Much thanks to Stitchentyme for the proof reading and the suggestions on reordering this chapter so that it flows better

Staggering in through the front door of the Ponyville Hospital, Octavia gasped out with a call for help to the nurse at the desk before collapsing under the weight of her unconscious passenger. Nurse Redheart rushed out from behind the desk, followed rapidly by Nurse Snowheart and one of the orderly unicorn stallions often kept on duty to deal with the heavy lifting or when one of the patients or guests got too out of hand.

As Snowheart saw to Octavia, helping her to a bench to rest and fetching her water to drink the orderly levitated the unconscious Iroh onto a stretcher. "Take it to room four, Steel Crescent, I'll go find the doctor and get him down here."
Redheart briskly ordered the periwinkle unicorn before turning and cantering towards the stairs.

"Yes ma'am" was the only utterance from Steel Crescent as he began levitating the now loaded stretcher down the hallway towards the treatment rooms and out of sight.

"Now, I simply must know," the gossipy Nurse Snowheart began once the room was clear of all but herself and the slowly recovering Octavia, "where in the world did you find that creature? I've never seen anything like it outside of one of Fluttershy's monkeys in her menagerie."

"I'm pretty sure it is what is called a human," Octavia gave a weak smile, the opportunity for civilized conversation brightening her afternoon somewhat, "at least that is what Lyra calls them. I have heard her describe them often enough after rehearsing a piece, that it could hardly have been anything else."

"Alright, so it's one of Miss Heartstring’s fanciful creatures come to life, that's amazing in itself but where did it come from? It can't have just fallen out of the sky you know." At this, Octavia could not help but to break into laughter as she did her best to explain that that was precisely how the human had appeared.

Meanwhile, in a treatment room nearby, Doctor Stable carefully peeled the creature's clothing back one layer at a time so as to get to the bleeding wounds that lay underneath.

“Nurse Redheart,” he spoke calmly as he concentrated on his work, “would you be a dear and fetch me some more disinfectant and bandages? I should be fine here since it looks as though it has had no adverse reactions to the sedative.”

“Yes, doctor,” she replied already on her way out the door and on her way to the supply closet.

“My, my... Well we know you are a primate of some kind my friend.” he spoke conversationally to the unconscious Iroh.

Finally removing the final layer, he gave a light chuckle, “and a stallion at that. No need to worry my good fellow, we’ll soon have you patched up and out of here.”

Floating a clipboard and quill closer, he started dictating to himself, a bad habit he had picked up over the years.

“Subject is primate like in nature, possibly related to the yeti in some way. Male, with grey hair covering his face and head as well as at the junctions of both sets of limbs with the body. Paws on all four limbs, the lower paws being elongated with stubby digits, the forepaws having five long digits, with rudimentary claws on the end of each one…”

As the doctor carried on his monologue, Nurse Redheart re-entered the room and set to work disinfecting the deeper of the scratches on Iroh’s arms, carefully bandaging each limb as she finished.

Having finished his note taking, the doctor turned to Nurse Redheart. “Would you be kind enough to go through the saddlebag he came in with while I take care of his back? It may hold some clue as to his name.”

“His name?” the nurse wondered aloud.

“Of course his name.” the doctor responded. “You’ll find that most creatures that have the mental capacity to wear clothes of some kind will often have clues as to their identity. This is doubly true if they carry a saddle bag for travel as this one seems to.”

Nurse Redheart turned and pawed at the buckle on the bag for a moment before unlatching it, the buckle being much smaller than she was used to dealing with.

Opening the bag, she found sitting on top a collection of round canisters, reminiscent of steel jam jars. Setting one down on the floor, she gripped it firmly with her fore hooves while grabbing the lid with her teeth. An expert twist of her neck later, the canister audibly popped open releasing the most heavenly aroma she had smelt in a long time.

The canister contained dried and shredded leaves which were emitting that sweet aroma. Closing it back up, the nurse tried each of the canisters in turn, each one holding a slightly different type of dried leaf.

“Doctor Stable, I think he might be a trader of some kind. He has containers filled with if I’m not mistaken, tea leaves, loads and loads of tea leaves.”

“Interesting… what else is there?” The doctor did not look away from his work, preferring to carry on patching up the wounds on Iroh’s back and the backs of his legs which for some reason were tending more towards dark bruises rather than scratches.

The nurse turned back to the bag, announcing each item as she pulled it out. “Clothes, more clothes, some cups, more clothes. Hmm a box and there was a board of some kind underneath. Feels like very thick parchment to me.”

Setting the box on the floor, she puzzled out the latch on the front, allowing her to open the box. “There are discs inside all marked with some kind of flower, doctor. No idea what they could mean though, perhaps pieces for a game?”

“No sign of parchments or scrolls in there? Nothing with any writing?”

“A small bag of metal discs in the side pocket. They look as though they could be some kind of an odd version of bits.”

“Very well, pack his things away again and place them in the corner for now. I’m almost done here, and it appears the poor fellow was very lucky. No signs of a concussion or any other head wounds other than the scratches he got from landing in that bush.”

As the nurse finished packing the last of Iroh’s effects back into his bag, Doctor Stable spoke up again. “I think that I shall go and pay a quick visit to Miss Fluttershy presently, being our resident animal expert, she may have some insight into who or what this fellow is. Will you be OK dealing with the other patients while I am gone?”

“Of course doctor.” the nurse stated primly, “I shall get on with my rounds then. See you when you get back.”

The doctor trotted out of the room and soon after out of the hospital, heading for the path out towards the Everfree Forest and the cottage belonging to Fluttershy on its edge.

In front of a particular slightly mangled blackberry bush, a bird flutters down to perch on a green horn, settling down for a rest as the sun sets in the distance.

