadn't smiled like this in weeks. But Spike's worries resurfaced when he saw his burnt hand.
"Know how to patch my hand up Tick?" Spike pleaded with Tick, raising his burnt hand to Tick's eye level.
Tick's horn glowed and had the tip of it touch Spike's hand, instantly mending his burnt claws and scales.
"I am no doctor but that should suffice." Tick shrugged.
"I feel better than ever! Thanks Tick!" Spike said with great relief, he started flexing his burn free claws.
"I should really get going. Fare well Spike and if you need me, send me a letter." Tick said with his usual cheery voice.
"Wait, how am I supposed to pull that off?" Spike asked with an extremely confused look on his face.
"Have you learned how to manifest the watch's magic on your hands?" Tick asked.
"Yeah, how's that supposed to help?" Spike said with greater confusion.
"Do I have to paint a picture Spike?" Tick said hotly. Spike knew Tick's patience was thin.
"Might help now that you mention it." Spike said with a giggle. Tick gave Spike a gaze that felt like it penetrated his very soul, which sent chills up Spike's spine.
"Okay fine, sheesh Tick, can't you see I was just pulling your hoof?" mumbled Spike.
"In my line of work, growing a sense of humor was not on the needed skills list." Tick retorted shrewdly.
A blue portal ripped through the wall across Spike's bed. Tick walked up to it and plunged his head deep within the portal and soon his entire body was sucked in. A nurse came rushing into the room with her hair slightly frizzled. She looked like she needed a good night's rest, considering how dark her eyelids were.
“What’s all the noise?!" The nurse whined shrilly.
"How am I supposed to know? I was asleep." Spike said dully. He wasn't in the mood to get in an argument with a nurse who looked cranky and slightly paranoid.
"Don't give me that attitude! Go to sleep!" lashed out the nurse. Spike raised his eyebrow at her and yawned. Spike's yawning only made her get angrier than before, which seemed impossible at this point.
"Sleep, with you screeching like a bat? Only a really boned headed pony can sleep through that." Spike answered back in a calm voice.
The mare nurse seemed to grow fed up with Spike's comments because she shortly stormed away from his room, muttering nasty things about him as she trotted away. Spike didn't feel the slightest bit guilty about how he treated the nurse because she seemed to be looking for trouble anyway. He got off from his bed and walked to the pocket watch that was on the floor across the room. The watch read it was around sun rise.
"You got to be kidding me." Spike growled out loud to himself. Twilight didn't even have him waking up this early.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Spike grew nervous and shoved the pocket watch underneath his pillow frantically.
"Is it alright if I come in?" said a familiar voice from behind the door, which Spike recognized as Fluttershy.
"Yeah sure, come right in." called Spike from his bed.
Fluttershy pushed open the door and flew over to his bedside.
"Oh dear, you okay Spike? Is there anything I can get you?" Fluttershy asked in her usual quiet voice.
"Fantastic, I feel better than ever!" Spike said with a grin. "If you can Fluttershy, can you get me a glass of water or something? My throat is pretty dry." Spike added after a few moments of thought.
Fluttershy left his room to fetch him his water. Quickly, Spike shoved his claw under his pillow and tried to fish out his watch. Once he found it, Spike froze time. This is great news, all Spike had to do was manifest the watch's magic on his claws and grab the cup while Fluttershy had a hoof on it. Having time continue, Spike started to manifest the watch's magic on his claws, but Fluttershy came into the room earlier than expected. As soon as his concentration was diverted to Fluttershy's early arrival, the magic vanished from his claws. Spike couldn't believe his horrible luck when suddenly, an idea hit him.
"Hey Fluttershy, you have any idea how to fix a watch?" Spike said in a pleading voice, hoping to sound as realistic as possible.
"Well…." Fluttershy mumbled. She was turning Spike's pocket watch over on her hooves trying to figure out what went wrong with it. "I really can't help much there Spike. Animals are more up my alley." Fluttershy said in a sad voice. Spike felt guilty for making Fluttershy upset and quickly tried to change the subject.
