Amber eyes burst open, their owner letting in a great gasp that quickly turned to violent coughs as he choked on the lungful of cloying incense.

"Wha-" he dissolved into coughs again before clearing his throat and trying again.

"What was that?"

Jeong Jeong retrieved a ladle full of water, kept on hand nearby and held it out for the young firebender to drink from deeply.

"Given the candles were all but a conflagration," Jeong waved his free arm to indicate the melted stubs that littered the ground in a rough ring around the boy, "I'll assume that your attempt at meditation was not successful."

"I - I don't know..." For a moment, Zuko trailed off, looking at the candle stubs as if deep in thought.

"I thought I had it that time. I had found my center just as you said I should. The next thing I knew, I heard something screaming and babbling right in front of me. I opened my eyes, or at least I think I did and saw this - this creature dancing in front of me like a crazy child."

"ZUKO!" Jeong Jeong barked drawing the lad's attention back to himself. His eyes narrowed and he seemed to loom over the still kneeling Zuko.

"This is very important. Did it say anything?"

Zuko rocked back on his ankles a bit at the question before his brow furrowed in thought.

"It said a lot, but it was so fast I couldn't understand what it was trying to say. It kept saying 'spin' and 'they come' over and over though. It looked... panicked?"

Jeong Jeong frowned. "A little thing? Wrinkled red body and big ears?"

He saw a spark of recognition in Zuko's eyes and before he could respond, carried on. "I thought as much."

Jeong Jeong kneeled down and looked directly into Zuko's eyes as he spoke with an air of authority.

"That thing is trouble, Zuko. I have seen it in my meditations more than once, and almost every time it has, it has been a sign of trouble. Do not seek it out when you are meditating. There is very good reason why the Avatar is conduit to the spirit realm, to the rest of us mere mortals it is intensely dangerous to interact with any spirit."

"But - "

"But nothing! The harm a spirit can do to a human is beyond imagining! I have personally seen records of benders getting in touch with a spirit only to suddenly find that they were suffocating to death. Why? Because something literally removed her face! One minute she was in deep meditation, the next she was on the floor clawing at the blank skin where her eyes, nose and mouth used to be."

Jeong Jeong stood and turned away from the shocked and faintly nauseated Zuko. "Go. Go clean yourself. It is nearly time for dinner. There will be no more meditation today."

Zuko's good eye narrowed, he looked like he was going to say something for a moment until he thought better of it and stood, making his way towards the river.

Jeong watched the younger man go out of the corner of his eye, waiting until he was out of earshot before he approached the hut and opened the door.

Chey was kneeling on the floor, grinding at an inkstone.

"I'm already preparing your writing materials," he said in a feigned bored tone.

"The boy is progressing fast," said Jeong Jeong, "almost too fast. Even worse, The Spinner seems to have taken an interest in him, though it almost sounds like it is trying to warn the boy of something."

Chey looked up from his inkstone, his forehead wrinkled in concern. "What will you do?"

The old master sighed. "Tonight, I will try to commune with Avatar Roku, just as he came to me when young Avatar Aang sought me out. With any luck, the influence of the moon will dampen the power of that little pest enough that it won't come to me instead."

The corners of Chey's wide mouth turned up into a wry smile. "If that's the case, I'll go fetch us another case of candles. Spirits know you and now young Zuko too run through them fast enough that I'm surprised you don't meditate on a circle of wax rather than sand."

Jeong scoffed at the image even as he turned introspective. Zuko had only been here for not even a week, but his relentless work ethic was to be admired if not for the fact that the boy just simply never stopped training.

"It is going to be a long night," he murmured to his companion. "Something obviously has that little spirit scared, and whatever can scare a spirit... Well, let's just hope it cannot touch us."

Spike emerged from the laboratory to find a pink mare with a small white cap perched on her white streaked purple mane and a caramel stallion in a lab coat standing side by side as they perused on of the shelves of the library. It wasn't unusual to get one or two ponies coming in through the day to borrow a book, but two coming in together was enough of a break in the routine for him to momentarily forget the scroll clutched in his claw and approach them.

