Spike groaned as he started to regain consciousness. With the memory of his fight with Garble still fresh in his mind, Spike didn't try to move around so he wouldn't accidentally strain his wounds. Though he knew Sol was a good healer from what he had told him and their friends, he didn't want to test to see just how good of a job he did. So, breathing a sigh through his nose, Spike continued to lay wherever he was, which just happened to be somewhere rather soft and comfortable.
Wait. What?
Finding the softness all around him to be somewhat unusual, Spike cracked open an eye to peek out and see where exactly he was. When he did, the first thing he saw was that he was in a cave of some kind. His eyes roamed around, seeing a large fire burning in the center of the cave and a pair of tunnels, one leading outside where the rays of what he figured to be the setting sunlight could be seen, and another leading further into the cave. Getting somewhat of an idea of where he was, he looked down at himself and saw that he was covered in a blanket of moss that covered his body up to his chin.
Well that doesn't help me to know what the damage is very much, he thought with an eye-roll. It is really nice and warm, though. Gonna have to thank Sol for making this moss bedding.
Recalling his stab wound being on his right side, Spike moved his left arm to lift the moss blanket off. However, as soon as he tried to move his arm, he found that in his currently weakened state, he was unable to as something soft and furry was weighing it down.
What the heck?
Confused, Spike tilted his head over to see what his arm had bumped up against, but was only met with the sight of his moss blanket. Being cautious, Spike then decided to move his right arm to pull the blanket back, but was met with the same problem, only that instead of it being furry, whatever it was, while soft, wasn't furry, but it was a bit warmer than whatever was on his left arm.
Unable to move either of his arms now, Spike slid his tail out beneath the bottom of the blanket and used it to pull it back... only for his face to erupt into an enormous blush while steam began to leak from his ears. Not believing what he was seeing, Spike blinked his eyes furiously to get rid of any sleepiness that might've lingered and messed with his vision. But sure enough, Spike wasn't seeing things, and proceeded to gawk in silence at the sight of Rarity clinging to his left arm, and Ember clinging to his right, both sound asleep.
... that's it. I'm dead. Garble killed me and I've died and gone to heaven.
Spike paused in thought briefly as another thought came to mind.
Wait, if I'm dead, then why am I in a cave and not inside, say, a gingerbread house with giant scoops of ice-cream littering the yard?
As Spike wondered why his afterlife was like this, his attention was brought towards the entrance where the sounds of hooves and claws were heard echoing. Moments later, Sol turned the corner of the tunnel leading outside and set his eyes on them.
"Sol? What are you doing here?"
Sol blinked, surprised not because of Spike having awoken, but for being asked why he was there.
"I'm here to check up on you and see if you were awake yet."
"What do you mean 'awake yet'? I died."
"... what? Why would you think that you're dead?"
Spike rolled his eyes and motioned with his head to Rarity and Ember. "Because both Rarity and Ember are here, cuddled up against me, and sleeping peacefully. Which, if I'm honest, I doubt that they'd do in real life."
Now understanding what Spike was getting at, Sol tried to keep quiet as he let out a chuckle.
"If that's what you think, Spike, then you're in for one heck of a surprise. Because believe it or not, you're not dead, and all of this here is very much real."
Having hung around Applejack long enough, Spike had picked up from her on how to read the signs of those who were lying. As Spike eyed Sol out, he saw that he showed none of those signs. Slowly, he began to realize that Sol wasn't lying about him not being dead, which further meant that this wasn't the afterlife, and more importantly, that he was laying in bed with the real Rarity and Ember.
Seeing the realization dawning upon him and the panic starting to grow in his eyes, Sol quietly made his way over to Spike's bedside and sat down.
"Easy there, Spike," he said with a chuckle. "While most others would probably take this position you're in out of context, I know what's going on here."
"... would you mind telling me then why I'm not dead and have instead just happened to wake up with these two in the same bed?" Spike nervously asked, surprised to see Sol just give a shrug.
"You were hurt pretty bad yesterday and neither of them wanted to leave your side."
"... 'hurt pretty bad'. Yeah, because passing out and almost dying from blood loss is totally not the understatement of the century... wait a sec. What do you mean 'yesterday'?"
"The Dragon Battle Royal was yesterday, Spike. You've been out cold for about thirty hours," Sol explained.
Spike nervously gulped. "A-And... how am I now?"
Getting what he was asking, Sol gave Spike a warm smile. "I managed to heal all of your wounds, so you're back to normal." Sol paused for a brief moment before continuing, "However, although your body is completely healed, the strain it took from those injuries you sustained took a toll on it, exhausting your body and leading you to your... I suppose you could call it a 'recovery nap'. Plus, you also lost a lot of blood, so that's another big reason. Too bad that hemomancers aren't a thing anymore. We could actually use one to help restore your blood back to normal levels."
"So I'm going to be fine?"
"Yes. With a lot of rest, food, and water, you'll be just fine."
