They all just stood there and stared at Sharpy. Neither of them could really believe that he was truly awake. And nopony could ever blame them. He’d woken up at such an unbelievable convenient time it was ridiculous. They all stared for a while to make sure they weren’t imagining everything. But clearly they weren’t. Sharpy grunted one more time and carefully held himself on chest. He then rolled over to the side so that he faced the cave wall. Rainbow took the opportunity to give Rarity a victorious smile.

“See? I told you”, Rainbow said and pointed at the obvious conscious Sharpy. “I told you he’d wake up any second”.  Rainbow wanted that Rarity would try to defend herself so that she could really rub it in her face. But instead of replying to Rainbow, tears started falling down from her cheeks. The same happened to Fluttershy. But this wasn’t tears of sadness, but tears of joy. Two big smiled showed up on their respective faces. Rarity immediately ran up to Sharpy and hugged him hard. Sharpy, who wasn’t in a very good shape, started waving with his legs in surprise and because the pressure was too much for his weak body. Rarity realized that and let go a bit but without fully releasing him.

“You’re okay! You’re alive!” Rarity said while gently rubbing her cheek against Sharpy’s. Finally Rarity let go and looked at Sharpy, who took the opportunity to roll over so that he was facing them. He did it slowly and carefully. He grimaced in pain as he was rolling over. Then his eyes met Fluttershy’s. Fluttershy just stood there, completely stunned, staring back at Sharpy. After a few moments a smile, that just continued to grow bigger, formed on his face. Fluttershy started to walk forward as a smile on her face started to appear as well. But when Fluttershy was half-way there, Sharpy quickly closed his mouth so that you couldn’t see his teeth, but he kept the smile.

Sharpy knew that it was his draconic-like features, like his teeth, that scared Fluttershy and kept them apart in the first place. So he wasn’t very fond of showing her anything that could remind her of his true form.

Fluttershy stopped for a moment and looked a little disappointed at Sharpy. Sharpy’s smile disappeared. He should have expected. Why would Fluttershy just accept it like that? But Fluttershy did something Sharpy didn’t expect. She walked right up to him, bowed down, and gave him a kiss followed up with a gentle hug.

“I’m sorry…” she whispered in his ear. “Please don’t hide anything for me anymore”. Sharpy did not reply. He didn’t really know what was going on. Fluttershy had been so scared when she realized he was a dragon. But now she even kissed him? He wasn’t angry, no. Just surprised.

Fluttershy loosened her hug a little so that she could look him in the eyes. Sharpy looked back, still surprised.

“It doesn’t matter what you are, but who you are”, Fluttershy said as tears of happiness filled her eyes. “I’m just glad you’re ok”. Fluttershy went closer again and placed her cheek against his. Fluttershy couldn’t see it, but she could feel against her cheek how the big smile on Sharpy’s face returned, and how tears started flowing from his eyes. Fluttershy saw how Sharpy slowly raised a shaking hoof and placed it around her neck, hugging her back. His hoof lied heavy around her neck as he probably had a hard time even raising it.

“Thank you”, he whispered in her ear. He tried to say something more, but couldn’t. Talking made his chest hurt too much. But he didn’t have to say anything. Fluttershy knew what Sharpy tried to say. But even so, Sharpy swallowed and tried again. “I…” he began, but started to cough immediately.

Fluttershy hushed Sharpy. She put her hoof on his head and slowly let her hoof go through his mane. She didn’t want him to talk. She just wanted to be close to him. To feel his soft, beautiful coat. To feel his chest move when he breathed. To feel his strong heart beat. She wanted to know that he was ok. That he would survive. And now she knew for sure that Sharpy would be ok. That he would recover. His breathing was already almost normal, even though he’d just woken up. His heart was beating as it should. There was no doubt about it. Knowing that made her calm.

