Kyle had decided to go to the mall one day for a bit of window-shopping, and to buy anything that would capture his interest.

Wonder if I should buy something for Lyra...? he wondered. I haven't bought her a gift in a while...

He was walking through one of the main branches of the building, when he happened to hear a voice from behind him.

"Hey, assface!" came a voice that Kyle could recognize anywhere.

Shocked by the recognition, he turned around to see none other than...

"...Danny?" Kyle asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I think the question is what are you doing here?" Danny asked in a condescending tone. "Don't you know that nobody wants to see your ugly face?"

"...I'm just window-shopping." Kyle said.

"Oh... and you got no bitch with you?" Danny asked.

Kyle raised a brow. "What are you even talking about...?"

Danny stepped aside to reveal a girl standing behind him. "See, unlike any girl you would ever get, Monica here is NOT a bitch." he said.

"He's right." the girl, Monica, said.

Apparently, Danny now had a new girlfriend, much to Kyle's distaste and disgust.

"Danny's told me about you, and how you made him miserable all the time, forcing him to clean up all your messes while you sat in your cave just drawing shitty pictures!" Monica said.

Kyle scowled. "Telling lies... that's just like you, Danny..." he said.

"You are the one who lies!" Danny said.

"At least I'm not arrogant!" Kyle said. "You all thought I couldn't make it as an artist, but I now have a mansion, a sports car and an SUV, a 4K curved LED flatscreen, and I'm thinking about having a pool built in my backyard. Plus, I'm still making even more money, because I'm famous on the internet, and everyone is recommending me!"

"Well, you're still gonna be an old hermit who sits inside all day, staring at a screen." Danny said. "My sports career has taken off, and now I'm the center of attention with my university!"

Kyle folded his arms. "How so...?" he asked.

“I've made it into the nationals!” Danny said. “What's so good about being an artist who doesn't even reveal himself? In fact, what's so good about art? Sports are what people like! No wonder you're doomed to be single the rest of your life!”

"Let's not push it..." Kyle said.

"Wow..." Monica said. "...he's even worse than you said!"

Kyle stepped up to Monica.

"I would watch my words, if I were you!" he said to her.

Danny shoved Kyle hard. "Don't you EVER talk to her like that!" he said.

"Or what?" Kyle asked, his anger shutting off his rational thought to simply remove himself from the situation.

"Or you'll be in dead meat!" Danny said, grabbing Kyle's sleeve and holding a fist up to his face.

Kyle narrowed his eyes. "...Do you really think I'm scared of you?"

Without warning, Danny pounded Kyle in the stomach, causing him to fall over, clutching his front as he struggled to regain his breath.

"Monica, help me teach him a lesson!" Danny said.

"Oh, will do..." Monica said as she cracked her neck.

With that, Danny started wrestling Kyle around, while Monica kicked him. Several people in the area were all stopping and watching the fight, some of them pulling out their phones to film it. Kyle tried to escape from Danny's constant pinning and seizing, but he was just not strong enough... but then, something came to his mind after he recalled what he had seen in a few action movies.

Kyle headbutted Danny against the forehead and quickly rolled away from him. However, Danny quickly got back up on his feet and rammed him into a wall, pinning and clobbering him against it. Kyle tried to hit back, but he needed his arms to protect his torso from the blows of Danny's much-larger arms. He could not knee him in the groin, because Danny was standing at an angle, and Monica stood beyond his reach, continuing to kick him.

"You're a piece of shit who nobody gives a shit about, and you are doing nothing but ruining what could be a good life for me!" Danny shouted.

After stunning Kyle long enough, Danny pulled out a gravity knife and whipped it open. Without hesitation, he plunged it to the hilt into Kyle's stomach.

The pain that overcame Kyle in that moment was unlike anything he had ever felt in his life. It felt like getting stabbed with a tack... multiplied fifty-fold. It was the worst pain he ever felt, even worse than he imagined it would feel. He fell to the ground, unable to even scream, clutching the stab wound in both hands.

