He’d only heard one set of hoofsteps receding down the hallway when Nurse Redheart had left.
Now, he heard two. His pulse pounded against his fractured rib, making him grit his teeth. Unfortunately, he had been too busy dreading his upcoming conversation to actually plan out what he was going to say. But now that he could hear them approaching, the thought suddenly occurred to him. His eyes darted around the room as he frantically tried to piece together what he was going to say…
But before he could think of anything, the door opened.
Two faces, one being more familiar than the other, entered. Nurse Coldheart stepped off to the side to allow Twilight in ahead of her.
“I will be back later,” said the nurse. “I’ll leave you two alone.”
Air whistled through the gaps made by his missing teeth as he breathed out. A span of time went by before Spike mustered the courage... and the breath... to say a greeting.
“Hey, Twi.” He blinked slowly. He didn’t want his voice to sound so hoarse, but the pain in his rib was flaring up again. Despite his missing incisors, he forced a smile.
Twilight mirrored it for a moment, but it quickly disappeared. Her eyes widened as she stared at the tight bandage around his chest.
“Hey, Spike,” she breathed out. She walked to his bedside and placed her hoof on his leg. “You holding up okay?”
Spike brought a fist up to his mouth and coughed once. He winced. “Y-Yeah. I’m fine. Thick scales, you know how it is.” He laughed weakly. “Can’t feel a thing…”
Twilight grimaced. She pointed to the bandage. “Doesn’t look like it. Broken ribs aren’t anything to sneeze at, you know…”
Spike shrugged his shoulders in dismissal. He regretted it immediately. A stake went through his side. He bared his teeth with acute discomfort, bringing a hand to his chest. Twilight gasped.
“You okay?” She gripped his leg tighter. Spike lay flat as a board, eyes closed with concentration to keep his breathing under control. He nodded after a few moments.
“Yeah. Sorry…” He pursed his lips. “I’ve just gotta… agh… be more careful. Stay still and all that…”
Twilight smiled sadly. Her hoof traveled up the bed until it was resting on the top of his head. Spike closed his eyes, not saying a word as Twilight tweaked his headscales.
“Yeah, you’re probably right about that… Just lay back and relax for a sec…”
Silence fell over the room. Spike focused entirely on the feeling of her hoof tracing down his scales, plucking each one like the teeth of a comb. For a minute, he let himself slip into semi-consciousness, letting everything fade into the background.
He would have laid there all night if it meant delaying what was to come.
…
Nopony had known what to say when Twilight had left, so they all had remained quiet instead. Occasional glances between the room’s occupants were all that were exchanged.
Rainbow Dash was certainly not a pony to stay still for so long. Her limbs tingled with the lack of circulation that they’d become so accustomed to. She stamped her hooves lightly on the seat cushion to get the feeling back, but did little else. On occasion, she’d pick up a flurry of activity out of her peripheral vision, but she didn’t even bother to take a look.
Any observer on the outside may have perceived her deep in thought. But they would have been wrong. Her mind had drifted to a place where she hadn’t followed, and in all honesty, she wouldn’t have wanted to, either. The outside world had been rendered featureless through the light’s glare on the window; only hazy reflections of the ponies behind her could be seen.
She watched them with half-lidded eyes, seeing but taking nothing in: Some movement here, a turn of somepony’s head there. Another blur appearing in the hallway…
Somepony clearing their throat. All the blurred reflections moving in unison. Rainbow Dash’s eyes opened fully, and her head whirled around.
A stallion stood in the mouth of the hall. A stethoscope lay draped over his neck, and a pair of pens were stuck into the pocket of his lab coat. His open-mouthed and wide-eyed expression gave off a great sense of urgency as he looked from right to left. In front of Rainbow Dash, Cheerilee was the first to speak.
“Hello, doctor...” Her greeting was far from jovial. The stallion cleared his throat again.
“Yes, hello. I…” he paused a minute to remove his spectacles. He polished them on the collar of his lab coat before continuing. “I wanted to ask you all something. Is there anypony here that is, by chance, a relative of Scootaloo's? I would very much like to speak with them.”
The question came out quite abruptly, and its ominous implications were felt by everyone. Rainbow Dash shivered, feeling as though a chill had settled over her like a winter’s breeze. Suddenly, she realized that everyone else in the room was slowly rotating their heads in her direction. She wilted as all eyes focused on her, calling her out.
The doctor followed their gazes right to her. Rainbow took in a deep breath, counted to five in her head, and nodded.
