Ticking Down
“Thank you so much for the carrots! They’re always Angel’s favorite.”
Fluttershy scooped a bundle of fresh carrots into her open saddlebag and closed it with a wing. The carrots at Golden Harvest’s stall practically glowed in the reddening light of the setting sun. It was almost time for the Ponyville market to close down, and Fluttershy had just finished up the last of her late errands. She hoped carrying her groceries back to her cottage wouldn’t ruin the lovely massage she’d received during her spa date with Rarity. She’d certainly needed it after helping Harry move his things to a new den. Who knew that bears could have so many things of sentimental value they’d want to take with them?
Golden Harvest collected Fluttershy’s bits and dropped them into her strongbox. “Anything for the little guy, Fluttershy,” she said. “He earns me steady business from at least one paying customer.”
“He certainly knows who grows the best carrots!”
“Then he’s a smart bunny, too.” Golden pushed a few more carrots across the stall to Fluttershy. “Here, take these for yourself. I need to get rid of the extras, and you look like you could use a snack.”
“Oh! Thank you,” Fluttershy said. The loose carrots made their way into her other saddlebag, save for one that she held in her wing. One crunchy bite off of the end filled her mouth with flavor, and she hummed in delight. “They’re delicious!”
“Glad you think so!” Golden started collecting the few remaining carrots she had and set them off to the side. “Well, I better get things packed up here. See you soon!”
“Mmhmm!” Fluttershy agreed between mouthfuls of carrot. “Take care!”
With the carrots safely tucked away and the rest of her errands taken care of, Fluttershy started walking through town and back to her cottage. The restaurants were beginning to fill as the dinner hour drew near, and most of the shops were empty, leaving the shopkeepers to clean up and lock things down for the night. Even the renovation crew working on repairing the outside of the town hall was getting ready to grab a bite to eat. As she approached, she saw a pair of unicorns hoisting up a stack of wooden boards and other building materials using a simple crane and tying the ropes off to keep everything on hoof for later, hanging right near the area they were working on.
She felt a pang of guilt about the whole situation, really. It seemed like poor Ponyville was always repairing from something involving her and her friends. She could hardly imagine how the town stayed afloat. Maybe they got a tax write off or financial assistance from the Princesses. Property taxes certainly hadn’t raised much since Twilight came to town years ago.
“Fluttershy! Look out!”
Before Fluttershy even had time to remember whose voice that was, a feathery weight slammed into her from behind and sent her rolling forward. The two ponies rolled across the dirt road in a tangle of limbs and feathers before coming to a stop several feet away. Moments later, the sound of dozens of wooden boards slamming into the ground in a splintery mess made its way to Fluttershy’s ears.
When the world stopped spinning, Fluttershy sat up and shook some of the dizziness out of her head. She saw Blossomforth stand up next to her, but then she gasped when she saw the pile of boards lying in a scattered heap where she’d been standing moments before. Up ahead, two unicorns looked down past the swinging crane pallet, where a broken rope dangled in the air. “Is everypony alright?”
“Y-Yes, I’m fine,” Fluttershy stammered, still dazed and confused as to what had just happened. She saw Blossomforth stretch both her wings and nod with approval, so she added, “We’re all fine.”
The unicorns breathed a sigh of relief. “Sweet Celestia, what a relief. The crane broke as we were fixing it down. That could’ve been disastrous.” The one smiled and wiped his brow. “Sorry about that, Fluttershy.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. No harm done.” Then she turned to Blossomforth. “You saved my life! Thank you!”
Blossomforth smiled. “It was—”
Her words abruptly died in her mouth. She began to give Fluttershy a curious look, or rather, the space above her head a curious look. Raising an eyebrow, Fluttershy tilted her head back and looked for anything above her, but didn’t see anything at all. When she turned back to Blossomforth, the other mare was looking at the other ponies around her, her mouth agape.
“Umm, Blossomforth?” she asked, earning the pegasus’ attention along with a little jump. “Is everything alright?”
Blossomforth’s mouth moved as she tried several times to form words, but in the end, she roughly shook her head from side to side and smiled. “Yeah, no, don’t worry. Just… banged my head on the ground a bit.” She shrugged. “It’s nothing.”
“How did you know the crane was going to fall on me?” Fluttershy asked. “I didn’t even hear the rope break.”
“Just… reflexes,” Blossomforth said, though Fluttershy could tell she still seemed confused. “I saw it coming and I just… well, acted.” She looked down at Fluttershy’s leg and pointed to a red line trickling through her coat. “You’re bleeding! I’m sorry!”
“Hmm?” Fluttershy looked at the wound on her leg. It was a shallow scrape; she just needed to wash it out. “Oh, that’s nothing. Honestly, I’ve had much worse in tending to the animals. Besides, I’ll take a little cut over becoming a pony pancake any day.”
Blossomforth nodded, though her eyes kept shifting back to that space above Fluttershy’s head. “That’s good,” she said, all too quickly. “I’m… going to get back home. I’ve got… things to do.”
She frantically flapped her wings and took off, only leaving a single twirling feather behind. Fluttershy blinked and watched her disappear over the rooftops. “…How odd,” she murmured to herself, picking up her saddlebags again. Unfortunately, some of the carrots had broken when Blossomforth tackled her, and she sighed and closed the bags. Hopefully Angel would understand. She’d make it up to him tomorrow, somehow.
This time, as she re-embarked on her way back home, she made sure to keep watch for any falling objects that might just have her head as a target.
-----
Fluttershy woke up the next morning just before the birds started singing. They’d be looking for their breakfast—all of her animals would be—and she needed to get it ready. But it wasn’t so bad, despite the early hour. The minutes before dawn were always the clearest and most serene part of any day.
Angel stirred from his own burrow as Fluttershy started moving around her cottage. The little white rabbit groggily hopped across the floor to stand by Fluttershy’s leg, then rested his forehead against it. Fluttershy gently rubbed his head and pulled a pot of warm brew out of the coffeemaker. “Good morning, Angel Bunny,” she said, singing his name with an amount of cheery energy completely at odds with the yawning rabbit. She poured a mug of coffee for herself, then set aside a few drops in a thimble and held it up to Angel. “I don’t know how you can stand black coffee,” she said, watching as the bunny sipped out of the thimble. “I find it much too strong for me, personally.”
True to her words, Fluttershy poured cream and sugar into her mug until it took on a creamy brown appearance. She held the mug beneath her nose for a few moments, inhaling the delightful aroma of roasted coffee beans, before taking a few sips. The coffee would help keep her going at least until lunch, where the energy and excitement of facing a new day had finally been worn out of her by all she had to do for her animals.
Speaking of which, the animals all around her house started congregating in the kitchen, rubbing at sleepy eyes. “Good morning!” Fluttershy sang to all of them as they queued up for their morning meal, and Fluttershy expertly dispensed each animal their favorite and sent them off to go find someplace to eat and wake up. This took the better part of fifteen minutes, especially since she had to feed all the herbivores first and get them happily taken care of before she could invite the predators in and give them their somewhat meatier meals. It wouldn’t do to feed the snakes their morning mouse while the mice were still in the room waiting to be fed.
She heard the telltale sounds of her usual mailmare delivering the morning mail and packages, so she took her coffee in one wing and walked to the door to greet her. The gray mare with the misaligned eyes never really said much, but Fluttershy knew that her morning greetings always helped brighten the mare’s day. “Good morning, Derpy!” she said as she opened the door. How are you—?”
Her coffee nearly slipped off of her wing, but she caught it at the last moment. Fluttershy blinked, rubbed her eyes, and blinked again. Was she just imagining that, or…?