"Hey there," he called out as he crossed the room, "can I help you find something?"

The stallion turned to the young dragon and recognition lit up in his eyes. "Ah yes, we are looking for Magical Minotaur Maladies, or another similar work. Do you have it by any chance?"

Spike turned his head to one side as he lifted a claw to his chin in thought. "I don't think we do, I don't remember seeing a book with that name before. One moment and I will go and get Twilight, maybe she can help you."

At the stallion's nod of assent, Spike turned and scampered back the way he came and opened the door back down to the basement.

"TWI-LIIIIIGHT!" He called drawing her name out as he called for his pony companion. "We got a borrower who needs your help up here!"

"Be right up," her voice floated back to him.

Nurse Sweetheart glanced at the stallion, concern written on her face. The doctor merely smiled back at her and winked.

Spike turned to nod and smile at the pair, before he wandered over to the open window and sent a letter by fire, much to the fascination of Sweetheart, who had never seen a dragon sending mail before. That done, the dragon headed out back towards the kitchen.

In a flash of magic, Twilight Sparkle appeared in the middle of the room. A quick glance around the room located the medical ponies whom she turned to with an enthusiastic smile.

"Good afternoon, how can I help you?"

Doctor Stable stepped forward as spokespony for the pair. "As we had just told your young dragon friend, we are trying to find a copy of Magical Minotaur Maladies or another similar work."

Twilight's brow furrowed as she frowned in thought. "I don't think I've ever heard of that one. Obviously this is for a case at the hospital, can you give me a description of what you are looking for? I might be able to help you find a solution in one of the other books."

"Of course. I have had several cases occur in which I suspect are related to Mazerunner's Narcolepsy. The symptoms I have observed so far include sudden unexplained aggression, dyspnea - which is a form of heavy breathing, impatience, gullibility, and of course suddenly falling asleep for no apparent reason."

Twilight frowned in thought for a moment before turning to the shelf full of medical and magical journals and dictionaries. "Maybe we can find something in..."

With a faint sigh of released breath, the lavender unicorn slumped to the floor, her eyes drifting closed.

"Oh, oh my!" Doctor Stable said with feigned alarm.

"Spine! Spine come quickly, we need your help!" He called out.

Spike rushed from the back room, grumbling slightly at the misspeaking of his name.

"Twilight!" He cried out in alarm, seeing her lying prone on the floor beside the medical ponies. He rushed forward and laid his claws on her shoulder to try and shake her and get a response from her.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the faint blue glimmer of magic from the unicorn before the world faded to black,

"D-Doctor Stable!" Nurse Sweetheart half scolded half laughed as her composure finally broke.

"Gullibility? Really?"

Doctor Stable cracked a grin and wiggled his eyebrows over his glasses at the nurse.

"Please, make them comfortable while I go find our wayward patient. If what I suspect is right, he will be downstairs."

Sweetheart nodded her assent as she knelt and began nosing Spike onto her back. The doctor briskly trotted over to the door to the basement and disappeared downstairs.

Sweetheart had just finished placing the drowsing dragon onto one end of the sofa when the sound of angry stomping hooves came from the basement staircase.

A thunderous Doctor Stable emerged and looked to the gentle nurse. "Come downstairs, I'll need your help with this one."

He turned to head back down, but stopped halfway when he noticed Twilight, still slumped on the floor. A telekinetic lift later, she was preceding him down the stairs and into the laboratory.

Behind him, he heard Sweetheart gasp in horror as she spotted the form of Iroh suspended in the center of a circular frame, each of his limbs clamped in some sort of vice around its perimeter.

Stable placed Twilight on the floor, even now his medical training precluding him from throwing her roughly to the floor as he oh so badly wanted to do.

It took a little fiddling, but they eventually managed to release the clamps that were holding Iroh's hands and feet captive, allowing Stable to gently lower the old man to the floor.