"So, Fluttershy what happen after Twilight froze me?" Spike asked Fluttershy. For a moment it seemed like Fluttershy was going to cry, but she regained her composure.
"Rarity and Rainbow got in a fight…" Fluttershy finally said in a low and shaky voice. Spike regretted even asking the question now that he knew this.
"Are they alright?" Spike asked anxiously.
"There here…." Fluttershy said in a faint whisper. She let out a sob and covered her face in her mane. Spike was caught off guard by Fluttershy's crying and wasn't sure what he could do. Slowly, Spike moved some of Fluttershy's mane away from her face and he was able to see she was crying which led to her eyes becoming red.
"What's bothering you Fluttershy? Want to talk about it?" Spike offered. Fluttershy placed her head on Spike's shoulders and sobbed deeply.
"I don't want to bother you Spike. You been through a lot already and I don't want to worry you more." Fluttershy said in between sobs.
Seeing Fluttershy cry was probably the most upsetting and sad thing Spike had ever had to witness. He couldn't stand to see her like this. Spike pushed away Fluttershy's head away from his shoulders and whipped away her tears from her eye lashes and face.
"Trust me Fluttershy, you can never bother me in the slightest." Spike said with a friendly smile. Fluttershy giggled at his remark and she let a smile out as well.
"Why are we growing apart?" Fluttershy finally asked.
"What do you mean?" Spike said in surprise.
"Rarity and I barely go on our usual spa dates, and when we do she usually leaves half way through because she says she has to make dresses for a client. I also barely see Applejack out of the farm anymore either, she is always bucking trees and looking more tired every day. Rainbow Dash is so busy with weather patrol these days too. If you don't see her attending to the skies she'll be practicing her flying moves." Fluttershy confessed.
"What are you talking about? Back at Pinkie's party you all were having fun." Spike reminded her.
"True, but that was only for the moment. Right after we said hi to each other Rarity went off to talk to a group of local designers while Applejack was busy talking about the farm to Twilight. Rainbow wandered off somewhere while Pinkie was busy trying to entertain a crowd and it was just me on my own…" Fluttershy carried on.
Spike felt a pinch of guilt in his heart when Fluttershy mentioned Rainbow Dash; she had been comforting him while she was supposedly wandering about.
"Fluttershy, everything is going to be just fine…" Spike said when Fluttershy interrupted him.
"How do you know Spike? For all we know, it can get worse." Fluttershy groaned.
"Now come on Fluttershy, be a little more optimistic. No point thinking nothing will get better." Spike stated.
For a moment, Fluttershy just stared at Spike with her great big blue eyes. She suddenly hugged him hard and held on.
"Spike, thanks for listening…" Fluttershy gushed with joy.
"Hey that's what friends are for." Spike said happily.
Fluttershy let go of Spike and kissed him right on the cheek. She blushed at her action and, without a word, left the room quickly. Spike sat on his bed in shock, he was also blushing. After a few moments, Spike remembered to check if the watch was set to Fluttershy's time line. Yep, the usual purple button turned yellow. Spike was determined to see if Fluttershy's past linked together on how Rainbow Dash discovered her in Ponyville. The usual crushing feeling returned to Spike's body when he traveled to her past. After it stopped, Spike took a look around his new surroundings. He was stationed at the Apple's farm. Spike sat on a fence and decided to watch the events from there. Soon, Rainbow Dash and Granny Smith came walking up to the farm.
"Big Mac, mind grabbing' the young girl from the woods? Tis here Pegasus is her friend and is here ter…do what again?" Granny asked Rainbow.
"Bring her back up to Cloudsdale." Rainbow said.
"Well, you heard her. Get a move on Mac." Granny said waving off the younger Big Macintosh.
"How am I supposed to know where she is in them woods?" Big Mac asked defensively.
"Simple, you are always trying to talk ter her when she comes round. And don't act like yew doesn't walk her back ter dem woods." Granny said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Big Mac simply walked off to the woods without another word. Spike couldn't help but smile about all this. As Big Mac returned with the younger Fluttershy, Rainbow was running up to greet Fluttershy.
"How did you survive the fall?" Rainbow Dash said in awe and surprise.