Derpy gave Fluttershy a cheery nod, and Fluttershy realized that it moved along with the mare’s head. It was transparent to some extent, but it stood out as clear as day. And what was more than that, it was ticking, counting. She tried shaking her head and pinching herself to see if it was still there, but when it didn’t disappear, Fluttershy just tried to read the numbers instead.
57:6:22:13:48:24.07
It looked like a timer, oddly enough, and it counted down. The numbers blurring by on the farthest right had to be fractions of a second, so the next number over had to be seconds, then minutes, and so on. Fluttershy counted out all the columns until she ended with years. Fifty-seven years? What was significant about that time fifty-seven years from now? And why was it hovering over Derpy’s head?
Derpy cocked her head. “Are you alright, Fluttershy?” she asked in that sweet, innocent voice of hers. “You seem pale.”
Fluttershy looked this way and that. None of her animals had numbers over their heads, and she hadn’t seen one over her own head when she brushed her mane that morning. “Umm… is there something… above your head, Derpy?” Fluttershy asked.
The gray pegasus craned her head back as far as it would go and scrutinized the air above her. After a moment, she shrugged. “I don’t see anything,” she said. “Do you?”
“I see…” Fluttershy hesitated. If Derpy couldn’t see it, then it probably wasn’t worth bothering her about it. She shook her head. “Never mind. It, um, must’ve been a trick of the light.”
The mailmare smiled after a moment and adjusted her bag full of parcels. “Ok! Have a good morning!” And then she was off.
Fluttershy weakly waved as she left, taking her numbers with her. “I… I’ll try,” she murmured. But she already knew her hopes for a peaceful morning had been dashed by that strange sight.
She collected her mail and stepped inside, dumping it on the table as soon as she shut the door behind her. Maybe she imagined it? Perhaps she didn’t get as much sleep as she thought last night. She had been tossing and turning quite a bit as her near-death experience kept playing over and over again in her mind. Maybe she was just tired, and she was seeing things.
Angel saw she wasn’t her usual self, so the bunny came bounding over. He tugged on Fluttershy’s hoof and chattered, but Fluttershy sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know, Angel. I thought I saw something. I don’t know how to explain it.”
That wasn’t exactly true; it was very easy to explain. Derpy had a countdown above her head. Fifty-seven years, six months, twenty-two days and… well, she forgot the rest, but it didn’t matter. What did that mean?
She stood up and made her way to the bathroom. A yellow and pink mare greeted her in the mirror, but she didn’t see anything odd about it. There weren’t any numbers, ticking or otherwise. But it felt too real for her to have imagined it. So what was going on?
If she’d learned anything from Twilight, it’s that she needed to collect more data. A trip to Ponyville would help her with that. If she didn’t see any numbers, then she must be going crazy. Then again, if she did see more numbers, she was probably going crazy either way. It wasn’t much of a winning situation, but she had to figure out just what she’d seen.
“I’m going to take a walk,” she announced to her animals as she stepped out of the bathroom. “Please do behave. I should be back in an hour.”
The critters all gave her acknowledging chirps, squeaks, hisses, growls, and so on. Satisfied that they had everything they needed for the next short bit, Fluttershy opened the door and embarked on the walk into town.
The entire time, she felt her stomach tensing with apprehension. She didn’t know why she felt so nervous about it, but she just was. It was something strange and most likely magical, and those were two things Fluttershy was never fond of. They tended to lead to adventures and situations outside of the comfort of her home. Honestly, she just hoped that she was going insane. At least being locked up in a ward meant she wouldn’t have to go anywhere or do anything.
Ponyville was still largely asleep by the time she made it to the edge of the town. Most of the lights in the buildings were out, but a few shone through closed curtains. With sunrise passing just a few minutes ago, Fluttershy expected the town to become busy within the hour. So, without anything else to do, she found a bench near the town square and waited.
She didn’t have to wait long. Almost within minutes, the first door opened. Fluttershy leaned forward on her seat to get a better look at the pony emerging from his house—and fell off it when she saw a line of yellow numbers above his head.
He turned toward her and raised an eyebrow. “Fluttershy? Are you alright?”
No, I’m not alright, I’m simply losing my mind, Fluttershy wanted to say. Instead, she chose to settle with an awkward smile. “Yes, I’m… very fine,” she said, brushing some of the dust off her coat. “Good morning, Davenport, by the way.”
“Good morning to you, too,” Davenport said, walking closer. As he closed the distance, Fluttershy could start to make out his set of numbers: 42:2:19:6:53:20.9. They were an entirely different set from the ones over Derpy’s head, though they still counted down a second at a time. What did they mean?
“Davenport?” Fluttershy cautiously began. “You don’t see anything over my head… do you?”
Davenport raised an eyebrow. “I, uh, no? Am I supposed to?”
“There aren’t numbers or anything, are there?”
The stallion blinked and gasped in understanding. “Oh! Yeah, now I see them.”
“Really?” Fluttershy shook her head in surprise. “What do they say?”
“Say? Um, ‘Dedicated in 853 AoS by the Ponyville Town Ordinance Board.’”
Fluttershy blinked, then looked over her head. “Oh,” she said, reading the dedication carved into a block in the wall of the town hall. “That wasn’t exactly what I meant…”
Now Davenport started frowning. “Then I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Fluttershy,” he said. “I don’t see anything else.”
“That’s fine,” Fluttershy said, trying to pinch off the conversation before it got even more awkward. “Forget I said anything.”
“I’ll… do that,” Davenport said. He coughed into his hoof and glanced around the town square. “I’ve got some business to take care of before I open for the day. It was, uh, good talking to you. Take care!”
“I’ll try to,” Fluttershy murmured as he walked away. She sighed and put her head in her hooves. Great, maybe she was going insane. But who would take care of her animals if she ended up locked in a loony home?
More ponies started to fill up the streets of Ponyville, each one with a little string of numbers over their heads, and each one equally oblivious to them. Fluttershy was still left scratching her head to figure out where they came from and what they meant. But it was all so overwhelming she didn’t know where to start.
But she had to start somewhere, and the answer likely wasn’t going to come to her if she just sat around all day. With that in mind, she left the bench behind and started walking through the markets before they got too busy for the day. That’d be her best bet to see as many of these numbers as she could and try to make sense of them all.
After twenty minutes of walking around, she started picking up on some patterns. First off, every single pony had a timer over their head, but none of the animals did. Second, no two timers were ever the same. They weren’t even synced to the same watch, as it were; she could see two ponies at the cabbage stall with two different times that counted seconds out of sync with each other. But only when she started paying attention to the years space did she finally get an inkling as to what it all meant.
She decided to check her hypothesis by meandering to the schoolhouse and watching the children as they piled in for another day of lessons. She noticed that most of the adults had years ranging anywhere from forty to eighty, with a few exceptions that were usually much lower as opposed to much higher. But as she waited a little ways from the schoolhouse, she saw that the children had much bigger numbers. Almost all of them were in the eighties and nineties, while their parents’ were fifties and sixties. It seemed like the younger ponies had longer timers than their parents—but why?
“Hiya, Fluttershy!” It was Apple Bloom’s voice, and Fluttershy turned to see the Crusaders trotting up to her. She quickly read the years off of their heads: eighty-two for Sweetie Belle, sixty-one for Scootaloo, and a whopping ninety-nine for Apple Bloom. The fillies came to a stop in front of her and smiled. “What are you doing here? You come to listen to Granny’s stories, too?”
“Granny Smith is telling stories?” Fluttershy asked. Her eyes spied the elderly green matron of the Apple family hobbling her way along the dirt road, numbers just barely visible at this distance. If she squinted, maybe she could make them out…
“Yeah!” Apple Bloom continued. “She’s going to tell the class all about what it was like starting the orchard, and all the hard work and all she had to put into it, and how we keep the apples so fresh and juicy, and—um, Fluttershy? What’s wrong?”