Spike breathed a sigh of relief and laid his head back down. Well, that's good to hear. And if Sol healed me, then it explains why I'm not hurting anymore... but...
"Hey, Sol?"
"Hmm?"
"If I passed out right after I beat Garble, then... well... who won?"
Sol had a perplexed look on his face. "Some unique-looking dragon named Crackle."
Spike blinked in surprise. "Her? Really?"
"Really. Why?"
"Nothing. I was just a bit worried about what whoever won would want of Ember. From what I've seen of her, Crackle seems like an okay dragon, so I'm not quite as worried about her as I would with most of the others. But still, out of curiosity, what did she ask of Ember?"
Sol chuckled. "Turns out that she was missing a rare gemstone to complete a collection of hers, so she used her reward to request Ember for the last one."
Spike eyed Sol. "That's it?"
"That's it. Of course, it turned out that Ember had two of the gemstone that Crackle wanted, so she was more than willing to part with it as her reward. Of course, Ember didn't tell her or any of the other dragons that she had a second."
Spike smiled and closed his eyes. "That's a relief to hear."
"I bet. But, even though you may not have won the Battle Royal, you did manage to beat most of the other competitors and, most importantly, you were able to defeat Garble."
"Yeah. I did." He let out a small snort. "Just sucks that Garble's gonna become popular since the wound he gave me caused me to be knocked out of the competition."
"Not quite," Sol objected. "I talked to a few of the dragons that I healed after the Battle Royal was over and heard about of the 'bounty' that was set on you. And, according to them, since you eliminated Garble from the Battle Royal before you passed out, it doesn't count for him."
"Huh. Well that's-"
Spike paused when he felt Rarity stirring at his side. Freezing his body from moving, Spike held his breath and remained motionless until Rarity stopped moving with a relaxed sigh. With the risk of her waking having passed, Spike let out a breath of relief.
"Not to sound like I'm complaining or anything, because I'm definitely not," he began, "but why are they here? I mean, I heard what you said, and I get that they were worried, but I'm sure that Twilight and Starlight would be just as worried as well, and I don't see them anywhere."
... unless... Holding that thought, Spike moved his legs, but unlike his arms, they weren't unrestrained by any hidden bodies. Okay, thank goodness they're not there.
While Spike was thinking, Sol was hesitant to answer him. He wanted to find the right words to tell Spike, but without revealing too much to him, if anything.
"If you're asking why they're asleep, then it's because they were both emotionally exhausted from worrying about you and turned in early. As for why they decided to sleep with you... I think it's best if we wait for them to wake and let them tell you directly, Spike. As for Twilight and Starlight, I last saw them outside talking to Torch."
"And how are they doing? They weren't too worried about me were they?" Spike asked, only to mentally facepalm a moment later as he remembered who he was talking about, which was only made evident by Sol flinching.
"Well, to be honest with you, Spike, Starlight was level-headed and handled it pretty well considering what happened... but Twilight..."
"She was a nervous wreck, wasn't she," he figured, more of a statement than a question.
"Pretty much, yes."
"Figures."
"Yeah. It took both Starlight and I almost the entirety of yesterday afternoon to calm Twilight down to the point where she would stop pacing around in a half-panicking."
"Sol? Who are you talking to?"
"Speaking of Starlight..."
Seconds after her voice echoed off the cave walls, Starlight walked into the area where they were. As soon as she did, however, her curious look was replaced with a sly smile.
"Well, well, well, Spike. Aren't you quite the stud," she mischievously said, knowing full-well the real reason for Rarity and Ember being there, but not wanting to pass up this golden opportunity to get in some teasing on him. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
Getting what Starlight was insinuating, Spike's cheeks flared red in embarrassment.
"I swear, this isn't what it looks like."
"Are you sure? Because what I'm seeing is a buff, lean, and admittedly, rather handsome drake, with a pair of tuckered-out females attached to both his sides. Both, which I might add, have a rather pleased look on their faces."
Knowing that wasn't the truth, Spike opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out of his opening and closing maw were squeaks and the occasional incoherent word. Thankfully for Spike, Sol had had enough of her teasing and stepped in for him.
"Okay, I think that's enough of that, Starlight," Sol said, though he turned and kept his back to Spike to hide his amused smirk from him.
"Aww. But I was having fun."
"I know, but the poor guy's been through enough for now, don't you think?"
"Alright, I suppose so," she sighed, but maintained her smirk. "But you gotta admit that that was pretty funny, right?"
"... I have no comment."
Starlight giggled before she turned her attention away from Sol and back to Spike, this time dropping her mischievous smirk for a warm and relieved smile.
"But really, it's a relief to see you awake, Spike. We were starting to worry about you after you passed the twenty-four hour mark."
"Yeah. Sorry about that," Spike apologized, only for Starlight to shake her head.
"No need to apologize, Spike. Besides, it's not like there was anything that you could've done about it, and Twilight didn't want to risk jumping into your consciousness to find out what was going on with you."
