Author's Note

Holy hell! Man, is this chapter late as heck.

Alright, sorry about that folks. Since I am back in school yet again again, my class timetable is all over the place, some being in the morning till noon, some from noon till 4pm and whatnot. Monday being the worst, from 10AM till 6PM local time, and that's not including the club schedule I have.

Anywho, enough talk about my personal stuff! I do hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. There isn't much in it at the moment since I will be saving up more of the fun bits in the next one. I can't quite say when I will be uploading the next chapter, but hopefully it wont be too long.

And with that, I'll take my leave. Ciao!

Awake and Alive

Twilight sighed silently as she walked along the corridors with her friends, the princesses and Eris, reflecting about the recent event that had took place. She silently cursed herself and mentally reprimanded her decision of letting Barb and Mike go into the Everfree. She should have seen it coming since it was on the week of relocation of the wolves' hunting grounds. She had observed it many times before and the wolves would always move in packs of over dozens.

It had been an extremely stressful week for her, worrying about the wellness of Mike. His injuries were none too short of mortifying. All those wounds, all the blood that was pouring out profusely. It was as if he had crawled into the deepest pit of the underworld and came back with the scars to match. Thankfully the doctors had manages to save his life, although he was hard to work with. From what she was told, the amount of magic that they had to use to stabilize him was almost three times the normal amount and even sometimes his body would reject the magic altogether, which was worrying on its own.

And then there was Barb, who would go for days without eating and drinking just to be by his side. The nurses had told her to try and get some form of nourishment, but she would only give them an glare, not uttering a single word. Twilight had been scared for her since she knew her body would deteriorate and eventually shut down sooner or later. But Barb never paid them any mind.

"...Oof!" Twilight let out a noise of surprise as she had bumped into one of the staff members, knocking them back a little. She looked up and bowed her head apologetically, saying a quick "...Sorry" and "Excuse me..." before walking off. She was thinking too much that she didn't even bother to look at her surroundings.

"Twi....? Y'all right?" Applejack's voice pierced Twilight's thoughts, snapping her out of her dazed like state. Twilight turned around, finding everyone look at her with worried expressions. Even Eris had one, which was normally not usual of her.

"...It's nothing. Just....been thinking" Twilight replied with a sigh, stopping in her tracks as she rubbed the back of her neck. "...It's just that I've been really worried. You know, about everything that had happened".

"Twilight....Deary, everypony has been worried sick about those two for the past week. You're not the only one. Princess Celestia and Zecora have it worst, even though they don't show it" Rarity replied with a small smile, trying to help Twilight's mood at the moment.

"You have no idea, Twi. I wanted to play with Mike and Pinkie some games beforehand. Now I just can't help but think about Mike's health" Rainbow replied, earning some odd glances from the group, especially Eris, Applejack and Rarity. "What?! I actually care, alright!? ...Mike's been a cool guy and I respect him" Rainbow frowned.

Twilight sighed, seeing as how due to Rainbow Dash managed to rise the tension among the girls, whether she did on purpose or not. Either way, at least she wasn't the only one. Barb is her sister, after all, and Mike had been a friendly and helpful individual. Perhaps her needless overthinking has caused her to miss out on the fact that girls all felt the same.

"Anyways, let's get going folks" Eris sounded out, clapping both her bear paw and eagle claw together. "We did come to check on the two of them after all. Time's-a-wasting". After she had said that, all the girls had nodded their heads in unison before starting to walk in the direction of Mike's room. Hopefully, Mike's condition has gotten better from the doctor's treatment.

The walk over to Mike's room was uneventful. Aside from the occasional doctor or nurse rushing by, the group's walk was quite peaceful. The corridors they walked through had many closed doors which held at least a single patient with relatives or friends coming over to visit. Some carried flowers as they walked in, others nothing at all. From then, the group had began to think whether it would have been nice to at least bring something for when Mike would recover.

Eventually, after turning right at a two way corner, the group had reached Mike's door. Beside the door was a small wall plaque with the number '93740' as well as Mike's name displayed in a gold. The golden color was there to indicate that whoever it was, whether they may be a pony, gryphon or any creature, treatment for them was of top priority. Only high officials were capable of giving an order as such and it wasn't too surprising since the princesses were involved in a way.