Fluttershy felt Apple Bloom tug on her leg, tearing her attention away from Granny Smith. “Oh! Um, sorry, I was just thinking.” She furrowed her brow. “How old is your granny again?”
Apple Bloom made a face as she tried to dig up long-forgotten facts; even Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo glanced at each other in confusion. “Granny doesn’t really talk about it. She says that age is just a number. But Applejack said that she’s over a hundred and twenty! Isn’t that awesome?”
“Yeah, but that’s ‘cause earth ponies live longer,” Scootaloo said. “Rainbow Dash says that she once met a pony who was a hundred and fifty during a show for the Wonderbolts! Can you believe that?”
“Did she actually say who this pony was?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Are you calling her a liar?”
“Rarity says that Rainbow’s always full of hot air and that she’d make a better balloon than the one Twilight keeps around whenever they need to travel.”
“Yeah? Well, that’s nonsense! I’m insulted on Rainbow’s behalf!”
“Ehhh? What’s all this ruckus about?” Granny Smith came hobbling over, interrupting the young fillies’ argument. “Y’all arguing about who gets to ask ol’ Granny the first question, hmm?”
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle glared at each other. “No…” they both said.
“Well that’s a shame. That’s a highly valued prize, that one there is.” She turned to Fluttershy, who was staring into space above her head. “Well, how do ya do, Fluttershy? Fancy running into you here, you know how I mean?”
“Oh, yes, of course, Granny Smith,” Fluttershy said, smiling for the elderly mare. “I just happened to be walking by when I ran into Apple Bloom and her friends. She, um, said that you were going to tell the foals stories?”
“Reckon I s’pose I am, assuming I don’t get too tired,” she said with a sheltered wink meant only for Fluttershy. “You’re more than welcome to take a listen, were you to be so inclined.”
Fluttershy held up a hoof. “I’m sorry, Granny, I’d love to but I’m… simply too busy. Errands to run and all that.” She nervously laughed and plastered on a fake, uneasy smile.
Granny Smith shrugged and started walking again. “Well, best of luck with that, young’un. You and your friends should all stop by sometime, it’s been far too long since we fixed y’all up something good at the farm.”
“I’ll talk to them about it sometime,” Fluttershy said, stepping aside so Granny could pass. “Have a good time at the schoolhouse!” she added.
“I certainly intend on it,” Granny called out over her shoulder. Then she redirected her attention to the Crusaders. “Come along now, foals, it wouldn’t do to be late for school. And ya ain’t gonna blame this one on my knees!”
Fluttershy watched them go, the three fillies practically skipping and jumping around the elderly mare. Her eyes found themselves glued to the number over Granny Smith’s head, watching each precious second tick down.
3:1:14:0:7:49.19
Three years and some change. And when compared against the ninety-nine floating above Apple Bloom’s head, everything clicked into place.
Fluttershy hurried along the road, suddenly feeling quite ill and uneasy with her new revelation.
-----
How do you look at somepony when you can very clearly see the exact second they’ll die? The very moment their existence ends and their soul moves on?
Fluttershy watched the waitress walk away from her table after taking her order. That poor mare didn’t know it yet, but Fluttershy could see that she’d die in exactly forty-two years, three months, twenty-eight days, six hours, fifty-one minutes and thirty… two seconds from now. She didn’t know how or why, but that’s what the numbers said. And now that she was certain she knew what they were, they scared her. Nopony should have access to that kind of knowledge.
She stared at the cup of water between her hooves. Granny Smith would die in three years, but Apple Bloom would live for nearly another hundred. Scootaloo would die thirty-eight years before Apple Bloom did. Fluttershy did some quick math; that’d barely put Scootaloo in her seventies. But how could she look at the three Crusaders ever again when she knew exactly in what order and when each of them would die?
She looked around the little café, which was just beginning to fill up with ponies looking to pick up an early lunch. Scratch that; how could she live with herself if she had to see those damned numbers over everypony’s heads for the rest of her life?
Her reflection sighed at her in her glass of water. This whole situation was so confusing. Why didn’t she have a number over her own head? Why didn’t Angel or any of her animals have numbers either? Why was it only ponies? Was it only ponies? Maybe she could go check on Zecora, but she didn’t want to see a friend’s number like that. What if it was really short? How would she react then?
Sighing, Fluttershy shook her glass so she wouldn’t have to stare at her reflection any longer. Perhaps it was for the best that she couldn’t see her own number. That knowledge would have haunted her until the second her timer ran out.
“Hey, Fluttershy!”
Fluttershy jolted, nearly spilling her water. Without any warning, Rainbow Dash practically crashed out of the sky and into the chair across from her. The Wonderbolt was bright-eyed and beaming despite having to wear the organization’s formal military blues for the time being. Fluttershy knew how much Rainbow hated wearing them; she was probably just excited to get out of them for the airshow they’d be putting on in a few hours.
Fluttershy kept her eyes trained downwards; the last thing she needed to do was look above her first and best friend’s head and see her numbers. “Oh, hello, Rainbow,” she said, feeling more uncomfortable by the second. She focused on Rainbow’s hooves just for some part of her friend to anchor her eyes to that wasn’t her face. “How are things going? Are you and the Wonderbolts all ready for the airshow today?”
“Just about!” Rainbow exclaimed. Her hooves crossed one another; Fluttershy noted that her fetlocks had been trimmed recently, probably mandated by the Wonderbolts in preparation for a public appearance. “I just got back from Cloudsdale to place the order for the static thunderheads we needed for the show. They were really busy with a storm they were getting set to put together over Fillydelphia tomorrow, kind of a last-minute rush sort of job. I was lucky to squeak our order in!” She sighed, and Fluttershy thought she could see her muzzle shaking from side to side through her pink bangs. “That really should’ve been taken care of earlier, but it wasn’t my fault. Not this time, at least.”
“At least you got it done on time,” Fluttershy said.
“Yeah. Spitfire would’ve ripped some heads off otherwise, that’s for sure.” Blue hooves tapped on the table. “You alright, Fluttershy? Is something wrong?”
Fluttershy held up a hoof but kept her eyes down. “No, it’s nothing, Rainbow. I’m fine.”
“Are you sure about that? You won’t even look at me.” The Wonderbolt shifted slightly, and Fluttershy recoiled when she saw Rainbow lowering her head. “What? Did I do something? I’m sorry about it, whatever it is.”
“No, it’s not that, it’s just—”
“Hi, Rainbow Dash! What can I get for you?”
The waitress’ reappearance surprised Fluttershy; she hadn’t heard the mare coming. Her eyes lifted up without thinking, and too late she remembered why she was keeping them down. She caught a glimpse of a timer above Rainbow’s head, but she tore her eyes away before she could really comprehend what she saw. But then she froze; was she just imagining it, or did Rainbow’s numbers seem rather… still?
“Oh, uh, daffodil sandwich and some water would be awesome,” Rainbow said, perhaps not noticing Fluttershy’s reaction. “And do you still have those bowls of barley and wheat? Those things are great to snack on before a show.”
Fluttershy fidgeted in her seat while Rainbow placed her order. Were her eyes messing with her, or did she just not see it correctly? Did she even look at all? She didn’t know what to do. She knew if she looked, there wasn’t any coming back from that. But if she’d really seen what she thought she’d seen, then she needed to double-check to make sure. And loathe as she was to admit it, it wasn’t like she could avoid looking at her friends forever, right? Who knew how long it’d take before she could figure out exactly why she could see these numbers... are more importantly, how to make her stop seeing them.
In the end, she couldn’t help herself. Her eyes drifted first to Rainbow’s face, then to the ticking numbers above Rainbow’s head.