“Yes, I-I am. Well, sort of. We’re not really related, but we’re…” She swallowed hard. “…we’re practically sisters.”
Rainbow felt a cold bead of sweat tickling the back of her neck. Her answer was good enough for the doctor, who stepped off to the side and waved her into the hallway like an usher. “That is fine. Do not be alarmed; I only need to ask some questions. Could you come with me for a minute?”
Despite his politeness, Rainbow didn’t feel like she had a choice. Nervous, she slid off the seat, hooves lightly clopping onto the tile. A fierce tingling, like someone had stuck her foreleg into a vat of glass powder, covered both of her front legs as the circulation came back to them. She gritted her teeth and walked forward anyway, glancing over at the seats to her right.
Applejack smiled a little bit at her in encouragement while Apple Bloom stared at the doctor. There was a frightened look on her face, but she said nothing. Next to them, Rarity was quietly whispering something to Sweetie Belle, nuzzling her on the neck while Sweetie Belle hid her face in her chest.
She was almost into the hallway when, unexpectedly, Cheerilee piped up from beside her. She raised up her hoof like a schoolfilly.
“I'll come with, too. I’m her teacher. Not quite family, but…” She stepped down. “She is one of my best students.”
The doctor cocked tilted his head slightly, as if trying to decide whether or not to let her in. But after a second, he nodded in approval, much to Cheerilee’s apparent relief. For Rainbow Dash, however, the feeling was even greater.
“Very well." He motioned to her with his hoof. "Come with me.”
…
When Spike opened his eyes again, Twilight was still staring at the wrapping around his chest. From the look on her face, she seemed to be in just as much pain as he was. She cleared her throat.
“Soo…” Her hoof didn’t stop its comforting caress. “I’m not the only pony here, you know.”
Spike had wished they could have stayed quiet forever, but as Twilight spoke, any hope of relaxation went by the wayside. His pupils expanded, and he bit his lip. Twilight turned away from the bandages to look at him. A smile masked the concern on her face, but Spike could see right through it.
“Lots of ponies came when they heard what happened. Applejack and Apple Bloom, Rainbow Dash, Sweetie Belle… and Rarity’s here, too.”
Hearing this, Spike had to roll his eyes. He couldn’t say he was surprised. He stifled a laugh.
“Yeah. I thought she might be…” He smiled. Twilight set her hoof down beside his head on the pillow.
“She’s worried about you. You and Scootaloo, both,” she said. “She’d probably love to see you.”
She scooted back a bit and set her hoof back down on the floor. Spike made no indication that he’d heard her. He eyed the ceiling tiles, an almost contemplative look on his face.
Slowly, the gentle smile on Twilight’s face began to fade. Spike closed his eyes, lying face up on the bed as if he were on display in an open casket. She took a deep breath, held in it in for a moment, and breathed out through thinly parted lips. The scaly flaps above the holes of Spike’s ears twitched in reaction.
“Spike… something’s wrong. I know it.” She reared up on her hind legs and set both forehooves onto the bed. “You wouldn’t have asked only to see me if there wasn’t.”
Here it was. No more beating around the bush. Spike grimaced, but held his tongue. Twilight’s forehead wrinkled in displeasure.
“Spike?” She said his name again. No response. “Spike… something is the matter, and I want to know what.”
Gradually, her tone dropped in octave. Her forelegs tightened up, wrinkling the sheets. Spike tried to turn his face away, but Twilight only leaned over him further, forcing him to close his eyes in order to escape her. With a sigh, she hung her head.
Prying wasn’t working. He was scared, and her aggressive tactics were only making things worse. For a brief moment, she considered giving up.
But she wasn’t defeated just yet. In a natural, almost sub-conscious thought, her hoof drifted back up to his head, beginning to tweak his headscales again. The touch made Spike jolt slightly, but her soothing caress eventually lulled his body into a state of relaxation. She smiled, if only for a second.
“Look,” she began. “I’m worried, Spike. I’m very, very worried. About you, about Scootaloo, about just… just what in Equestria happened back there. I can’t get it out of my head. And now, seeing you laying there with something on your mind, something you’re so hesitant to tell me, I just…”
She trailed off. Spike’s eyelids flickered, but did not open. With a huff of air, Twilight gathered her thoughts and continued.
“I know it hurts to think about it, whatever it is. But you can’t keep whatever it bottled up inside. Maybe it’s because you’re scared, I don’t know. But I can tell that you want to let it out. You wouldn’t have asked to see me otherwise.”