“STOP! STOP!” a bystander shouted as they tackled Danny to the ground.

Several others joined and pinned Danny down, as well as Monica. The two tried to break free, but too many people held them down to do so.

Buzzing filled Kyle's ears; he could not hear anything. All he could focus on was the literal stabbing pain in his lower-left stomach as tears streamed down his face and he breathed erratically. He brought his hands away from the wound briefly to see them thoroughly soaked with his blood. Several people knelt next to him in order to see what was wrong.

“Get the hell off me!” Danny shouted, trying to break loose.

“Call 911!” one of the people who was holding down Danny shouted. “Get the police over here! These two are psycho!”

“Get an ambulance down here, too!” one of the people looking at Kyle's wound said. “This guy is hurt BAD!”

“Just try to calm down...” a nervous-looking woman said to Kyle. “...take deep breaths.”

But Kyle could not follow through with her instruction... because the pain in his torso caused him to lose consciousness.

(XXXX)

The next thing he knew, Kyle awoke in a white room, accompanied by the sound of beeping in an even rhythm. He let out a moan upon waking up.

"Ah, Mr. Schaeffer. I see you've come to." came a female voice.

Kyle opened his eyes a little wider. "...U-ugh... who... who are you...? Where... am I...?" he said.

He was feeling extremely weak and disoriented. His body felt numb and heavy.

"I am Sabrina Torres, licensed nurse. And you are at St. Alda hospital." the nurse said. "Gotta say, you need to learn how to stay out of fights a little bit better."

"...Ah... but..." Kyle began, struggling to speak. "...wh-what happened...?"

Nurse Torres cleared her throat. "Well, the paramedics arrived at the scene to find that you were already unconscious, but your heartbeat and breath were still detectable. However, you were losing blood at a rate of 180 milliliters per minute due to a stab wound in your lower abdomen, so they temporarily dressed your wound and rushed you over here. From the prognosis, most of your organs were fine, but your small intestine was punctured, and required surgical repair. The surgery, however, was a success; they sutured your organs and abdomen. All you need to do now is rest and recover."

"...And... my attacker...?" Kyle asked.

Nurse Torres' face became grim. "Both he and the girl he was with have been taken into police custody, the girl for active assault, and the boy for assault with a dangerous weapon. The police have already determined that your attempted retaliation was justified self-defense, so there will be no charges against you. Both of them are going to court, and they'll be sentenced then." she said.

So... Danny's going to jail, huh? Kyle thought with a weak smile on his face. I knew it... he had it coming.

Lyra immediate came to Kyle's mind. How was she doing on her own? Did she know what happened? How long would it be that she would have to live without him?

"...How long... do I... n-need...?" Kyle said.

"Well, even though you lost a large amount of blood..." Nurse Torres said, looking at a clipboard. "...the wound should heal cleanly in just a few days. You'll be able to go home in a little over a week from now, but avoid excessive physical activity for at least another week after that."

"Okay..." Kyle said, reluctantly.

Hopefully, there could be some way he could contact Lyra. If he could use a laptop or tablet or something, he could send her a priority email to get her attention and update her on the situation.

“Agh...!” Kyle gasped upon noticing the IV in his arm.

“What's the matter?” Nurse Torres asked.

“...Needles.” Kyle said, eyeing the IV line.

"Ah, I see..." Nurse Torres said. "...but you need the morphine so that you won't feel any pain."

"Yeah, I know..." Kyle said.

(XXXX)

Lyra had been wondering about what happened to Kyle, since he was taking a really long time once again. It was already nightfall, and he was not back.

"Ngh... please tell me he didn't crash his car again..." Lyra said.

After pacing for a little bit, her eyes glowed a bright white, and she had visions of the incident surrounding Kyle once more. Shocked at what she saw, she rushed out the door, charged her horn, and let it drag her through the air to find where Kyle went.

"I hope he's alright..." Lyra said to herself as she flew through the air. "...I just need to be sure everything's okay.