Her breath caught in her throat as she read them off one by one.
0:0:0:3:01:51.07
Three hours. Three hours. Fluttershy blinked and rubbed her eyes, willing herself to be wrong. There was no way that Rainbow only had three hours left. Something wasn’t right. Three hours? What was going to happen in three hours? It wasn’t like Rainbow was going to keel over from a heart attack or something—or so Fluttershy hoped at least.
The waitress walked away, and Rainbow swung her eyes back to Fluttershy. A concerned eyebrow dropped over one of them. “Are you sure you’re alright, Flutters? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” A snicker. “Or a big dragon. There isn’t one standing right behind me, is there?”
Fluttershy shook her head perhaps a little too hard. “No!” she exclaimed, but even that single word was nearly too much for her racing mind. Three hours? “I’m… doing… okay!” She tried to sip from her water but ended up spilling a bunch on her coat. Hurriedly brushing it away, she set the sloshing cup back down on the table and leaned in. “How are you feeling? You don’t feel sick or anything, do you?”
Rainbow blinked and inched backwards. “Uh… no?”
“Nothing strange with your heart? Skipped beats, chest pain, anything like that?”
“No!” Rainbow said, frowning at Fluttershy. “Seriously, Flutters, what’s up with you? Something’s up, and don’t lie to me and say there isn’t!”
A cold sweat broke out across Fluttershy’s scalp, and not just because Rainbow was onto her. The timer above her head had just dropped below three hours. “I just… have a strange feeling,” she said. “When is the show again? This is important.”
“It’s in like…” She looked around until she spotted a clock on a nearby building. “Two hours. I won’t be taking to the skies for about three. Why? Got plans?”
“Oh! Um, no, not at all.” Her brain spun and started jamming desperate ideas together before she could really stop it. “I-I mean, yes, I did, but I didn’t know if they’d be during the same time as the show or not. And… a-and they are!” She leaned across the table and placed her hooves on Rainbow’s; she suddenly had a feeling that whatever might kill Rainbow was going to happen during the airshow. “And I really, really need your help with them! Please, it’s super important!”
“Super important?” Rainbow pulled her hooves free and tucked them safely out of reach. “If it’s super important, why didn’t you tell me about it earlier? I can’t just drop my spot in the airshow only a few hours before we fly!”
Fluttershy felt her cheeks burning. “B-But—!”
“What is it that’s super important, anyway?” Rainbow asked. “If you really need somepony’s help, ask Pinkie Pie or something. She’s always ready to help!”
“N-No, Pinkie wouldn’t work, I need you! It’s a pegasus thing!”
Rainbow waved her hoof. “Go ask somepony else with wings in town. I’m sure they’ll be willing to help!”
“But—!”
“But nothing, Flutters,” Rainbow insisted. Fluttershy shrank back, and she sighed and put her hooves on the table. “Look, maybe if you’d told me about this earlier, I could’ve helped out, but I’m busy, Fluttershy. If I ditch an airshow right before we go live, then I’m off the team, you understand? That’s my life’s dream just gone! I know I’m always willing to bend over backwards for you and the girls, but not when I have to choose between you and the Wonderbolts, especially when I already have obligations to them, and especially when you won’t tell me what’s going on that’s so friggin’ important!”
“I just… I-I…” Fluttershy found her throat seizing up under Rainbow’s glare. Panicking, she did the only thing she could do, what her body urged her to do. She stood up so fast she knocked over her chair and fled, leaving a shocked and confused Rainbow Dash behind her.
Rainbow sighed and shook her head as Fluttershy disappeared into the crowd. “Sometimes I don’t get that mare...”
-----
Fluttershy found herself sitting by the river nearly an hour later. Her cheeks were matted with moisture, and her lips trembled every few seconds. After she fled from Rainbow Dash, she’d simply found someplace to be alone and cry. It wasn’t from any sort of misery or sadness so much as it was just stress. Her best friend had three—two hours to live, and Fluttershy didn’t know why. Neither did she know how to stop it. What could she even say to Rainbow? That she suddenly started seeing glowing numbers floating over everypony’s head and hers say that she’s going to die in a few hours? Who would ever believe that? The whole thing was absurd, but Fluttershy knew in her gut that it wasn’t made up. She just didn’t know why she had this power—this curse—and what she was going to do about it.
She wiped at her damp cheeks and sniffled a few times. She’d wasted too much time crying and recovering from her nervous breakdown. What she really needed now was information. Rainbow only had two hours left; why, Fluttershy didn’t know, but that didn’t matter just now. But the pegasus figured if she understood why she was seeing these numbers, then she’d be able to react more appropriately. After all, there was a slight chance that they weren’t counting down to a pony’s death, even if all evidence pointed to the contrary. All she knew was that she didn’t have a way to justify what she would do if she ever acted on what she saw, and if she couldn’t justify interfering with the airshow in some way, then that was just a whole slew of problems waiting to be opened. She was determined not to be the reason Rainbow got kicked out of the Wonderbolts; she didn’t think Rainbow would ever forgive her even if she tried to explain why without evidence.
But what was she going to do? She couldn’t ask Twilight or Starlight, the two ponies who might know something about what was happening. They were both out of town on important business in Canterlot, and they’d taken Spike with them. The castle was locked up for the time being, and even though Fluttershy had a key, she knew she wouldn’t be able to find what she was looking for in an hour or two. By the time she did, it already would’ve been too late to save Rainbow from whatever was going to happen to her. So who could she ask instead?
Her mind drifted back to the night prior, replaying the scene where she almost died. That was the only thing odd about yesterday, and there had to be some reason that she picked up this ability overnight. She realized that she owed everything to Blossomforth; if it wasn’t for the mare’s quick thinking, she wouldn’t be here right now. It was a funny thought to think about; if she could see her timer now, there wouldn’t be any way to tell just how close she came to reaching zero last night.
…Or was that even true in the first place?
Fluttershy thought about it for a moment. Rainbow’s timer was running out, but here she was, trying to think of a way to save her friend. If she saved Rainbow, then wouldn’t her timer fill up again? The point being, her life could be ticking down to zero, but if somepony knew and did something about it, it could be refreshed.
She turned that thought over again and came to a realization: if somepony knew.
…Did Blossomforth know?
Blossomforth’s actions immediately after she saved her came back to her mind. The mare had seemed confused and kept looking at a space above Fluttershy’s head. Fluttershy hadn’t thought much of it at the time other than that it was odd, but given all she’d been through today, it started to make sense. Somehow, Blossomforth could see the timers just like she could. She must’ve seen Fluttershy’s timer nearly reach zero before she acted. Fluttershy shivered; she couldn’t imagine knowing that the clock over her head was about to run out and something would snuff her out. But it had apparently happened yesterday, and thanks to Blossomforth, she’d gotten a new lease on life.
She stood up and scanned the horizon for the few cloud houses that drifted around Ponyville. Blossomforth wasn’t really a pony that Fluttershy interacted with all that much, so it took her a moment to remember which one belonged to the off-white mare. But when she did, she wasted no time taking to the air and flying over towards it. If Blossomforth knew anything about what Fluttershy was going through, then Fluttershy needed to hear it.
Rainbow’s life could very well be hanging in the balance.
-----
Blossomforth lived in one of the townhouses a bunch of pegasus families had put together some time ago for those who wanted to stay near Ponyville but live in the sky. They were modest houses—by pegasus standards. Without limitations like gravity and load-bearing strength, even the simplest cloud home could sprawl and climb several stories. A cloud home that wasn’t at least two stories tall was considered small. A lack of vertical room was considered a sign of laziness or poverty; there were always more clouds, and if you couldn’t put a second floor on your house, then that blame fell on you. Even Fluttershy had built her cottage with two stories in mind, despite it being more expensive on the ground. Her body just didn’t want her to live in two dimensions.