Her hoof stopped its petting, coming to rest on the side of his face. Spike’s eyes flickered open, to see that she was right there, her nose almost touching his. Her expression softened.
“Tell me,” she pleaded. “Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. You can tell me, you know that. You went through something scary, I know. You saved somepony from a burning building, after all. But all that is in the past. Right now, I’m here for you. I’m here…”
“Okay.”
Spike interrupted her, cutting her sentence short. The lights from the ceiling glinted off his eyes, and his bottom lip quivered. Twilight’s pupils dilated until her violet irises were barely visible.
“I’ll tell you.” He gulped. “Everything.”
…
They had to go quite a ways before they were out of earshot. The doctor, a yellow stallion with a cutie mark of a bandage adorning his flank, led them around the corner and a good way down the hall.
The more she thought about it, the gladder Rainbow Dash was to have another pony coming with her. She exchanged glances with the Cheerilee, who looked just as uncertain and nervous as she was. Whatever he had called them down here for, she had a feeling it wasn’t going to be good.
The doctor stopped in front of a blank wall, in between two closed doors. Rainbow Dash and Cheerilee stopped a meter or so away from him, and he turned around. He looked to Rainbow with a grimace.
“I know this may come across as rather unexpected…” He shook his head. “… and I apologize if I alarm you with what I am about to say, but… There is a very important matter concerning Scootaloo that I wish to discuss with you. Something very serious.”
It was all he needed to say for Rainbow Dash to know that her suspicions had been confirmed; if she had been nervous before, then she was terrified, now. Next to her, Cheerilee gasped.
“What is it? What’s wrong with her?” she asked. The doctor coughed into the collar of his lab coat.
“Well, nothing is… wrong with her, per se. She is very drowsy from the pain medication we have been giving her, and she has hardly said a word to me or to anypony else since her arrival. But she is doing well, all things considered. But…”
He stopped, appearing hesitant. His lips pursed in thought. Rainbow Dash wrinkled her forehead in a mixture of confusion and fear.
“But… what?”
The stallion was hesitant to answer her. Nervously, he plucked the spectacled from the bridge of his snout and polished them on the pocket of his lab coat. When he had finished scrubbing the glass, he set them gingerly back on his nose and addressed the two of them with a low voice.
“There is something peculiar about the nature of her injuries. At first, I foolishly assumed them to be sustained in the incident, but upon closer inspection… there is no way this could be the case.”
The volume of his voice softened progressively until Rainbow Dash almost had to strain to hear. As the words sank in, she felt the breath catch in her lungs. Her entire body tensed up, freezing her to the tile.
“Uhh… What are you saying, then?” It was Cheerilee who asked. The doctor exhaled deeply, and turned back to her.
“Her injuries… were inflicted.”
…
Twilight gave Spike all the time in the world for him to get back his composure. More than a minute had gone by since their agreement, but she had no intentions of rushing him.
Spike tried his hardest to relax, but it proved to be a challenge. He unclenched his hands, which had been closed into fists since Twilight had arrived, and at last, he began.
“It was the first day I went running, a few days ago,” he said. “You know, the day I burned myself out… anyway, I, uh…”
He talked very slowly, lungs limited by the fractured rib floating in the space in his side. Twilight’s back hooves did a light tattoo rhythm on the floor from anxiety, but she didn’t dare try and push the matter.
“…when I was walking down South Main Street, I went down a road I’d never been on before. It turned out to be a dead end, so I turned around. But… when I started heading back, I… I heard something. I d-didn’t, I mean, I wasn’t sure what it was, but it sounded like somepony screaming. I stopped and tried to listen for it again, but I didn’t hear anything again, so… I left.”
The last two words were choked out. Twilight could see tears forming in his eyes, but she didn’t draw attention to them. Instead, she gently set her hoof down on his hand, taking a light hold of it. Spike’s eyes fell shut.
“Then… I heard you talking, today. When Cheerilee came over, I mean.” He sniffled. “I listened to you talking about Scootaloo. And when Cheerilee said where she lived, I-I realized… I mean, I thought that maybe… maybe it was the same place where I’d heard the scream. S-So… I went to see.”