"Speaking of Twilight," Sol began, groaning as he stood from his spot, "I'm going to go tell her that Spike's awake."
Spike and Starlight quietly watched as Sol exited the cave, wondering how long it would take for Twilight to get there after he told her. Their silent question was answered a few seconds later when a flash of purple light lit the cave from Twilight having teleported in by the head of Spike's bed. Before either of them could say anything, Twilight, being cautious to not accidentally wake Ember and Rarity, leaned over, wrapped her forelegs around Spike's head, and pulled it against her chest as she hugged him tightly.
His vision blurred by his face pressed against Twilight's lavender coat, Spike tried to speak, but his words didn't reach her ears as it was muffled by her fur. Deciding to let surrender to her hold, Spike closed his eyes and just let himself succumb to Twilight's embrace. It was nice and peaceful for a while, but soon enough, the peaceful moment was interrupted when Spike heard the sound of Twilight sniffling, which was quicky accompanied by a few wet drops falling on his head.
"I thought we were going to lose you," Twilight said with a cracked voice.
"Hmmph?"
"When I saw you collapse, I thought that you had succumbed to your wounds and died. And then when you wouldn't wake up after Sol healed you, I... I-I..."
Though he couldn't speak any words of reassurance at the moment with his face covered, Spike instead did his best to nuzzle Twilight assuredly. Several moments later, Spike's face was free as Twilight, maintaining her hold on him, pulled back away, revealing her teary, reddened eyes and tear-stained cheeks.
"I'm sorry, Twilight," Spike apologized, reaching his head up and nuzzling Twilight's cheek, to which she returned to hugging him again with a whimper. "I got blindsided when Garble shoulder charged me and didn't see him holding the horn. Still, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you like that. You know that, right?"
"Mhmm," she mumbled.
The two remained like that for several long minutes before Twilight let go of Spike, wiping her tears away and giving him a weak smile.
"How are you feeling now? Er, physically I mean," she quickly added, noticing his eyes darting nervously and with a blush starting to form.
"Apart from feeling a bit tired, I'm feeling just fine. You can thank Sol's healing magic for that."
"Believe me, we saw him, and I will." Twilight paused when Spike opened his maw and let out a tired yawn. "Well, as reassuring it is to see you awake and in better condition, you should probably get some more sleep."
"Alright. Goodnight, Twilight."
Happy and relieved that Spike was alright, Twilight smiled as she tucked Spike back into bed.
"Goodnight to you too, Spike. We'll see you in the morning."
Letting him get to sleep, Twilight turned around and motioned for Starlight to follow her as she left the cave. Exiting, they walked over to Sol, who'd been conversing with Torch up until they noticed them approaching.
"Good news," Sol happily announced. "Thanks to Spike's growth making all of us using the hot-air balloon's basket more cramped and uncomfortable, Torch has agreed to give us a lift back to Ponyville."
"We'll be leaving after sunrise once you all have had something to eat," Torch added.
"That's good to hear," Starlight said pleasantly. "I'm sure that we'll get home a lot sooner too with Torch flying us."
"That we will," Sol agreed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Torch gave me an idea that I'm sure Spike and Ember will appreciate, so I need to get started on making it before it gets too late."
"Um... Sol...?"
Hearing Twilight's voice, Sol paused and turned back to face her. "Yes, Twilight?"
Though he could see the hesitation on her face and nervous motions with her hooves, Sol didn't know what was going on in her head to make her like this. That was, until Twilight approached him and took him by surprise when she draped her forelegs around his shoulders in a hug.
"Thank you."
Snapping out of his brief stupor, Sol glanced over to her.
"Huh? For what?" he asked, only for Twilight to tighten her hold on him.
"For saving Spike. I know that's what you were there for, but still, Spike means a lot to me. We've been together ever since I hatched him, so it means a lot to me that you saved him. So... thank you."
Hearing her words of gratitude and feeling the warmth coming from her hug, Sol smiled and relaxed as he draped an arm around her to hug her back.
"You're welcome, Twilight."
They remained in each other's embrace for what felt like minutes, both losing track of time, but neither of them seeming to mind. It wasn't until Twilight realized that she'd been hugging Sol for a far longer period of time than was necessary that she ended their hug and looked away from him with a flustered look on her face.
"S-So yeah," she nervously stuttered. "A-Anyway, I'm tired, and you said that you had something to do... so... yeah... goodnight."
Not waiting for a response, Twilight hastily made her way over to the cave she and Starlight were using, leaving Sol standing there as he watched her leave. Once she was out of sight, Sol decided to go and begin his new project, but did so sporting a small blush of his own.
With Twilight gone and Sol walking away, Starlight and Torch, who'd remained silent during Sol and Twilight's moment, both looked back and forth from the cave Twilight went into, and over to Sol's shrinking form. A few moments later once they were sure that Sol was out of hearing range, Starlight looked up and shared a smirk with Torch.
"Soooo... point Sol?"
"Point Sol."