The house she stopped at was four stories tall, though it wasn’t all that wide, jammed between two other cloud houses that shared walls to cut down on cost and material. The front porch offered a nice view of Ponyville’s south side and the open fields that lied beyond it. From there, Fluttershy could see the tents pitched in the grass and the cloud loops and pillars that had been brought down for the airshow later that afternoon. A growing crowd colored the green landscape in a prismatic splash, and Fluttershy once more felt a sense of urgency. Every minute she wasted here was another minute Rainbow lost.
She knocked on the door and stepped back. A voice yelled “Coming!” from somewhere inside, and a moment later the door popped open. It wasn’t Blossomforth, but her roommate, Cloud Kicker. The purple mare looked Fluttershy up and down with surprise. “Fluttershy? What are you doing here?”
“Hello, Cloud Kicker,” Fluttershy said, smiling to hide her anxiety and impatience. She could see the ticking numbers over Cloud Kicker’s head, but she stubbornly refused to read them, instead focusing on the mare’s face. “I’m here to talk to Blossomforth. I, um, wanted to thank her for what happened at the market yesterday.”
“I heard about that! You’re lucky, girl!” Cloud Kicker held the door open for Fluttershy and moved to the side. “Come in! Blossomforth’s upstairs doing some yoga stuff.”
Fluttershy graciously nodded and stepped inside, skirting around the staircase and entering the kitchen. Cloud Kicker shut the door behind her and flew halfway up the stairs. “Yo, Bloss! Fluttershy’s here to see you!” Without waiting for an affirmation, Cloud fluttered back down the stairs and glided into the kitchen. “Can I get you anything to drink? Water, tea, beer? Got all three in the fridge.”
“Some iced tea would be fine, thank you,” Fluttershy said, taking a seat at the table. The line of yellow numbers over Cloud Kicker’s head glided across her vision as the mare went to the fridge. She caught a glimpse of a thirty-something in the leftmost place before she remembered to stop reading it. But even just that quick glimpse told her Cloud was going to die in her late fifties or early sixties.
Fluttershy hated this curse.
While Cloud was digging through the fridge, Blossomforth glided down the stairs. “Oh, Fluttershy,” she said, stretching her wings once before folding them. Fluttershy saw how her eyes darted to the space above her head before she shook herself and blinked a few times. “Good to see you. How are you doing?”
She sat down across from Fluttershy. The yellow mare could see that she still looked a little shaken up about something, almost like she was lost. “I’m doing… okay,” Fluttershy said, momentarily thanking Cloud Kicker when she placed a glass of iced tea in front of her. “Today has been a strange day.”
It was almost impossible to talk to Blossomforth without her eyes drifting toward the numbers over the mare’s head. A healthy fifty-two and change greeted her, steadily counting down. Blossomforth nodded, making the numbers over her head bob. “I get what you mean. It’s been weird for me, too.”
Cloud Kicker wandered past them and back out into the hallway, pointing a wing up the stairs. “I’ll be upstairs if you girls need me for anything. Got some reading to catch up on.”
“Okay,” Fluttershy said. “Thanks again for the tea!”
Cloud dismissively waved a wing and ascended the stairs. When she disappeared from sight and earshot, Blossomforth shook her head. “Her ‘reading’ has a lot more pictures and a lot more tail in it than you’d think.”
“Oh.” Fluttershy took a sip of her tea to fill in the uncomfortable silence. That wasn’t really something she needed to know. Clearing her throat, she put the tea off to the side. “Thanks for saving my life yesterday.”
Blossomforth waved her hoof. “It was nothing. I just saw what was coming and reacted.”
“How long were you waiting for it to happen?”
The question caught Blossomforth off guard. “Waiting for it to happen? What do you mean? It wasn’t like I was trying to set you up or anyth—!”
“Oh, no, sorry, not like that,” Fluttershy said. “It’s just… well, you’re staring a lot at the space above my head.” Blossomforth blinked and froze; that was all the confirmation Fluttershy needed to know her hunch was right. “Did you happen to see anything right before it happened? Numbers, maybe? A countdown?”
Blossomforth swallowed hard. “Y-You can see it, too?”
“Only since this morning,” Fluttershy said. “It’s… scary.”
“Are there… numbers over my head, too?”
Fluttershy nodded. “Yeah, it says—”
“Don’t tell me,” Blossomforth said, holding up a hoof. “That’s not something I want to know.”
“Okay. Sorry.” Fluttershy fidgeted with her tea, pushing it back and forth between her hooves. “But you saw mine almost hit zero yesterday, didn’t you?”
Blossomforth nodded. “Yeah. I’d noticed it a few days earlier when we crossed paths in the market. You only had two days left. So I made sure I knew where you were yesterday as time ran out. As soon as I saw you only had ten seconds left and I saw where you were walking, I knew what was going to happen, so I got you out of the way.”
“Oh, well, thank you for that,” Fluttershy said. “And now?”
“Now, what?”
“Did my timer reset?”
The off-white mare fidgeted in her seat. “I don’t know,” she said.
Fluttershy blinked. “You don’t know?”
“As soon as I saved you, the numbers disappeared.” Blossomforth looked at the space above Fluttershy’s head to check yet again that her eyes weren’t deceiving her. “All of them. Off of everypony. Everything’s back to normal now for me. I guess it moved to you.”
“Really?” Fluttershy leaned back in her chair. “It’s transmissible? How long did you have it?”
“Two years,” Blossomforth said. “I nearly got hit by a runaway carriage when me and Cloud were on vacation in Manehattan two years ago. Some stallion knocked me out of the way at the last moment. He said he ‘just knew’ that that carriage was going to come careening around the corner and nearly flatten me. If it weren’t for him I’d be dead.” She shrugged her wings. “The next morning I started seeing numbers. I didn’t understand what it meant until I was there when my Nan died in the hospital a month later. Her timer reached zero, and that was the second she died.”
Fluttershy tapped her hooves together. “That couldn’t have been easy. I’m sorry.”
“At least it was peaceful,” Blossomforth said. “But I’ve known the exact moment everypony around me is going to die for two years. Cloud’s going to kick it in thirty-one. My parents in another forty-two and forty-nine for Mom and Dad. It’s not something I really wished I knew.”
Fluttershy nodded in sympathy, though she couldn’t help ask a question for her own curiosity. “What about the princesses or Spike?”
Blossomforth blinked and shrugged. “They were… long. I didn’t really want to count digits. Each of them easily has another thousand years at least. They’ll be around long after you and I are gone.”
“I suppose that’s a relief to hear,” Fluttershy said. She drained her glass of tea in two gulps and set it aside. “Rainbow Dash doesn’t have long left.”
Blossomforth nodded. “I saw that too. But you were the soonest I could see, so I went with you.”
“You, um, didn’t think to warn me about Rainbow?”
The off-white mare looked down. “I… sorta forgot. I could see these numbers for two years and now they’re all gone. I wasn’t really able to think straight at the time. And besides, would you have believed me? I didn’t even know this curse thing could move to others until just now.”
Fluttershy looked down. “No, I don’t suppose I would have.”
“Yeah, exactly.” Blossomforth tapped her hooves together. “Is this about her? Is that why you came to see me?”
“In a sense,” Fluttershy said. “I just wanted to know if there was anything I could do.”
“How long does she have left?”
Fluttershy chewed on her lip. “Under two hours, I think,” she said. “There’s still time.”
Blossomforth nodded. “What’s she doing in two hours?”
“The Wonderbolts are in town. Didn’t you hear?”
The other mare held up her hoof. “No, I mean, yeah, I knew that. But what’s she doing then? Is she flying or signing autographs or what? You’ve got to know what she’s doing to save her.”