Twilight took a step forward and breathed in, exhaling slowly so as to calm her nerves. Whenever they came to see if Mike's condition were any better, the mere sight of him covered up in bandages almost like a mummy gave them chills. It was a horrible reminder of the fate he had. Twilight, still a bit hesitant to open the door, turned to her right to look at her friends and mentor. Without any hesitation, they all nodded their heads.

Given the signal, Twilight turned back to face the door and turned the knob clockwise before pushing it gently. The door gave a small creaking sound as it was being opened. She peeked into the room for a moment, looking to see if a doctor or nurse were inside but had found none. Instead, what she saw made her pupils shrink. The gentle push from before had turned into a strong shove as Twilight opened the door in a hurried manner. She took a few steps inside and gazed her eyes on the lone human, now fully awake, gently caressing Barb's cheek.

Twilight couldn't believe it. After a week or so of them worrying their asses off and hoping to the creators that nothing bad were to happen to him, finally a good sign. She couldn't help but smile a moment later and sigh in relief.

Mike, who had been preoccupied, his eyes staring into the sky out the window, had somehow sensed Twilight's presence in the room. His face contorted to one which showed surprised as he turned to face where Twilight was at. Seeing her stand there, he gave a smile of his own as he raised his free arm in the air and gave a small salute. "Hey there"

"Hey yourself" Twilight replied, crossing her arms together. "How are you?"

Mike waved the free arm he had and chuckled a little. "Still hurts like hell. But beats being dead in my book" He answered. He coughed for a moment and wiped his mouth. "Sorry. Throats feeling a little dry"

Twilight was just about to reply when suddenly her mentor had called her name, "Twilight. Is everything fine inside?". Twilight looked back behind her, forgetting that she came along with the rest of the girls. She giggled a little before replying back. "It's fine Princess Celestia. It's fine to come inside now" She said. There was a slight pause of silence in between before footsteps could be heard gradually getting nearer.

"Everyone else came as well, eh?" Mike asked with a slightly chuckle. Twilight didn't respond but laughed together with him.

Somehow, the girls didn't seem to think of this as a good sign and soon enough, Appplejack was shooting questions. "Twi. Are ya sure it's all right in there? That laugh kinda doesn't seem like it"

"Yea. It's all fine in here Applejack. Just talking to Twilight for a moment" Mike answered as loudly as he could. Silence had taken over yet again, which only made Mike frown a little. "What? I can't talk to Twilight? Did something happen?" Mike asked in a concerned voice, which made Twilight giggle a little. A moment later, everyone had came rushing into the room, stopping just an arm's length away from Twilight and Mike. They all had varying degrees of shock and confusion. Mike couldn't help but chuckle a little as he waved his free hand at them. "Hey. How's it hanging folks?"

"MIKE!" They all bursted out in unison, filling the room with with their loud voices. Mike had momentarily flinched and cupped Barb's ears, gritting his teeth in anxiousness as she shifted around on his chest. He gave them a heads up, in the form of a slightly cross look, to tone down their combined chatter that would most likely happen. Except for Twilight, everyone else blushed a little, especially the Princesses due to how their actions wouldn't befit a ruler.

Nevertheless, once Mike had felt that Barb was fast asleep yet again, he gave a sigh of relief and uncapped his hands from her ears. He looked at her sleeping form for a moment and smiled before looking back at the group of visitors he had gotten. "Glad to see all of you are doing well" He chuckled, waving an arm in the air comically. "Meanwhile, I have to deal with this crap"

"Yes....Well, you are in a bind at the moment" Rarity chuckled. "But even so, you have no idea how glad we are to see you move and talk again"

Mike smiled and was about to give a reply but a fast, blue palm had came into contact with his cheeks first, stunning him from the sudden pain as well as loud shouting that came afterwards. "YOU IDIOT! DO YOU KNOW HOW DEAD YOU COULD HAVE BEEN WHEN YOU WENT FOUGHT THOSE WOLVES?!"

"Dash!" The cries of everyone else in the room sounded in unison as Rainbow Dash had started her session of '20 Questions'. Despite their combined efforts of trying to pry her off of him with their words, they weren't going through into her thick skull. She was determined to give him a piece of her mind. And her eyes were giving off an angered yet sad look.