"Hmm... minor stress damage to his shoulders and withers, probably from holding up his weight and his head not being cushioned. He's also got a lot of new scratches since I last saw him, do you think that was from when he was helping everypony around town?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," responded Sweetheart, "after what Drizzle told me about how he was helping everypony get free in town, I wouldn't be surprised at all."

"Shall we wake our slumbering saviour then?" Stable asked with a wry smile.

"Um..." Sweetheart hesitated.

"When I found him in his room at the hospital, he was very scary..."

"Oh pish! I'm sure he was just confused about where he was. He was just having the reaction typical of any stallion in a strange place."

"If - if you say so..."

Doctor Stable turned and focused on his awakening spell, only for it to have no effect.

"Drat! I forgot how powerful that mare is."

With a bead of sweat appearing on his forehead, he overcharged his awakening spell and cast it again.

Iroh came awake with a jerk, his body lifting clear of the floor as he shot awake.

"Easy, easy now, friend." Stable placed a hoof on the back of Iroh's shoulder to steady him as the jolt of the sudden awakening faded.

"Wha? Who?" It was clear Iroh was at least a little disoriented.

"World shaking conversation can wait for later. I'm Doctor Stable, you've met Nurse Sweetheart here before."

The named mare lifted her hoof and waved nervously.

"For now, I think we need to get you out of here and your wounds tended to. But before that, your possessions are on the table over there. Do you think you can stand?"

Placing one hand on a nearby bench, Iroh hauled himself to his feet and scrutinized the room as he wobbled slightly.

"I can stand, for now. I am called Iroh and you have my thanks, I think."

On unsteady feet, Iroh hobbled over to the desk upon which his clothes were piled and proceeded to dress himself.

"What are you doing?" The soft voice of the nurse behind him caused Iroh to turn and look over his shoulder and catch sight of the doctor levitating an unconscious purple unicorn into a circular frame.

"Just giving our charming librarian a healthy dose of her own medicine. If she wants to behave like a villain from a Daring Do book, then she can get treated as one!"

This said, he concentrated as he carefully seated each of her hooves into a clamp before closing them firmly.

"Oh, lovely!" Stable exclaimed as he caught sight of an attachment sitting in a basket next to the frame.

"She has a thaumometer attachment for this, as well. We'll just slip that on her horn, and plug the other end into the grounding socket... I wouldn't want to be her in a couple of hours."

Iroh turned as he finished shrugging into his inner robe and tying it off, his eyebrow raising as the now entrapped unicorn came back into his line of sight.

"Sorry if this looks bad, but we have to do something to keep her from coming after you again. She's more than a bit obsessive once she gets her hooves into a subject." Stable apologized.

"No, it's all right. If she's crazy, she needs to go down until you can get her some help." Iroh shrugged the gesture lost on the two ponies, even though Sweetheart couldn't help but giggle at the comical situation Twilight was now in.

"I know just what this situation needs..." She cast about rapidly for a quill and paper and proceeded to write something as elegantly as she could.

"Can you please stick this on her, doctor? Ohhh! I wish I had a camera now!"

The doctor laughed out loud at the cheeky nurse's note before levitating it up and using a sticking spell to attach it to the middle of Twilight's chest. Iroh for his part chuckled at the note, even though he did not get the reference.

That done, Stable turned to the freshly dressed Iroh.

"I hope you don't mind coming back with us to the hospital? I am the one who treated your wounds when you first got here and it looks like you could do with a little more patching up. Not to mention some rest in a more peaceful environment."

"Then it appears I am in your debt not once, but thrice Doctor Stable." Iroh bowed before him.

"After the madness of the last few days, it would be nice to find somewhere to get my bearings for a bit, not that my visit to miss Zecora was not enlightening..."

The trio left the basement and tiptoed past Spike, who was still slumbering on the couch and leaving Twilight stuck in place in the basement, a sign adorning her chest for whoever came to find her first.

Daring Do Villain Contest
Runner Up

Author's Notes:

No editor at all on this chapter, hopefully I didn't mess up too badly...