Fluttershy nodded. “She said she’d be flying around that time, but I don’t know exactly when. I was going to go over there after this. I tried to convince her to skip the show earlier, but that didn’t work. Maybe I’ll think of something to do while I’m there.”
Blossomforth stretched her wingtip across the table to brush Fluttershy’s shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll do it,” she said. “Rainbow should be lucky that she has a guardian angel like you.”
“I certainly hope so.” Fluttershy swallowed hard. “Otherwise it’ll all be my fault.”
“Don’t think of it that way,” Blossomforth said. “You’ve got a chance to save her life. If you didn’t know this was going to happen, she’d die anyway.”
“I suppose you’re right.” She stood up and smiled sweetly at Blossomforth. “Thanks for all your help. And, um, thanks for saving my life, too.”
“It’s nothing,” Blossomforth said, waving her hoof. “If there’s anything else you need, let me know. Otherwise, I don’t think I should keep you much longer.” The corners of her mouth pinched upwards. “Time’s a-wasting.”
“Speaking of which,” Fluttershy said, bashfully smiling, “do you have a watch I can borrow?”
-----
The Ponyville fairgrounds were in full Wonderbolts fever by the time Fluttershy touched down. Numerous tents all bedecked in blue and yellow covered much of the open space outside of town, and the makeshift streets between them were packed with ponies looking forward to the show. Fluttershy found herself skirting along the edges of the tents to stay out of the way of the hordes of strangers streaming in all directions. She simply couldn’t believe how many ponies had showed up from out of town to catch the performance here. It felt like sleepy Ponyville had doubled in size overnight.
A gust of wind roared through the fairgrounds, sending several tent flaps waving wildly into the street. Fluttershy ducked down and looked up, seeing a pair of fliers in white and blue uniforms roaring up into the sky. She forgot that the airshows weren’t entirely Wonderbolts; their routines usually lasted about fifteen minutes and then they were done, and it’d be a waste for ponies to travel out to see the shows from all across Equestria for only fifteen minutes of action. There were other shows from other lesser-known organizations and flight groups to pass the time until the main event itself finally took wing. They were sort of like openers for a big concert, Fluttershy thought.
She didn’t have a schedule—she’d forgotten to grab one—but it had to be getting close to the time the Wonderbolts themselves would make their show. The watch she’d borrowed from Blossomforth read a little past two o’clock. Gulping hard, Fluttershy returned to trying to locate the Wonderbolts tent and Rainbow Dash. She was well within the final hour now. She just didn’t know precisely when Rainbow’s timer would hit zero.
Speaking of the timers, Fluttershy felt like she was being assaulted by the crowd and the numbers over their heads. All those ticking yellow numbers just blended into one haze that was difficult to peer through, only complicating her efforts to identify tents by the signs hanging above their entrances. She had to extend her wings and hover above the crowd walking around just to get away from the horrible onslaught of numbers.
After a few minutes of searching the fairgrounds, she found the large tent set aside for Wonderbolts personnel. Touching down in front of it, she briskly sidestepped the crowds, looking for an entrance. Unfortunately for her, a large pegasus stopped her short before she could get inside, blocking the entrance entirely.
“Wonderbolts personnel only, ma’am,” was all he said, eyes concealed behind a pair of sunglasses.
“I’m a friend,” Fluttershy said. “Please, this is important.”
“The Wonderbolts are flying in fifteen. No visitors, even friends and family,” he said. “You can come back after the show if you want. For now, I’d suggest finding a good seat to enjoy the show.”
“This is urgent,” Fluttershy insisted, trying to peer around the pegasus. “If I can just speak to Rainbow D—!”
“Fluttershy?” It wasn’t Rainbow’s voice, but it was the next best thing. The pegasus standing out front turned around, revealing Spitfire behind him. The Wonderbolt captain had her head—and her timer—sticking through the flap of the tent, regarding the scene with confusion. “What are you doing here? Rainbow Dash said you were busy and couldn’t come.”
“I, um, got it taken care of,” Fluttershy said, swiftly sidestepping the bouncer before he could try to hold her back. “I need to speak with her, though. Is she inside?”
“Of course she is. Just getting her flight suit on.” Spitfire beckoned with her head for Fluttershy to follow, the timer bouncing with the motion. Fluttershy caught a simple fifteen in the years place, which would have worried her had she not known that Rainbow’s was already south of an hour. The Wonderbolt captain wasn’t going to make it to her fifties…
Fluttershy followed Spitfire into the tent, where she witnessed the picture perfect definition of ‘organized chaos’. Wonderbolts were scattered about the room, standing upright while helpers assisted them in slipping into the skin-tight flight suits. Other helpers massaged wings or polished goggles, and ponies trotted back and forth across the tent so much that Fluttershy was amazed they never ran into each other. Spitfire merely pointed in Rainbow’s direction before a trio of ponies pounced on her like ravenous piranhas, grabbing her wings and helping her slide them through the holes on her half-donned suit. “Hey, Crash!” she shouted across the tent, catching Rainbow’s attention. “Look who I found outside!”
Rainbow broke off a conversation with the mare massaging her wings (who Fluttershy noted had another seventy-three healthy years left) and nearly did a double-take when she saw Fluttershy. “Fluttershy? What are you doing here? I thought you were busy with stuff!”
Fluttershy watched Rainbow’s blue wing tuck in against her side. “It, um, got taken care of,” she said. “I’m really sorry I tried to get you to drop your show because of it. I was getting worked up over nothing.” She snuck a glance at the timer over Rainbow’s head while the Wonderbolt processed her apology. It took all her effort not to shrink back in horror when she read no more than twenty-four minutes remaining.
“Oh. Well, cool, glad you could make it.” Rainbow winced when one of the helpers zipped up her flight suit and inadvertently pinched a fold of skin in the zipper. “Hey! Watch it!” she snapped at the mare, who quickly apologized and finished suiting her up. Tugging at the folds of spandex clinging to her cheeks and face, Rainbow shifted everything into perfect position and stood up, dismissing the assistants with a wave of her wing. “So, you excited for the show?”
Fluttershy nodded. “I’m hoping I can get a seat close to the action. Hopefully they’re not all taken up…”
“We can get you a box seat,” Rainbow said, glancing at Spitfire. “Right, Hardass?”
Spitfire rolled her eyes. “We’ve always got room in the box for friends, Crash. Give her your pass or something.” Rolling onto her hooves, the Wonderbolt captain shifted her flight suit around in a few places before she was finally satisfied. “Hey, you!” she barked, tracking down a stallion with a clipboard. “Are all the clouds ready?”
Fluttershy and Rainbow watched Spitfire run things over with the stallion. “What’s your routine like?” Fluttershy asked. “If you don’t mind saying, that is.”
“Mostly running accent routes,” Rainbow said. “I’m not senior enough to run duos stuff like the others, but I mostly fly in formation and break off here and there to add another smoke trail or add weight to a duo’s stunts. I do get to kick the thunderheads to set off the lightning for the rest of the Bolts as they fly past.” She abashedly rubbed the back of her neck. “They, uh, decided to actually incorporate and refine that dumb stunt I pulled that one time long ago when I was trying to get a different nickname.”
Fluttershy giggled. “At least some good came out of it,” she said. But inside, she felt her heart slowly picking up steam. Rainbow had no idea that she’d die in twenty-two minutes, and Fluttershy still didn’t know what it was going to be from. All she knew was that it was likely going to come during the routine, which was why she needed a seat close to the action. Hopefully she’d be able to figure out what was going to happen before it was too late.
Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, yeah. I still had to deal with the fallout for a month afterwards. That’s not the kind of crap your wingmates will just let go.” As she said that, she glared across the tent at Soarin’, who simply snickered and waved his wing.
