Slowly the beautiful sunrise began creeping across the horizon. After bearing though the night with no sleep, Fluttershy sat up in her bed with bags sagging from her eyes and her mane was tangled and rustled. Looking around the room she saw that Twilight was reading a book, as was Rainbow. The books they were reading however differed immensely. The cover of Twilight's read The Study of Pegasi: Biology and Skeletal Structure. Rainbow Dash, however, had the latest daring do book in her hooves, Daring Do in: The Mystery of the Golden Statue. Applejack was lying on the ground, daydreaming about who knows what. Above her on the bench sat Rarity who was sketching something down on paper, another dress design no doubt. Pinkie Pie was to the farthest left. She just sat there starting at the ground and Fluttershy couldn't help but notice that her mane was slightly deflated. That was the case until Pinkie noticed she was awake, at which point she started bouncing across the room like a pinball yelling things like, "OHMYGOSHGUYSFLUTTERSHY'SAWAKE!" and "GUYS WHAT ARE WAITING FOR? LETS THROW A PARTY!!!!!!!". Eventually they had to get several nurses to get her to calm down. After all the commotion was over, Twilight spoke up. "How are you feeling Fluttershy? We were all worried sick about you."
She thought to herself and pondered recent events. Not wanting her friends to over worry, she gave Twilight a simple, " I'm okay everybody, thanks for your concern but I'm alright now." Twilight however, wouldn't have it.
"Are you sure Fluttershy? If you do good that's great, but you must be in some sort of pain now right?"
To be honest Fluttershy was in pain, severe pain in fact. Her wing was in a cast and folded inward in a less than comfortable position, and her side was still sore from the wound she got. Her head rang and throbbed and she did't feel like she would be able to even stand until after a long recovery. But again, she simply gave her friends less to worry about. " No really girls, I'm okay." She just didn't feel the need to burden her friends with more worry about her health. 'After all, they already have someone else to worry about.' She thought, her eyes glazed and off in the distance as her mind drifted to that of the drake that had saved her.
She was torn as for her feelings towards Spike. Part of her wanted to be grateful to him for saving them both from certain death. Even still, ever since Iron Will's program, she always had that dormant side to her that wanted to resent and hate anyone who caused her something so much as a small inconvenience. But even if Fluttershy wanted to, she couldn't hate anyone, especially Spike. He would come over and help if she asked and even if he had a minor slip up, he would apologize until he was sure everything was alright. It wasn't always sunshine and happiness though and Spike couldn't help out all the time between helping Twilight and trying to advance on Rarity. There were times back in the cottage when she would find an animal limping out of the Everfree, barely escaping a timber wolf chasing behind it. After working for hours eventually the animal would take it's final breath, despite her efforts to keep it safe. No matter how many times it happens, she will always have that same cold feeling of failure wash over her.Even in spite of her many successes, she would weep into the arms of her animals, cry until she couldn't cry anymore. She thought of hiring an assistant herself but realized that no one really suited for the job except her and Spike. What made it worse was that those extra hands could mean the difference in a situation of injury for one of her animals. With Spike on the forefront of her mind she asked Twilight how Spike was doing.
"The nurses got him bandaged up and as soon as he was allowed to he left. He went to the library and went straight to the basement. He won't say anything and won't come out. He only eats if I teleport the food in there. The last thing he said to me was to tell you that he's sorry."
If there was any hope that things would go back to normal after all this, it vanished as soon as the words left Twilight's snout. It was obvious why he is in the the state he is. After having his heart broken by someone close to him, he then endangered and caused the injury of another close friend and has given him grief and guilt the likes of which he hasn't experienced before in his life. Understanding this gave Fluttershy even more reason to be worried.
*****
Spike sat in the cold and dark of the basement in the library. There was a light, he just chose not to turn it on. Without him cleaning it on a regular basis like he used to the basement, and for all he knew the rest of the tree house, had become a desolate cave that was unfit for anything but dragons and other savage creatures to live in. The air was a bit thicker than usual and often caused him to sneeze. Dust clouded any surfaces and the room smelled like whoever lived in it hadn't bathed in three weeks. And in the corner sat a dragon whose guilt and anger was only matched by his regret. Insomnia and malnutrition plagued him. He only ate as much as he had to, sometimes not even that much. His face pale and covered in streaks that were what was left of his many fallen tears. He did not allow himself to anything pleasure related. He ate, slept, and thought, nothing else.
'How could I have done this? I know better than this...but I guess I'm still just as small as I was then, and just as immature. Twilight always said that things happen for a reason but I can't understand why something like this would happen' Once again too tired to internally scold himself anymore he curled in a ball and tried to get to sleep, though he knew there wouldn't be any.