Hero
"Applejack," Rarity asked hesitantly as I bucked a tree. A drumroll of apples falling into a wooden bucket echoed through the near silent orchard. The only sounds were my breathing, the thunk of my hooves on the tree trunk, and now Rarity's voice. I sighed, mildly annoyed.
"What is it, Rares?" I asked, turning to face her. A curious expression was plastered to her face like chunks of the apple pie on Soarin's face at the Gala.
"If..." she paused, gathering her thoughts. "If you can see time because somepony saved you in the nick of time, how come I can't see the numbers?"
"What makes ya think ye'r supposed to see 'em?" I asked, now confused as to what she was implying.
"Remember the Best Young Flier competition?" she asked, conjuring images of her free-falling to her most certain death into my mind. I shuddered.
"Oh," I muttered under my breath. "I dunno, Rares. Maybe 'cause Rainbow saved you with a larger margin than the Hero did me. After all, she caught you and them Wonderbolt fellers and kept descending for another few hundred meters at least."
"That makes some sense," she sighed. I watched her plunge into thought once more. I wasted no time in setting up the next tree, and bucking the apples out of it. Nearly fifty fell from that tree, all landing in one bucket or another. "Could also be that I saw it coming, while you did not."
"That works too," I replied, not paying much attention.
"Sweetie wants me to thank you for saving her crush yesterday," Rarity blurted after a moment of silence. I stopped the buck that was about to make its mark on a tree.
"Ya didn't tell her it was me, didja?" I glared at her. "You of all ponies know I hate the limelight."
"Of course I didn't. I described what I witnessed as a cloaked pony that saved that poor colt," she cooed, reassuring me that I was still as anonymous among the local press as I was yesterday. "But I know that I saw a hero that day."
I blushed slightly as she flattered me for what felt like the millionth time this year. "Oh stop, I'm no hero. I'm just AJ."
She whispered something that I thought I heard, but desperately wanted to confirm. "What was that?"
She shrunk away, mimicking Fluttershy's tactic of hiding behind her curly purple mane. This only added to my curiosity. Something was up, and I wanted to know what. "I dunno what ye'r hidin' for, Rares. Just tell me anything, and I'll give you the truth of the matter."
I smiled in her direction, or at least, I thought I did. For all I know I could have turned into a manticore, because she bolted off faster than a sonic rainboom. Something was up, and I wanted in.
------
I looked around, by force of new instinct. The numbers ticked on, slowly descending towards zero. And though I knew what happened when a clock hit zero, I was afraid of seeing it. I was very much afraid of seeing a clock stop.
I trotted down the road, seeing everypony go about their business while I watched over them like a hawk. Though I didn't much like it, I wore a dark brown cloak that obscured most every distinguishable feature about me. It was necessary to keep the press away. I saw one of them asking a middle aged shop-owner about what he had seen when the piano fell, specifically, parts involving me. I passed right on by, ignoring them.
I continued on at a relaxed pace, listening and watching with utmost care for anything just a hair out of place. I watched the numbers like a hawk. I somehow ended up at the same fountain I had sat upon yesterday before the incident, and decided to sit down on it again. Next to me was a rather attractive, if I do say so myself, brown mare with a black mane. By looking at the definition of her face and the slight dullness in her green eyes, I could guess that she was somewhere in her mid thirties. I looked up at her number, seeing a firm forty years plus. I looked her over once more, seeing a second number on her, just above her belly. I smiled to her from beneath my hood as a silent 'Congratulations' of sorts. After she returned the smile, I turned my attention back to the crowd before me.
A blaring siren hit my ears, near deafening me. An ambulance wagon had rushed into the Ponyville market, stopping before one of the houses. I made my way over, quickly and quietly. Something made me itch about this.
Two paramedics came out of the building with an elderly mare on a stretcher. An oxygen mask was on her muzzle, and her eyes stared blankly into space. I moved closer. I saw a bright number above her: 14.81. I watched helplessly as it ticked down, her last few seconds draining from her. Just as the paramedics got her into the wagon, her clock struck zero. A cherry red 0.00 hung over her for a moment, before flickering from existence like a candle being blown out. She still looked like she had time, but I bowed my head in respect, knowing she was already gone. Others prayed for her return to health. I prayed for her soul to live in heaven. They didn't see what I saw.
I walked back to the fountain, taking a seat upon it, the pregnant mare having walked away while I was gone. I watched the crowd, the cluster of numbers blending together like two different shades of the same color paint. I watched for something, anything to make those numbers descend faster than normal. I saw a pony light a cigar on his balcony, plopping in a wooden rocking chair. His number dropped by fifteen minutes the instant he took his first drag of it. I saw a homeless stallion with a dirt-encrusted beard in the dark of an alley, sniffing at something on his hoof. His clock shot down by thirty years, leaving just four more for him. I grimaced, watching the numbers beat down their ponies.
I saw a young stallion wearing a white headband running down the street. He wore a dark green jersey with the emblem of the local Ponyville High Cross-Country team on both sides. As he ran, his clock descended slower than everypony else's. I saw a young filly with a cold through a window, drinking a glass of orange juice, her clock descending in the seconds column at its normal pace, but the minutes column rose by two as she finished it off. I smiled, seeing the numbers being beaten back. There was hope for everypony.
A pair of gears snapped me to attention. My eyes darted to where they were, locking onto the Hero. I stood, having found who I'd been waiting for. I followed him a few meters behind, my eyes fixed upon him alone. The brighter ponies around me made it hard to keep my gaze upon his more subtle and neutral color, but I could pinpoint him because of it as well. I grinned to myself, catching up as he broke from the crowd, headed towards a house. I followed closely behind, watching as he slipped inside, unnoticed by everypony but me.