As the story went on, Twilight’s eyes began to widen with understanding. Memory of the hastily scrawled note he’d left her just before heading out came back to her. It hadn’t made any sense to her before, but now…
“Wh-when I got there, her… sorry, I mean...” Spike was showing signs of losing his composure, but he held himself together as well as he could. Unwelcome images of the past started a new film reel in his head. “…In front of the house, I saw her scooter laying there on the ground. It was all bent up and ruined… and then I heard somepony crying for help inside.” He shivered. “A-and so I ran in, and I-I… she was…”
Tears spilled freely down his cheeks. He took a few shallow breaths and reached up with his left hand to wipe some of them away, but more took their place.
Twilight’s hoof tightened around his hand. As his tale went on, the pieces of the puzzle were fitting together, one by one. She cooed encouragingly, “It’s okay. You’re safe. She’s safe. It’s okay, Spike…”
Her soothing words seemed to calm him just enough to continue. He shook his head, ruffling the pillow beneath it.
“…Sh-She was beat up so bad, Twilight. Her leg was broken, h-her face was bleeding everywhere… it was horrible. She s-said her dad did it to her. I-I-I didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t stand up, so I went to go get help, b-but then…”
Spike’s eyes expanded with terror. Twilight’s expression soon matched his. His voice dropped to almost a whisper.
“…her dad came back.”
…
His revelation chilled the air. Rainbow’s jaw went slack.
“What kind of… inflicted?” Cheerilee finally dared to ask. Bits of her mane stood on end, almost as though a balloon were being held over her head. The doctor exhaled deeply.
“I mean that, whatever injuries she has sustained… they were done to her on purpose. And as for who could have caused them… my list of potential suspects is very short.”
He fixed them both with a grave stare. For a moment, it seemed like he had set his sights on them.
“…Are either of you familiar with any members of Scootaloo’s immediate family? Who she lived with?”
The question’s implications were not lost on either of them; there was only one suspect that came to mind. Rainbow Dash’s mouth gaped open while Cheerilee shook her head.
“As far as I have ever known, she only lives… lived, with her father.” She corrected herself. The stallion gave her a curt nod.
“And did either of you know him very well?” he interrogated further. “Would you have described him as… well, as a violent type?”
Cheerilee raised an eyebrow. Worry and realization were coming to a peak. She shook her head.
“I only spoke to him a few times. I did not know him well at all…”
Rainbow Dash barely heard anything Cheerilee had said. Instead, her mind drifted to the bruises. The black and blue ring beneath Scootaloo’s foreleg, the discolored lump above her hoof. Her nonchalant shrug and stammered explanation. Warning signs, so obvious and so telling.
And yet, she’d been so readily convinced…
“…you, Rainbow Dash?”
At the mention of her name, Rainbow gave her head a rough shake. “Wh-What?”
“Did you know her father at all?” Cheerilee, as well as the doctor, were looking directly at her. Taken unawares, Rainbow Dash fumbled over her words for a minute before she was able to answer.
“Oh, uh, uhh… no, I-I never met him, actually…” She gazed at the floor, shying away from their prying eyes. The doctor brushed a strand of loose hair from his face.
“Oh. I see… And are there any other guardians or caretakers? Her mother, an aunt or uncle?”
Once again, Rainbow was not the one to make a reply. Cheerilee shook her head.
“No… no other relatives I am aware of.” The schoolteacher took a step back, eyeing the doctor with a faint glow of understanding flashing over her features. She stood on the tips of her hooves. “Her mother died when she was very young…”
It was her final statement that managed to break through Rainbow Dash’s dreamlike state. She whipped her head around to engage Cheerilee with a gaze that could have cut stone.
“What did you say?”
The other two ponies appeared surprised by the suddenness of her outburst. Cheerilee frowned.
“Scootaloo’s mother died when she was very little. You…” She cleared her throat. “…I am sorry. Did you not know that?”
Her voice softened to something resembling a squeak. Slowly, Rainbow Dash shook her head. “No, she, uh… she never told me.”
The moment the statement left her lips, she cringed. Images of Scootaloo’s face, beaming up at her with admiring eyes and a proud smile, wouldn’t leave her sight. The face of an adoring fan, she would have called it. Nothing less, and certainly nothing more. An endearing nuisance.
It was only now that she realized just how wrong she had been.
The stallion closed his eyes, pursing his lips as he reflected on the information he had been presented. Finally, after a period of stoic silence, he gave a heavy sigh.
“I see.” He nodded once before taking one step closer to them. “I apologize if I have made you both feel uncomfortable with all of this. I also wish to talk to Spike later, since he was also a witness to whatever occurred, but… with injuries as serious as the ones she has sustained, it is imperative that I find out who is responsible. And based on what I have heard from the both of you… I do believe the biggest suspect is apparent.”