"Well, Rainbow Ditz here does have a point. Buuuuut, if I didn't do that then the both me and Barb would be dead. How would that sound?" Mike replied with a straight face, rhetorically asking Rainbow Dash. She soon fell silent, seeing as how right he was. Mike rolled his eyes and sighed, wanting to relieve some of the tension in the air. "Look, Dash. I know you're worried and I'm not surprised by the least. Just don't bother about the itty bitty stuff and look at the fact that both me and Barb are still alive"

"Yea! That's what matters!" Pinkie exclaimed, her huge grin finally returning to her once again. "With Mikey alive, we now don't have to worry anymore!". She turned her gaze towards Mike, who looked at her with confusion. "Hey! Mikey! Once you're out of the hospital, come over to Sugarcube Corner lickety-split! I'm gonna make a huge, 'Happy Finally-out-of-the-hospital-and-not-dead' cake! It's gonna be great!" She exclaimed exuberantly, causing Mike to chuckle.

"Alright, Pinkie. I'll put that on my priority list. Don't make it too extravagant, alright?" He replied, earning a chorus of nods from his pink friend.

"I....Guess you're right then. Sorry about that Mike" Rainbow piped in her thoughts once their conversation was over. "It's just that, you're a cool guy, you know? A good friend as well and that with you dying just....sucks. I mean, aside from Pinkie, who else is gonna be my gaming partner?" She admitted, chuckling a little as her face was shying away.

Mike laughed. "Oh, so I'm just you're gaming bud, eh?" He asked in a cheeky tone, causing the room to erupt in a mix of giggles and chuckles. Once Mike was done with laughing, he shook his head slightly, "It's alright. We cool?" He asked, bringing up one of his hands which was rolled into a fist.

Rainbow, who had finally managed to look back, brought up her own fist and bumped it into his, grinning at him. "We're cool".

"Well, glad things turned out for the better" Eris spoke up from her previous silent treatment. "I swear, your own kind is still a mystery to me, Mike. I mean, how the heck can you still survive from all those attacks? It's just unreal!" She added in a comical manner.

"Meh, humans are all fucked up. Pardon my language. Even the most deadliest of bite marks or wounds wont be able to stop us from doing what we want to do" Mike replied with a shrug, as if stating that this was a daily occurrence back on earth. "I've seen some crazy stuff before, believe me"

"Yes, I bet you've had" Celestia answered before sighing. "Mike. I honestly can't say, thank you and sorry, enough. You've been through hell and high water, one of which was entirely my fault" She spoke in an apologetic manner, her head hanging low in shame. "And just recently, you saved my daughter from a potentially grim fate. Despite her being a dragoness, she is not invincible, as what I've told her before. And with a whole pack of wolves suddenly ambushing, surely she would have died..."

"...I...I just can't say how thankful I am for risking your life for her. Even with all our quarrels, I still care for her immensely. So the though of her dying just...." Celestia clenched her teeth and her hand into a fist.

Mike looked at the princess with a slight anger in his eyes. But the way she looked, as if about to break down, he just couldn't help not being angry at her. She was earnest in her feelings, that he could tell. A mother's feelings for their child is, without a doubt, always true. And perhaps it might have also been because he couldn't stand the sight of a lady crying or about to cry. He was just that soft.

"....It's fine. If it were Barb, I'd gladly risk my life. She's a fun girl to be around, always chipper and a bit silly at times. I wouldn't forgive myself if I let anything harmful happen to her" Mike admitted, looking down at the peaceful lady on lying on top of him, sleeping like a log. 'Besides', he thought, 'I have a promise to keep'

"...Won't....let anything harm me...huh?" A soft and quiet voice questioned Mike's last statement in an echo, causing him to be alerted. He looked around for a moment seeing that everyone else was busy conversing with one another, hearing bits of it, concerning about the medical bill and his discharge.

That was until he remembered of a certain lady that was still on top of him. He very well forgotten about her presence for a split second when his mind suddenly ran elsewhere, he didn't stop to think whether or not she was awake. Or even worse, how long was she awake for? Thus, he looked down. Down towards the dragoness underneath his blanket.

And what he saw, were two slightly red orbs staring back at him, with tears rolling down from them.