I crept over to his door, smiling as I got closer to meeting the Hero that had saved my life. I stifled a giggle of anticipation, my hoof already reaching to knock on the door.
"What do you want?" the pony behind the door hissed, the door open just enough for him to see my cloaked form standing outside his doorstep. I removed my hood, letting him see my face. Upon doing so, he opened the door enough for me to slip in. "Ah. You. Come in. I suppose you have questions."
---
I walked away, becoming a grain of salt in a glass of water. As I dissolved into the crowd, I noticed something else slightly peculiar. In all actuality, it was far more than peculiar. Celestia was on her chariot above us, descending to Ponyville. I could only guess what was in store for Twilight, or perhaps even all of us 'Element bearers'. I chuckled, wondering if the Princess had a number. Then I wondered if she had a number.
I made my way to Twilight's library, genuine curiosity guiding my hooves. Something about today was just straight up driving me up a wall. Rarity acting like Fluttershy near me, Celestia dropping by unannounced, an elderly mare dying as I witnessed. I could swear I was either having one hell of a drunk dream from a night of Granny Smith's hard cider, or I was just losing my marbles. I sincerely hoped for the former. Losing my marbles was definitely not on my to-do list.
I arrived at the library within a minute or two, seeing that the others had already gathered there. I saw Pinkie bouncing around inside, and Twilight near insane with the Princess standing over her. I knocked twice and entered.
"Applejack, just who I wanted to see," the Princess greeted, catching me by surprise. I looked up at her, half expecting to see a number above her head. And a number I did see, but it was a different number than what I had expected. A lone number one stood proudly above her, beaming with pride that it was the number above the Princess' royal noggin. "How have things been?"
"A mighty spell strange, I reckon," I answered.
"My student tells me you can see time," she said bluntly. She might as well have smacked me with a canoe paddle.
"I reckon so," I replied, keeping it percussive.
"Sixty-three for Rarity, sixty-eight for both Twilight and Fluttershy, sixty for Rainbow Dash, and seventy for Pinkamena Diane Pie," she recited. "Assuming I remember correctly."
I looked around. "Looks about right."
"But what of your own?" she asked, grinning smugly as though she knew the answer already.
"I have no number," I admit. Everypony in the room gasped, save for the Princess, who's smile had only grown like a troll that had stabbed a pony in the hoof as they passed over the troll's bridge.
"Wh-"
I cut her off, continuing, "I have no number, because of the task I now hold. This accursed blessin' I now bear does not allow me to have one because I am willingly puttin' myself in immediate life-treatenin' danger at every opportunity. I have no number because my number changes too much."
"Very good, but there is more," she chuckled teasingly. I couldn't help but think of her as a troll, laughing as it stabbed innocent passersby. The mental nickname Trollestia came to mind, eliciting a muffled chortle from me. "Tell me, Applejack. What is my number?"
"Yer number hasn't budged, yer highness," I started. "It's a one."
"And why, do you think, has it not moved like everypony else's?"
"Because ye'r immune to death by natural causes," I answered simply. "Alicorns don't die of old age. But that don't make ya exempt from Death."
"Bravo."
"Not hard to follow," I chortled. The questions were too obvious. "Might I ask why ye'r here, Princess? Princesses don't visit Ponyville without some sort of business."
"Blunt, as always," Trollestia laughed. I smirked as she did so. "I've heard that the numbers have been wearing on your mental health. I can make the numbers disappear."
I pondered it for a moment, wondering who had told Celestia that. I had only complained of the numbers being a mild nuisance to one pony here. "Hell no."
Rarity nearly fainted from my 'unbecoming' behavior and language in use towards a princess, while Twilight's eyes caught fire, her mane and tail threatening to follow suit. The rest of my friends simply gasped like Pinkie when she meets a new pony.
"I may find it a mild nuisance to see how much time everypony has left, but I can do so much good with it. I can, nay, I have saved lives with this. I am no Hero, but I know my place here. I shall keep my sight the way it is now, and deal with the consequences when they come," I near growled. I was irked by the implication that I didn't want this. Sure, at the moment I got it, I didn't. I was damn near Pinkamena-level cuckoo. But now that I had actually been able to do something with it, I wanted to keep this... Sight of mine. I wanted to be able to protect ponies.
Deep down inside, I wanted to be a Hero.
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And I foresee Celestia declaring how proud she is of AJ at the start of the next chapter...
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Currently in progress, and you'll have to wait and see.
<3 DarqFox
Well that was fast.
Glad there's more.
2388177
There shall be blunt-as-all-hell TwiShy in this upcoming chapter. WARNING! Incoming Romance tag in next update.
<3 DarqFox
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Yes.
Oh, love your avatar. It's adorable. I'm almost jealous. But I am the Butterfly Dragon. I win.
<3 DarqFox
2388266
TwiShy > Butterfly Dragon
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The Butterfly Dragon IS TwiShy. You read and faved it, remember?
<3 DarqFox
Meh, the trollestia bit feels a bit unnecessary. Other than that, very interesting and the prospect of TwiShy makes it even better!
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I made the troll-bridge comparison, and my mind continued without me knowing. Perhaps it was, but now that I see it, it's mildly amusing. Gave myself a good chuckle.
<3 DarqFox
This fic is going to change directions pretty quickly. I recommend holding on to thine undergarments.
this is what I thought of when I read "I wanted to be a Hero."
So where is the line between helpful exercise and harmful work?