She fidgeted with her flight suit just a little bit more before she started ushering Fluttershy out of the tent. “We’ve gotta make some final prep and stuff before the flight. Why don’t you go to the box?” Her wing snatched a laminated badge off of a nearby table and flipped it to Fluttershy, who just barely managed to catch it before it hit the ground. “Just show that to the pony outside, they’ll let you in.”
“O-Okay,” Fluttershy said, clutching the badge to her chest while Rainbow guided her outside. At the last minute, she turned around and put her hooves on Rainbow’s shoulders. “Just… please be safe, okay?” she asked. “I’m worried about you.”
Rainbow blinked, taken aback by Fluttershy’s sudden concern. “What’s to worry about? I’ve run this routine like a hundred times. I’ll be fine. It’s all simple stuff.” Then she withdrew halfway into the tent. “See you after the show, ‘kay?”
And then she disappeared, not waiting for Fluttershy’s answer. Thankfully, Fluttershy read her timer one last time before she vanished. Rainbow had almost exactly twenty minutes left. Even as she walked away from the tent, Fluttershy spun the hands on her watch back to put the minute hand just a little past the forty minute mark. Without a stopwatch, it was the best thing she had to keep track of time with. Hopefully she could figure out what was going to happen during the routine, because she knew now that whatever was going to happen would happen while the Wonderbolts were flying.
She just prayed she could actually do something about it.
-----
The box seats were less of a box and more of an open air set of benches isolated from the other bleachers. All Fluttershy had to do was wave the badge at the earth pony with fifty-two years left to live to enter. Once inside, she found herself sitting among wealthy sponsors and the families of some of the fliers. The numbers above all their heads varied wildly, and their desynchronized chaotic ticking made Fluttershy’s head start to hurt. In an effort to escape it, she sat at the very front of the box where she wouldn’t have to look at them all.
Her eyes kept drifting back to her watch. Fifteen minutes had passed; Rainbow only had about five left. The longer and longer she sat there, the more and more she began to panic that she’d made a mistake in leaving Rainbow alone. Maybe something had happened before Rainbow began her routine? Maybe she suffered a heart attack and was sitting in an outhouse somewhere in the early stages of cardiac arrest! Fluttershy had to fight the urge to leave the box seats behind and try to force her way back to the Wonderbolts tent to find her friend.
Thankfully, the radio speaker crackled to life at that moment. “Good afternoon, fillies and gentlecolts! We’ve certainly enjoyed having you all here today, and now we’re going to send off today’s airshow with the star performance! Please join me in welcoming Equestria’s greatest fliers to the skies with thunderous applause! Give it up for theeeeeeeee WWWooonnndddeeerrrbbbooolllltttssss!!!!”
The announcer dragged out their name, rallying the crowd into excited applause and hoof-stomping as the team flew closer. The air seemed to shake and roar as seven pegasi flew over the field, all splitting up into separate arcs. Like the petals of a flower, the seven Wonderbolts all traced smoking routes upwards, converging on a single point high above the field. Fluttershy’s eyes darted back and forth until she finally picked out which trail was headed by a colorful rainbow pegasus. Swallowing hard, she glanced at her watch. Four minutes remained.
The Wonderbolts converged at the top of their arcs, at which point they dove back down to the earth as one, Spitfire leading the V formation and Rainbow slotted on the trailing port position. At least it made Rainbow easier to see for Fluttershy; since she wasn’t in the middle of the formation, she could easily find her again whenever she looked down at her watch. Heart pounding in her throat, she leaned a little bit closer to the edge of her seat.
The seven pegasi pulled out of the dive about fifteen feet above the ground, causing the grass to ripple with the air kicked off by their powerful wings. Fluttershy instinctively lowered her head along with so many other ponies from how close the Wonderbolts flew. But even as she recovered, she saw the formation begin to twist and weave its way through loops of clouds, twirling and climbing and diving in a precise pattern with speeds and precision Fluttershy didn’t think possible. She may have been a pegasus, but some pegasi were born much more ready to fly than her. Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts were such an example.
The formation split into three: three ponies flew to the left under Spitfire’s command, three to the right under Soarin’s command, and a lone rainbow trail arced into the sky. While the two groups of three flew out and off to the side, Rainbow Dash rocketed straight upwards, spiraling a few times and putting some twists into her rainbow trail. Then she disappeared above a blanket of clouds that’d been arranged over the field, disappearing from sight.
Fluttershy gulped and glanced down at her watch. Her eyes bulged when she saw only a minute remained. Chewing on her lip, she searched the clouds for any sign of Rainbow but saw nothing. Where had her friend gone? What was she doing? Spitfire and Soarin’ led their teams in a wild cat and mouse chase along the edges of the airspace, flying over and under cloud pillars and through loops as pursuer became pursued. They all briefly met in the middle before breaking apart into three duos, each of which flew in a different direction.
It was then that Fluttershy saw a brief glint of color through a gap in the clouds. Moments later, Rainbow Dash punched through the blanket at the precise second that the duos turned around and began wheeling inwards. All seven ponies started to converge on a bank of roiling black thunderheads, ready to discharge dazzling lightning at the touch of a hoof. And Rainbow would make it there first.
Fluttershy blinked and looked at the clouds. Almost immediately she knew that they were wrong. Her father had worked in the weather factory all her life, and he’d taken her on tours all the time. She knew clouds, perhaps even better than Rainbow; Rainbow only distributed them when she led Ponyville’s weather team. But Fluttershy could tell the charge capacity of a cloud by its color and shape, and those nimbus clouds were industrial strength. They could put out enough electricity to keep a factory running for a full day. And somehow, they’d ended up in the middle of the airshow.
Everything immediately clicked into place. If you gave an industrial thunderhead a solid kick, it wouldn’t give off a spark of static electricity, it’d discharge a thunderbolt. If you flew through it at top speed like Rainbow was about to, it wouldn’t just give you a painful zap, it’d kill you as it discharged all its electricity. Gulping, Fluttershy looked further down at the crowd of ponies sitting closest to it. Forget about it just killing Rainbow—if that thunderhead burst, it’d kill all those ponies, too!
This revelation took all of maybe five seconds, but in that time, Rainbow had already halved the distance between her and the thunderhead. But Fluttershy was closer. She didn’t think, she merely acted. Her wings spread so quickly she smacked the ponies on either side of her, and before anypony realized what she was about to do, she soared out of her seat. Heart pounding, she raced into the air on an intercept course with Rainbow.
Somepony shouted in alarm behind her. The crowd gasped. Fluttershy thought she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, maybe ponies trying to catch her, but she only flew faster. The air around her was briefly charged with magical energy and an intangible hand tugged out some of her flight feathers, but she kept pressing onwards. But even then, she lost too much speed. She wasn’t going to make it in time.
Her eyes shifted downwards. She might be too slow to head Rainbow off before she hit the cloud, but the cloud was right there…
It was a decision she didn’t hesitate on. Her wingtips flared and she changed her course. The angry black cloud dominated her vision, but she pressed on. Rainbow was still descending above her, her eyes likely tracking the other Wonderbolts instead of watching the cloud. Her friend was much faster than she was, but Fluttershy was closer. Gritting her teeth, she closed her eyes and flopped against the cloud, slamming into it with hooves outspread to maximize her contact area.