Rainbow only partially heard him. All of the sounds from the outside felt muted, like she had just emerged from a pool of water. An onset of dizziness caused her to lean into the wall on her side for support.
Cheerilee, meanwhile, had locked onto the floor with a solemn stare. She sniffled, and a pair of tears leaked from the corners of her eyes.
“Yes. I recently… very recently suspected as much.” Her voice warbled as she spoke. “She sometimes came to class with bruises. But when I… whenever I asked her about them, she’d always tell me a story about crashing on her scooter…”
She paused, lips quivering. Her fetlocks tightened, and the veins on her neck popped out as she gritted her molars together.
“And I believed her,” she said. “I believed all the stories. Every damn word. Until… until today.” Teardrops glistened on the tile below. “How, wh-why did I believe her…?”
The doctor smiled with sympathy, taking a step closer to her. While he appeared hesitant at first, he placed a comforting hoof on her shoulder. Cheerilee flinched from the touch, but did not object.
For the moment, they took no notice of Rainbow Dash. Her vision blurred, and a pain worked its way into her gut. It was not a nauseous ache, but rather, like someone had plunged a knife into her ribs. She blinked, but the blurriness went away for only a moment before it returned, even worse than before.
“It’s not your fault,” Rainbow heard him declare. When she peeled her eyes off of the floor tile, she realized he was directing his attention at her, as well. He smiled sympathetically.
“This is neither of your faults,” he assured. “I know you both care for Scootaloo a great deal. I know this has been difficult for you to hear… I am so sorry.”
Rainbow paid no heed to his apology, neither accepting nor rejecting it. The floor beneath her bucked and swayed like a raft amidst a typhoon, and she had to bend her front legs to keep her balance. Her wings twitched at her sides.
“I… I c-can’t…” She wasn’t even sure what she wanted to say, and the words came out as little more than a stammer. She stumbled backward like a drunkard, going weak at the knees. The doctor’s kind smile wilted into a puzzled frown, and he made a motion toward her.
“Is… are you alright?” he asked, hesitant. The question prompted Cheerilee to look over her shoulder, revealing tear stained cheeks and glossy eyes to her.
In a daze, Rainbow shook her head. Something warm trickled down her cheek, but she didn’t wipe it away.
Hey, Rainbow Dash! An enthusiastic, raspy voice echoed in her ear. Squealing of tires skidding over dirt, the feel of dust splashing onto her hooves. School’s out tomorrow, and I got nothing to do, so… you wanna hang out sometime?
Weather duty tomorrow. Waking up early. Too tired after. Sorry, Squirt.
She bit her tongue. The doctor said something, but she didn’t hear it.
Oh, hey, Rainbow Dash. The voice again. I was just wondering… the Cakes just came out with a new springtime ice cream flavor today. Strawberry and cream swirl! You wanna come and get a scoop with me?
Strawberry? Oh, gee, that sounds good. But I’ve got some intense flight training exercises to do for the Academy, and dairy messes with my stomach. Sorry, Squirt. Next time?
Next time never came. Her next breath escaped as a sob.
H-Hey, Rainbow Dash… The voice, softer this time. The slow clip clop of hooves plodding on the street, coming to a stop beside her. Sorry if I… I mean, I just was wondering if…It’s okay if you’re busy, o-or if you don’t want to, that’s fine, I just… wanted to ask if you could, since I, you know… A slight pause. … can’t fly, if you wanted to… teach me, sometime?
Rainbow’s eyes squeezed shut. Against all odds, and defying all her small charge’s expectations, she had said yes.
Perhaps she’d taken pity. Perhaps, deep down, she did still remember the promise she’d made that night in Whitetail Woods, with only the light of the moon acting as a witness. She had said yes.
And she had lied.
Then, she felt a touch on her shoulder. Rainbow jolted from the contact, and like a scared rabbit, jumped back away from it with a startled yell, thumping into the wall with a painful thud.
The doctor jerked his hoof away like he had set it on a hot stovetop. He did not make a second move toward her, eyes wary and wide. “A-Are you…”
Rainbow Dash only just now seemed to notice him standing there, remaining frozen to the spot. Tears ran unhindered down her face, meeting his apologetic stare for a long, unending moment.
Then, in a fit of sobs, she whirled around, took a running step, and bolted away as fast as her legs could carry her.
…
Spike’s sharp teeth could have ground a diamond into powder. Twilight inhaled sharply.