For a few moments both Fluttershy and Sharpy didn’t have a care in the world. Sharpy managed to build up enough strength hug Fluttershy tighter and burry his face on her mane. Fluttershy did the same. The scent from the other pony made them feel both calm and safe. It was completely silent. Nopony said a single word for minutes. Not even Rainbow Dash and Rarity. Rainbow just stood there with a smug. It was obvious that she was getting a bit bored by just standing there. She was already thinking of something appropriate to say to break the silence. Rarity stood there with a sad smile. She liked Sharpy. A lot. And seeing him and Fluttershy together made her feel a bit down. But at the same time she felt happy for both Sharpy and Fluttershy. There was nothing but true love between those two. One does not simply follow somepony on a dangerous quest, even if you’re hiding or not, without having some kind of feelings for him. But then Rarity looked down. She had been following him on this dangerous journey too. In fact, they all have. She supposed they all felt something for him. Whether it was pity or actual friendship they were all here now. And they were here together. Rarity looked up again. Now with a big smile and shining eyes. They were here together. As friends helping another friend. That’s what matters. Friends help each other whether it was a big magical dragon or just a cold. Rarity took a look at Sharpy and Fluttershy again. She couldn’t help but to laugh a little. Their happiness made her happy as well. She didn’t know how her and Sharpy’s relation would grow or if they would simply stay friends. At this point, there wasn’t much she could do to change the outcome. And she wouldn’t try to steal him from Fluttershy. That wasn’t her style and besides, she wasn’t sure if she liked to admit it or not, but they fit so well together. As long as her friends were happy, she would be happy.

“Hey!” Rainbow said, breaking the wonderful silence and disturbing Rarity’s thoughts. “Shouldn’t you eat something, Sha…OW!” Rarity bumped into Rainbow, glaring at her. Rainbow glared back. “What!?” Rainbow raised her voice.

“Can’t you see that they are spending some precious time together?” Rarity whispered back. She made sure that she sounded assertive. Rainbow and Rarity glared at each other without saying a single word. Fluttershy stopped hugging Sharpy and looked back at the two mares. She shook her head and sighed. Then she looked back at Sharpy and he looked from Rainbow and Rarity and back to Fluttershy.

“I think Rainbow might be right…” Fluttershy said, still looking at Sharpy. Rainbow and Rarity both let their eyes off the other’s eyes and looked at Fluttershy. “Well, he’s been out for about a day now…”

Rainbow looked back at Rarity and gave her a victorious smile. Rarity just replied by rolling her eyes, showing that she was too mature to consider this a competition. She walked up to Fluttershy and Sharpy.

“Then let us help you walk over to the fireplace”, Rarity said and looked Sharpy in the eyes. Sharpy just looked at her with blank eyes before his cheeks turned red. Sharpy didn’t feel too keen to let them help him with something as easy as to walk. He shook his head. He wouldn’t accept any help until he had made sure personally that he wasn’t able to walk himself. Fluttershy and Rarity looked worried at each other and moved reluctantly out of the way. Sharpy moved carefully to the side so that he would be able to stand up. Sharpy used one leg at a time and slowly bringing himself up. When he finally stood up he was shaking worryingly much and by looking at his facial expression it really looked like he would throw up any second. Of course he didn’t throw up, mostly because there was nothing in his stomach that he could throw up. But as soon as he tried to take the first step, his legs gave up and he fell to the ground. Fortunately, Rainbow was fast enough to catch him before touching the ground.

“Perhaps I need a little…” Sharpy coughed. “…help, after all.” Sharpy looked up at Rainbow who had just saved him from a massive headache. She looked back at him for a few seconds before nodding slowly.

“I think you do”. With that said, Rainbow pulled Sharpy up and with the help of Rarity and Fluttershy they were able to help him over to the fire where the other ponies sat around the fire, still unaware of Sharpy’s improved condition. As they slowly came closer, Pinkie Pie was the first one to notice that Sharpy was awake. She immediately jumped up and smiled.

“Sharpy is awake, girls!” She quickly ran up to him and gave him a hug. Applejack walked up to Sharpy after Pinkie and helped him to sit down by the fire. Then she put her hat on top of his head and handed him a bowl of soup.