The thunderhead rumbled and roared. Fluttershy’s impact was enough to knock a lightning bolt out of it. It immediately sought the closest charged thing to strike, and searing light burned through Fluttershy’s eyes. Her limbs spasmed against her will, and she felt a pony lock her heart between a vise and squeeze. Thunder deafened her, and she heard startled screaming. Ozone filled her nose. Her tongue grew fuzzy and dry. Her eardrums popped. And then she was falling, falling, falling, and somepony was screaming, screaming, screaming…
-----
Beep… Beep… Beep…
“…her heart. Good thing medical staff were on site…”
Beep… Beep… Beep…
“…can’t believe they were industrial! How did those sons of…”
Beep… Beep… Beep…
“…hadn’t done that, I would’ve died. All those fans, too…”
Fluttershy groaned. Everything hurt. It felt like somepony had peeled the skin from her body and covered her muscles with salt. A sharp, icy pain settled in her chest, like she’d swallowed an ice cube the size of a buckball and now it wanted out. Even breathing was painful.
The conversation in the room stopped. “Is she waking up?” somepony asked. They sounded vaguely familiar, but Fluttershy couldn’t place their voice in her pain-induced delirium. All she could do was moan and groan and whimper as she tried to move despite how much everything hurt.
“Yeah, she is,” another voice said. She felt a firm, comforting weight press down on her hoof. “Take it easy, Flutters. You got really, really messed up.”
Memories of a blue pegasus with a colorful mane came back to her, summoned by that voice. “R… Rainbow?” Fluttershy coughed, trying to crack an eye open. Dazzling bright lights blinded her, and when she hissed and closed her eye, the afterimages danced around in the darkness under her eyelid. “Is… that you?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow said, her voice as quiet and sweet as she could muster. “Yeah, it is. Don’t worry, Flutters. You’re gonna be okay. The doctors say you’ll be fine. It’s a miracle, but you’ll be fine.”
Fluttershy grunted; her mouth still felt dry, like she’d swallowed a gallon of ash. “You’re alive…” she croaked, trying to build up the strength to open her eyes again. She giggled to herself despite how painful it was. “You’re alive…”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m alive,” Rainbow said. “Thanks to you. You hit that thunderhead and got electrocuted really badly. I saw the whole thing happen and I immediately abandoned my route to catch you. We had to call off the airshow, and when we did, Misty took a look at the clouds and saw they were industrial thunderheads. Stupid idiots at the weather factory must’ve jumbled my order with somepony else’s.”
“I’m gonna skin the ponies responsible,” another voice huffed. After a moment to think, Fluttershy recognized it as Spitfire’s. “This shouldn’t have happened. If Crash—if Rainbow Dash had flown through that, she would’ve busted the thing open and gotten herself and a bunch of ponies on the ground killed. The show crew should’ve recognized that those weren’t static thunderheads when they received them before the routine. I don’t know what happened.” The captain’s raspy, nasally voice took on a softer tone. “You’re a hero, Fluttershy. I don’t know how you knew, but you saved a lot of lives today.”
Fluttershy smiled, even though she felt like her lips were going to split open. “I just… had some intuition,” she said. “It’s nothing… really…”
This time when she opened her eyes, the lights didn’t send her reeling in pain. Little by little, the blurry, colorful outlines of ponies sharpened into recognizable faces. She found Rainbow Dash looking down on her at her right and Spitfire at her left. The ceiling tiles of the hospital framed their heads even as the harsh fluorescent glow in the ceiling made it painful to see. But both ponies gave her relieved smiles, and Fluttershy tried to smile back—until she looked above Rainbow’s head.
Where there should have been a timer, there was nothing. The ticking numbers were gone, leaving only empty space. When she looked to Spitfire, it was the same. Nothing. She blinked, blinked again, and tried to move her forelegs to rub at her face, only for the pain to send waves of dizziness through her skull. “Is something wrong, Fluttershy?” Spitfire asked. “Do you need the doctor? Rainbow, get the nurse, let her know that—”
“No, it’s… I’m fine,” Fluttershy said. “Just… confused, is all.”
“If you’re confused as to how you got here, just know that we got you here as fast as we could,” Rainbow said. “That lightning bolt stopped your heart. You were actually kinda sorta clinically dead for a few minutes before we got it beating again.” She heard Rainbow sigh and heard the sounds of feathers rubbing against hair. “I was really afraid that they wouldn’t be able to revive you. Like, you were dead. It was really scary.”
“But I’m not dead,” Fluttershy murmured. Her eye cracked open again so she could look at Rainbow. “And neither are you.”
Rainbow nodded and patted Fluttershy’s head. “Yeah. Thanks to you. Seriously, Flutters, that was awesome, just… try not to do it again.”
Fluttershy groaned. “I don’t think you have to worry about that…”
Spitfire stood up and casually saluted Rainbow. “I’ll leave you two to it, then,” she said. “I’ll have to go talk to the reporters in a bit. Plus, I don’t want to be here when Pinkie Pie brings all of your animal friends over,” she said to Fluttershy, shooting her a wink. “I’ve already got enough of a zoo to take care of out there.”
“I’ll stay here and keep an eye on her,” Rainbow said, returning Spitfire’s salute. “Have fun in media hell.”
Spitfire’s eyes rolled as she turned toward the door. “Yeah, yeah. Just wait, Crash, you’ll have to deal with it soon enough.” She paused long enough at the door to nod to Fluttershy. “Get well soon, Fluttershy. That’s a brave thing you did, and you saved a lot of lives because of it.”
Fluttershy shifted in her bed. “I’ll try to, ma’am.”
Then Spitfire was gone, leaving Rainbow and Fluttershy behind. After a second, Fluttershy closed her eyes and leaned back on her pillow. “How bad do I look?”
“Uhhh… pretty bad,” Rainbow said. “That lightning bolt seared a bunch of your coat and stuff. But I mean, other than that, you’re in one piece!”
The littlest smile pulled on Fluttershy’s lips. “That’s good,” she said. Sighing, she grunted and shifted in bed. “Um, Rainbow…”
“Yeah?”
“What would you say if I said I knew you were going to die during that routine?”
Silence lingered. “I… well, with how you were acting today, I wouldn’t be surprised, honestly,” Rainbow finally said. “Is that why you threw yourself at the cloud?”
“Mmhmm,” Fluttershy said. “I was just trying to save you.”
“Well… well, thanks, Flutters,” Rainbow said with a wavering voice. “I’m like… super humbled and stuff.”
“It was nothing.” Shifting again, Fluttershy yawned, grimacing when it felt like her skin was about to start flaking off of her muzzle. “Just… if you start seeing numbers over ponies’ heads… come talk to me. Okay?”
Rainbow hesitated. “Should I, like, be expecting that? What’s that even all about?”
Fluttershy felt the soft fingers of sleep grab onto her eyes. “You’ll know it if you see it,” she said. “I’ll tell you about it later. In the meantime—” She yawned again, opening her mouth wide. “—I’m going to rest.”
“Okay,” Rainbow said, squeezing Fluttershy’s hoof one more time. “Do you want me to wake you up when Pinkie and the girls come by with your animals?”
Fluttershy hummed. “That’d be nice of you, Rainbow.”
“Alright, Flutters.” Rainbow patted Fluttershy’s head with a tender, gentle hoof. “I’ll give you a little shake when they’re over. Just get some rest and sleep well. And thanks, Flutters. You’re the best friend I ever could’ve asked for.”
“Mmhmm,” Fluttershy hummed. “You deserved more numbers...”
Maybe seeing when ponies would die wasn’t such a curse after all. Without it, so many would’ve had their lives cut short. The only reason they were alive—that Rainbow was alive—was because she could see how much time they had left. In time, Fluttershy figured she’d simply forget about the numbers she saw over the heads of ponies she knew, or at least push that information to the back of her mind. Without the curse to warn her of Rainbow’s death, nothing would’ve ever been normal again.
With that positive thought in mind, Fluttershy drifted off to sweet, blissful, peaceful sleep.
And the numbers tormented her no longer.