“Oh my gosh…” she gasped. She gripped his hand even tighter. But just then, Spike’s soft cries suddenly ceased. A flame flickered in his eyes that acted as some type of stovetop, bringing the tears to a boil until they evaporated off his face like steam.
“He saw me, a-and… he told me to leave.” His voice, formerly subdued, became clearer. “I told him no. He told me to leave again, but I still said no. Scootaloo was telling me to leave, too, b-but I didn’t listen…”
He took another minute of pause. Twilight felt his fist beginning to clench in her hoof, and she noticed the rows of sharp fangs beginning to show themselves through a thin space between his lips. His eyelids slid shut.
“… She was crying. She was scared, Twi. He was gonna hurt her again when I left, I know it. And I…” He bared his fangs, jaw muscles bulging as he grinded his teeth together. “I got so mad. I-I’ve never been so mad before, Twi. I went crazy. I wanted to rip him apart. I…I wanted to kill him. And…”
He bent his head down, hiding his face from her. He choked on his own air, and the next words he spoke could only leave as a muted whisper.
“…I did.”
The wake of his confession brought dead silence to the air. It was as though the very air around them cascaded down to the tile, leaving them without the ability to breathe.
Twilight’s grip of his hand, once tight as a vice, gradually loosened. Spike’s scaly fingers slipped through her grasp, and to her surprise, he yanked his hand away, letting it hang over the side of the bed.
She opened her mouth to speak, to say something, but all the words died on the way to her lips. The only thing that managed to escape was his name.
“Spike…” She said it as if she were the one with the broken rib. A trembling hoof went up to touch his cheek, but her assistant shied away from it, holding up his hand to block her advance. He wheezed, obviously in pain.
“The… the fire at her house. I started it, Twi." He winced, grasping at the bandage around his broken rib. "I got so mad, and I just… it was my fault. I burned him up, I started it, it was my f-fault…I-I didn’t even know I could…”
Through the sharp, stabbing pain, he began to cry. Every heaving, shuddering breath magnified the fire in his side, but he couldn’t hold himself back.
Seeing her assistant lying there, shaking in agony and fear, Twilight’s own eyes began to glisten. She reached out to him, but he weakly batted her hoof to the side.
“No, n-no…” He cringed and shrank away. His other arm went up to shield his head as his cries turned into weeps. Twilight tried again, but he once more thwarted her with another feeble swing of his arm. Her lips quivered.
“Spike…” She said his name again. “Spike, please, it’s okay…”
“No it’s not!” He shouted back. “It’s not okay, it’s… I wanted to kill him, I w-wanted to…”
He trailed off again, struggling to breathe. Twilight flinched at the loudness of his voice, but she stayed at his bedside.
“Spike…” His name, once more. It was all she could think to say, so she repeated it over and over again. Her hoof, for a third time, stretched out. “Oh, Spike…”
“No! Go—Go away,” he gasped out. His hand shot up to intercept her hoof, but she kept pressing forward, resisting the strength of his arm. “Go away…”
“No,” Twilight declared. She gave her head a single, rough shake, resolute. “I won’t go, Spike. I won’t go…”
Her hoof pushed against his hand, but only enough to keep it where it was. The veins showed from under the scales in his forearm, but he did not give up. His teeth scraped together with agony.
“Go away, just go away, damn it…” He still managed to yell despite his struggle to breathe. “I’m a murderer, I-I’m a monster…”
“No,” Twilight whimpered. Her voice was almost lost under the bawling of her assistant. “No, you’re not. You’re a hero, Spike. You saved her...”
The muscles in his arm twitched and spasmed from strain, on the very brink of collapse. With one last shove, Twilight finally broke through his last line of defense, and his arm fell limply onto the hospital bed.
“No…” He tried to fight back against her, but there was nothing left for him to give. He collapsed back onto the bed with a muted cry.
Leaning forward as far as she could, Twilight wrapped her foreleg around the back of his neck, cradling his head in her foreleg. Every wheezing breath he expelled tickled her cheek.
“And you’re my friend, Spike.” She choked. Tears spilled down from her eyes and onto the sheets below. “You’re my best friend.”
And, with this last statement, Twilight devolved into sobs. Her cries mingled together with his until they were indistinguishable.
“You’re my best friend… ”
And then, at last, Spike gave up any hopes of resistance. He fell limp in her grasp, melting into her gentle embrace. His wails became a crescendo as she whispered into his ear.
“…and you are a hero.”
She continued to hold him tight.