“Good to see ya doin’ all right, partner!” Sharpy nodded gratefully to Applejack and grabbed the bowl with his hooves. Sharpy knew he was weak and didn’t want to accidentally drop the bowl and spill out all the soup, so he and carefully lowered his head so that his lips touched the edge of the bowl. Then he slowly, but surely, raised his hooves so that the hot, tasty soup poured into his mouth. It was delicious and he didn’t mind that it was very hot. In fact, he welcomed the heat. He had been feeling pretty cold and generally like rubbish as soon as he woke up. Now after eating the soup he didn’t feel quite as cold anymore and he didn’t doubt that the food would make him feel better later on.

Sharpy quickly ate the bowl of soup. It was so delicious that he asked for another bowl, even though they usually never ate too much to conserve the food. Sharpy wasn’t sure why he liked the soup so much. It was just a simple soup with different kinds of vegetables and spices. He guessed it could be because he was very hungry. He hadn’t eaten anything for a very long time. Besides, he needed the extra energy to be able to recover. When he asked for more, Applejack just laughed and refilled his bowl.

Just before Sharpy would start eating his second bowl of soup, Twilight walked up to him looking very thoughtful. Sharpy stopped what he was doing and gave her a questioning look as to what she was thinking about.

“It’s quite interesting, really”, Twilight said to herself and looked at Sharpy as if she was studying him. Fluttershy. She have had her eyes on Sharpy the whole time, noticed that and walked up to Twilight.

“What’s interesting?” she asked. Sharpy just looked at Twilight and asked her the same thing. Both Fluttershy and Sharpy now looked at Twilight with big eyes, waiting for an answer. What could be interesting anyway?

“How quickly you recover, Sharpy”, Twilight said and sat down beside him. Fluttershy did the same. “That’s what’s interesting”. Fluttershy looked at Sharpy while he looked back at her and Twilight.

“Well… perhaps it wasn’t as bad as we thought?” Fluttershy said.

“Oh, but it was!” Twilight said quickly. “I and Rarity were able to sense his lungs with our magic. It didn’t look good”. Fluttershy wasn’t exactly sure where Twilight wanted to go with this. Sure, Sharpy had recovered quickly and it was something to be happy about. It really felt like the best thing that could ever have happened at the moment. But she didn’t understand why she thought it was so interesting.

Twilight didn’t wait for Fluttershy to respond and continued.

“We weren’t able to help him even close to what was necessary. And yet, he’s almost able to sit perfectly”, Twilight said excited and pointed at Sharpy. “If any other pony would suffer the same damage it would take at least a week with professional healers to get her into a fully recovered state. But at this rate, Sharpy should be fine in just a couple of days”.

“But that’s wonderful news!” Rarity joined the conversation and sat down between Twilight and Sharpy. She gave Sharpy the most beautiful smile to show him how relived she was that he would be ok. Sharpy smiled back and carefully nudged her with his hoof. But then Sharpy got a serious look on his face. He looked at Twilight. Then he coughed a little to prepare himself to talk.

“So you say that… that I recover much faster… than others?” Sharpy said slowly with a hoarse voice. It was obvious that he wasn’t completely ready to talk just yet. Twilight smiled and nodded as Sharpy spoke. When he was done, Twilight raised a hoof.

“…other ponies. Not dragons”. The other looked at Twilight and nodded assent. They all started to understand where she was going with this. Everypony except Sharpy. To him this was nothing strange.

“But I’m not recovering… faster than usual…” he said, looking a bit confused. “It still hurts when I… accidently hit my hind leg into something”. Sharpy looked at his leg. You couldn’t see the wound, but it still hurts when putting too much pressure on it or, as he said, hit something.

“But a pony would still have to clean her wounds”, Twilight said. She smiled and looked back at Spike, who was currently talking to Applejack about something. They were too far away so you couldn’t hear what they said. “When Spike was just a baby he used to fall a lot when he tried to walk. I remember how I noticed that the scrapes that he got always healed so quickly compared to mine. At the time I was jealous. But now I find it interesting”. Twilight stood up and started to walk towards her room. After a few steps she turned back and looked Sharpy in the eye. “When this is over, I’ll have a lot of questions for you”. She gave him a friendly smile before she turned around and took the final steps to the room she shared with Spike. Next Chapter: Chapter 25: Lights in the Night Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 13 Minutes