"Butterflies saved me." Fluttershy answered proudly.
"How does that even… What matters is that you're okay! We have to get you back up to Cloudsdale! Everypony is worried out of their minds for you." Rainbow said with a smile on her face. Fluttershy tried to return the gesture but she couldn't manage it.
"What's up?" Rainbow asked.
"I don't want to go back." Fluttershy managed to say.
"What do you mean? Cloudsdale is your home! You can't just walk away from it!" Rainbow said in shock.
“I know, but I am happier here. I don't have to worry about being a good flier anymore. Also, everything is better here. The flowers are so pretty and the animals understand me and are nicer to me than most people are to me at back at Cloudsdale." Fluttershy said with a twinkle in her eye.
"I guess I can't force you to come back can I?" Rainbow asked Fluttershy.
"I guess so." Fluttershy said sadly.
"Well, I need to come down here more often in that case." Rainbow said happily.
"You would do that for me?" wondered Fluttershy.
"Of course I would!" Rainbow exclaimed.
As the two friends happily chatted, Spike started fiddling with the pocket watch absent mindedly. It seems like Rainbow's and Fluttershy's past mixed rather tightly to Spike. However, as heartwarming this reunion was Spike had the familiar feeling of dread lunged at him again. Yet again, he would have to sit through another friend's death and at least this time around he felt more prepared for it. With a little hesitation, Spike turned the hands clockwise until it stopped. Spike was surprised to see that the hands took some time to stop turning and took it that Fluttershy was going to live a nice long life, like Twilight.
At first, it seemed like Spike was back at Twilights ceremony. There were many pony's sitting on chairs and they were all looking at a large coffin, that probably held Fluttershy. Spike surveyed the crowd and noticed that Applejack was the only pony remaining in the Elements of Harmony. The future Spike, whose head was poking in through a window do to how large he had gotten through the years, was also present at the funeral. Sitting near the older Applejack, who really started to looks a lot more like Granny Smith at this point, was Big Mac accompanied with probably what was his children and grandkids and Applebloom wasn't far away either. There was something odd though about one of Mac's kids, one of them had a pink mane like Fluttershy.
"We are gathered here today…" A priest started to say.
Spike wasn't really interested in listening to all this, he was there for the bottom line information and nothing else. Another reason why Spike wasn't all that excited to hear the priest chatter was that he wanted to end this a quick as possible and the less he had to look at Fluttershy's peaceful, dead, old face the better. The last thing he wanted was the start having nightmares about her old withering face.
"Fluttershy died of natural causes and was ninety-three when she passed away." The priest rambled on. Spike wasn't all that surprised to hear that. Fluttershy always looked like she defied age in the other's futures. Maybe her age defying ability was due to her leading a laid back life style.
"She was married to Big Macintosh and had three children together. She was the grandmother of four grandchildren as well." The priest stated.
Spike couldn't help but smile at this piece of information. He knew that Macintosh had a thing for Fluttershy when they were kids and they really complemented each other well if you thought about it. They were the perfect couple and Spike felt happy that they got together. Retreating back to his pocket watch, Spike moved the hands of time back to their original position before he started time traveling into Fluttershy's time line.
As time progressed around him Spike felt happier than usual. The futures of his other friends always left him in a bad and depressed mood and for once there was one future that made him happy for a change. Even in death, Fluttershy seemed to make things a lot nicer and less harsh then they usually were. The only thing that could bring down Spike's new found happiness was that he was still in a hospital room and the angry nurse from before started hollering at him again.
"Hey, has your breakfast come up yet?" nagged the nurse.
"Let me see…my stomach is growling at me. So no, I have not eaten breakfast yet." Spike answered sarcastically.
The nurse inspected Spike's physical health for a while. She was staring at his face, which started to freak Spike out, after she was done seeing if Spike was physically fit.
"Why are you smiling, you're in a hospital. There's nothing to smile about here." The nurse loathingly stated.
"Sure there something to smile about and you know what it is?" Spike asked happily.
"What is it?" asked the nurse.
"I am happy I'm not you!" Spike said enthusiastically.