'I wonder why those ponies put a statue here of all places' she wonders to herself.

A few moments later, the bird flies away at the sound of approaching hooves. A stallion in a flower print shirt crests the hill, a white filly with a bi-color mane cantering at his side to keep up with his much longer stride. His bushy brown eyebrows rise in concern as he spots the form of Lyra standing in the same position she had been in for some hours now.

"Miss?" He called out to the unicorn, "Miss Lyra? Why are you still here?" Getting no response he moves and puts a fore hoof on her shoulder only to jerk back in surprise as she bursts into action.

"GAH!" Lyra exclaims, "That’s a HUMAN!"

Shaking her head vigorously again, Lyra looks back into the bush. "Huh? Where'd it go?" Looking up and noticing the empty and rapidly darkening park around her, she blushes. 'Oh sweet Celestia! I didn't space out in front of all those ponies did I?' she thinks to herself, almost rhetorically.

"Where did what go, Miss Lyra?" Magnum asks, Sweetie Belle at his side looking on curiously.

Lyra rears up for a moment in excitement flailing her hooves as she exclaims "There was a human, a real live human right here!"

"Is that what that critter was called? I heard about it being found somewhere around here. Is that right?"

"It was here!" Lyra gesticulated at the bush. "It was up there, and it was spinning like a ball and then it crashed down on the lake, but it didn't go underwater, it bounced, bounced like a ball! Maybe humans have powers that make them bounce, like a pegasus flies! Oooh wouldn't that be cool? Bouncing everywhere maybe a little bit like a rabbit or something maybe that’s why they have toes!"

As Lyra once again slipped into one of her trademark fanciful rants about a creature he had never seen before, Magnum quietly levitated the awestruck Sweetie Belle onto his back while the little filly all but went cross eyed trying to understand the nonstop stream of consciousness emitting from Lyra's muzzle.

Backing slowly away, both his and Sweetie Belle's eyes locked on the verbose mare, Magnum headed towards the path out of the park again and back on the way to Sweet Apple Acres where his younger daughter and her two friends were to have a sleepover that night while Rarity and her five friends accompanied headed north on another one of their crazy adventures no doubt.

Back in the park, Lyra finally ran out of steam and looked back around, only to find the park deserted. Deprived of an audience for her theories, she instead turned to the much more interesting dilemma of finding her newest research specimen - FRIEND! Lyra told herself sternly. 'We make friends first, AND THEN we get to the fingers...'

Lyra mentally trailed off again as she started to drift into a daydream about learning how fingers worked. NO! I've got to find the human first. Looking more carefully around the park before circling the blackberry bush a couple of times just to be sure, she began her hunt - for a friend of course... heh heh...

"Now if I were a human, where would I go in Ponyville?" she wondered aloud. "Oh duh! Sugarcube Corner!" Her destination and quarry firmly in mind, Lyra lights her horn to help light her way in the twilight and sets off for her sweet, sweet destination and its delicious cupcakes - 'HUMAN!' She refocuses her mind, 'Human first, cupcakes second!'

Amongst the mists between worlds, an argument has begun between three very different beings.

“If you hadn’t been so obsessed with your thrice cursed ‘spin’ the human would not have been hurt! We were supposed to grant his wish! Not give him his peace through the afterlife!” raged a female voice through the murk, some of the vapours taking on a distinctly orange tone as her anger gathered strength.

“Spin?! Spin not do that to fleshy flesh bag! That was power! Too much power!” the imp danced back and forth pointing his gnarled arm in the direction of the towering giant amongst their group.

“The power was just fine.” Argued the giant. “Any less and we could not have taken him across worlds. If you ask me, this was all a matter of precision and isn’t precision your department my dear?”

“My aim was perfect,” she snootily responded, “as always. This time someone just HAD to move the target. What were you thinking? So much spin meant there was no way he could have had a safe landing!”

The spirit of the mists shrieked in outrage as the circular argument began anew, their voices echoing into the empty distance.

In a candle lit cottage within the Everfree Forest a striped head looks up from her simmering cauldron jerkily, its green glow adding an eerie shine to her suddenly glassy eyes.

“A great beast comes to mortal’s friend,
Its will denied, a world shall end.
His student returned to realm afar,
Just reward undone before falling star.”

Swaying in place for a moment, the zebra shakes her head dazedly before rushing over to a workbench to transcribe the words that had just come to her unbidden before they could be forgotten.

A stone clatters along the Gaipan trail as a confused and desolate Zuko hikes onward alone. Having spent several hours searching and calling for his Uncle, there was no sign of the old man at all. Trying to stay alert for Earth Kingdom patrols or bounty hunters was not an easy task as he worried at the problem of where Uncle Iroh had gone. Why did he disappear? And just as importantly, did he disappear willingly?

"It would be just like the old man to do this to try and teach me some kind of lesson." Zuko grumbled to himself, even though he had been separated from the tea drinking fool before, just west of the Si Wong desert. That time, Zuko had been the one to walk away, though his uncle had followed him secretly, keeping an eye on him.

'So be it,' he thought, 'if Uncle is going to pull this on me now, I'm going with the original plan. I'll find some way to get into Ba Sing Se and find him, the Avatar or both.'

Cheered somewhat by his resolution, he picked up his pace, almost unable to keep himself from humming one of Iroh's tunes.

"It's a long, long way to Ba Sing Se but the girls in the city they look so... WHAT AM I DOING?!" Zuko held his head in his hands. "That's it; drinking Uncle's stupid hot leaf juice is starting to drive me as crazy as a badger-mole!"

Now back in his much more typical grouchy demeanour, he continued stalking down the trail.

Author's Notes:

EDIT: No more posting before proofreading for me.