GASP

Spitfire woke with the sun and was out of bed and doing her daily exercises before Soarin was even so much as stirring. She wasn’t captain of the Wonderbolts for no reason, after all. When it came to physical fitness, she didn’t allow any member to be a slouch, and that went double for herself. If she couldn’t lead by example, she didn’t deserve to lead, so she maintained her own discipline double that of her teammates. Soarin would get his wake-up call soon enough, after she was ready.

When she returned to the hotel after a short flight, she found Soarin up and about already, much to her surprise. He was in the bathroom with the water running, and she yelled in at him.

“You up and ready for some exercise there, Soarin?” There wasn’t an immediate response, so she knocked again. “Soarin, you really should have waited until after morning warmups to shower. You’re just gonna get sweaty.”

The water shut off and Soarin opened the door a crack. He looked out at her with bleary eyes and sniffed.

“I don’t think I should be doing much today, Chief. The crowd gave me the sniffles.”

“You got the sniffles from a single day of the festival?” She said in disbelief. “Didn’t I tell you to take precautions?”

“Yeah, and I did, but it wasn’t enough. Sorry, Chief.”

“Ugh, who’s gonna be my wingpony after the luge? For that matter, who’s gonna lug the luge up the mountain for me?’

Soarin gives her a weak smile. “Sorry, Chief. I’ll guess you’ll have to carry it yourself.”

Spitfire feigns hurt. “Oh! My poor back! Woe is me!” She laughs and pats him on the head patronizingly. “You stay here as long as you think you want to, Soarin. I’ll manage the luge and tell you all about it if you can’t come. But if you do, remember it’s at three in the afternoon. And wear a mask so you don’t get anypony else sick, okay?”

“Will do, Chief. I’ll make it, I promise. Won’t let a little cold keep me from coming to see the death cart in action!”

“Health first, Soarin. Sleep in, get some rest, and remember to drink plenty of fluids.” She gave him a wave and leaped out the open window. Her wings opened, and she took off into the air, flying up toward the festival, and the Wonderbolts’ tent.

The festival wasn’t quite going this early in the morning. With the sun barely risen and most ponies having been out partying the night before, it was still quiet and somber. There were a few scattered figures here and there, and some energetic ponies were out on the tracks. Spitfire could see a couple ponies practicing on the luge track, and some hanging about the bike trail.

Out of curiosity, Spitfire looked down into the chasm where Soarin’s bike had dropped. She should have picked it up the night before, but she didn’t want to disturb the crash site, for fear of accidentally stealing some of the motorcycle parts that had gotten twisted up.

The bikes were both gone. She expected there would be a message on the Wonderbolts’ table when she arrived. There was identification on every bike for just such occasions. Maybe they’d even dropped the hunk of metal off. That would save her some trouble.

She hovered for a moment, surveying the scene, and noticed in alarm that somepony had disturbed the rock the bottles had been hidden behind!

She zipped down to land and looked inside the hole. It was empty. Bare of anything and everything. She cursed inwardly. Somepony else must have found it when cleaning up and taken them. It wasn’t a huge deal, she had more money than she knew what to do with, but it would have been cool. They hadn’t made it to anyone about the bottles because of the death last night. Everypony was involved in taking care of loved ones and problems to worry about somepony asking about bottles of possible alcohol.

Spitfire could smell something. It was a similar scent to the bottle when she had popped the stopped, but it was a bit stronger. She sniffed the air hard, following the smell, and when she turned around there was somepony standing right behind her!

She leaped into the air with a startled yelp!

“Geeze, you scared the hell outta me! Can I help you?”

The pony stood there, wheezing. It was a stallion, and he didn’t look okay. He was breathing hard through his mouth and had trickles of snot running from his nose. He looked up at her and opened his mouth as if to speak, but he said nothing. He turned away and tottered unsteadily away down the chasm.

“Hey!” she called after him. “Are you okay?” She hovered along above him. “Hey! Are you sick? Lost? Do you need help?” He didn’t respond to anything she was saying, just wandered away, sneezing every so often.

Spitfire left him and flew back up and out of the chasm. She found the medical tent and landed in front just as the nurse arrived.

Redheart jumped as Spitfire landed in front of her. “Oh, goodness! You scared me!”

“Sorry, doc, but there’s a problem. Somepony is down in the chasm, and he didn’t look too good.”

“Oh, no! Injured?”

Spitfire shook her head. “He didn’t look injured. He looked sick and confused. He might be infectious, so I came to let you know he was down there.”

Nurse Redheart picked up the saddlebag she had just set down and slung it back over herself. “Take me to him. I’ll see what I can do. If he’s delirious he won’t know what he’s doing, and he’ll need help.”

“Will do, Doc. Come on!” Spitfire took off and led the way, just ahead of Redheart as she ran along underneath her.

While the two of them were rushing toward the unknown, Soarin was finally dragging himself out of bed. He wasn’t feeling any better, but he wasn’t going to miss Spitfire’s performance in the luge for anything. He shivered and got himself a jacket, then made his way downstairs, walking instead of flying.

In the lobby he stopped at the front desk.

“Excuse me,” he asked the concierge, “do you have any medical masks? I’m feeling sick and still want to go to the festival.”

“Oh, certainly, sir.” The mare passed him a mask over the counter. “It’s always good to see someone take their health and everypony else’s seriously.”

“Yeah, I’d stay inside if I could, but this comes once a year, and my captain is taking part in the luge today. Can’t miss that.”

“Oh, no, of course not! Take care of yourself, sir!”

“I’ll try.”

He stepped out of the hotel and looked up the dauntingly large hill, then sighed and began the trek up to the top, where the fun times waited.