(XXXX)

Kyle had gotten bored with the few channels that the hospital had, and switched off the television to take a nap. At some point in the evening, after having slept for a couple of hours, he awoke to the sound of some tapping. Pulling off the eye mask Nurse Torres had given to him, he looked around and saw Lyra outside of the window.

"Huh...? Lyra...?" he said.

Lyra teleported into the hospital room.

"Kyle!" she said. "Oh, dear Celestia... I had another vision! I saw that you got stabbed! Are you okay?"

Kyle nodded. "I am. The doctors say that I have to stay here for a little over a week, and then I can come back home, but I need to avoid any strenuous activity that could re-open my surgical and stab scars for a little while." he said.

Lyra sighed in relief. "Oh, that's good... I was even more worried than last time."

"Anyways, you'd better get out before they hear us." Kyle cautioned.

"Good idea!" Lyra said. "But... I'm gonna miss you for a week!"

"Me too. I'll look forward to coming home." Kyle said. "There should be enough food in the fridge and pantry to last you much longer than a week, just in case."

"Okay." Lyra said. "Well, bye Kyle. I'm gonna head back now."

"Bye, Lyra." Kyle said. "See you in a little over a week from now."

With that, Lyra teleported back out of the room onto the balcony of the hospital window, and performed self-levitation as a means of getting back to the mansion much quicker. Kyle, in the meantime, having nothing else to do, fell asleep.

(XXXX)

Kyle was checked out of the hospital about nine days after his surgery. By then, his wound and surgery scars had healed fairly nicely, but he still had to be fairly careful. Nurse Torres was escorting him out on a wheelchair down to the front lobby, all of his clothes back on his body and personal belongings in a bag on his lap.

“Okay, Mr. Schaeffer, just wait in here for your ride.” Nurse Torres said. “You said they'd be here soon, right?”

Kyle nodded. “Yeah, fairly soon...”

He told her that he contacted someone who lives near him to come and pick him up. This was partially true, but not fully. Kyle had, in actuality, contacted Lyra to come to the hospital and bring him back.

After waiting in the front lobby for a little while, Kyle saw Lyra trying to get his attention, just around the corner outside of the hospital. Nurse Torres happened to spot Kyle heading outside on his wheelchair, but nobody was accompanying him.

“Mr. Schaeffer!” Nurse Torres said, rushing after him.

He rounded the corner outside of the building, entering a blind spot.

“Mr. Schaeffer, wait! Where's your escort!?” Nurse Torres said.

She followed where he went, and saw the empty wheelchair... but Kyle was nowhere to be found.

“Where'd he go...?” a confused Nurse Torres asked, looking around.

(XXXX)

Instead of self-levitation, Lyra had simply teleported to the hospital, now that she knew where it was, and teleported Kyle back with her.

"Wow! That was fast!" Kyle said.

"I know, right?" Lyra said. "So, how's it look...?"

Kyle lifted his shirt to reveal the scars of the wound and surgery.

"They don't look too bad... but I need to be careful not to re-open them." Kyle said.

“I'll just speed up the process with a healing spell...” Lyra said.

She held her horn near the site, and it glowed bright yellow, as did the scars themselves. Slowly, the scars dissipated, and the sensation Kyle had been experiencing for a couple of days was fading away. The scars had disappeared completely, as did the numbness and dull pain.

"Wow... gotta hand it to you, Lyra," Kyle began. "you might be the most powerful Unicorn I've seen! Probably even better than Starlight Glimmer!"

"...Who's Starlight Glimmer?" Lyra asked, looking confused.

Oh, right... she doesn't know. Kyle thought.

"Well, never mind." Kyle said. "It's just good to be back home."

"Good to have you back, Ky-Ky." she said, leaning towards him.

The two shared a quick kiss.

"Well, I hope all's gonna be well and good on the way out from here..." Lyra began. "...but I have a feeling your medical bills will be pretty high."

Kyle nodded, pursing his lips.

"Thank God I have insurance." he said.

Author's Note

Sorry if this chapter seemed a bit inaccurate; I've never been admitted to a hospital in my life, nor do I know anyone who has whom I've asked.