I could not see. I could feel pain all over. Breathing hurt, my chest rattled with each gasp for air. I could vaguely hear voices and feel movement like I was being carried. Suddenly the pain in my chest receded and and I felt a gentle peace. I opened my eyes and was perplexed by what I saw. I was looking at myself laying in a hospital bed. Surrounding me were Fluttershy and her friend Twilight. Beside them were five other ponies I did not recognize, an orange earth pony in a cowboy hat, a pink one with a poofy mane, a unicorn that resembled a marshmallow, a rainbow colored pegasus, and lastly an older-looking male unicorn with a brown coat and what looked like a cane in his forehoof. Seriously how does that even work?

I saw Fluttershy at my side, a look of worry on her face and a bandage on her shoulder. She sat there, her face tear-streaked, my left hand laying limp in her hooves. I could hear her whispering over and over, "Don't you die on me mister, don't you die." The pink one and rainbow one were beside her with comforting hooves stroking her mane and back.

Twilight was twitching her wings and speaking to the brown one, "Doctor Hoarse, is there anything we can do?"

The brown unicorn replied in a gravely voice, "It's in his hooves now. I have bandaged him and used mediglue to put his ribs and foreleg back together. He has lost a lot of blood though and we have nothing similar in stock to transfuse in to him."

Twilight grumbled in irritation, "I just don't get it. At first when I did a simple body scan spell on him it was like he wasn't even there. Now he is covered in faint ley lines, like a weak unicorn. It's doesn't make any sense, how did he go from being completely void of magic to having the equivalent of a unicorn foal?"

"Princess," the Doctor said, "That is the least of his problems right now."

I was genuinely perplexed. Couldn't they see I was just fine? What is this silver thread coming out of my chest and in to my...chest?

Why am I floating over everyone and why can I see myself laying in a hospital bed. What is that bright light.

Oh...

Music. I could hear music. All around me. I felt as if I was floating in an ocean of harmony. There was no pain, only peace. After the pain and confusion of the last few days I simply allowed myself to float. I don't know how much time passed. I knew only the music surrounding me. I knew peace. I could see every moment of every day of my life. Then I felt a warm hand on mine and the sweetest voice in the world spoke, "Wake up sleepyhead."

I opened my eyes. I was resting against an old oak tree in a meadow that stretched from horizon to horizon. Beside me sitting in the grass was a fair skinned woman with dark hair and eyes. A mischievous smile on her lips.

"Yvette..." I choked.

"You always were so hard to wake up sleepy head." She said with a voice full of mirth.

I wanted to run, I wanted to scream. This was a dream, a nightmare. She was gone. There is no coming back. Dead is dead. I failed her and she died. She died because I wanted to play hero. My fault my fault myfaultsinsinsinner!

"Oh calm down. We have been here so many times and you are always so down on yourself if I get here first." She said with a bit of annoyance.

"How...how are you here...I lost you in that..." I was crying.

"My silly old Bear, we aren't in the waking world right now. We are in our place we go to rest between lives. Although given your current state you probably don't remember." She looked at me closely.

"No, you still have a bit of life in you. 'Fraid that's how it works hon. You gotta shuffle off your burdens before you remember this place."

I sat there trying to understand, "Yvette...beloved...is it really you?"

She punched my arm, "Yes it is me you dork!" then gave a giggle. That giggle that melted my heart so long ago.

"Yvette, hon, I am so sorry I let you dow-" she put her hand over my mouth.

"Love, shut up. Seriously I get a little tired of telling you in each life to stop trying to shoulder all the burden. Random things do happen and sometimes one of us has a bad end. But when your real time comes you will remember soulmates always find each other."

She gave a little giggle and continued, "I remember this one time in the 1930s, we were just teenagers and we ran in to ourselves that were born in the 1890s. That was so weird." Her voice was so full of mirth and whimsy. My heart ached so much.

"But how, what? It was 2013 when I lost you..." I asked in a perplexed manner.

"Hon, time has no meaning here. I was born yesterday, tomorrow, and just now. Then I died three minutes ago." There are rules here but not the ones you are used to.

I just shook my head, this had to be a dream. Suddenly I felt a pain in my gut like something was trying to pull me forward and I saw a silvery cord attached to my chest going off in to the sky.

"Well hon it looks like your new friends need you back so I will make this quick." She said with her "mom voice".

"Creation has a job for you this time so you have to go back and finish it. It will be hard. It's going to ask more of you than it ever has before but I promise you if you get it right you will be happy in this life and the one to come. Well until we decide to go live another one again."

I sat there starting to feel pain all over. Then she leaned over and locked her lips with mine. I wished that time would stop for me and this moment would continue forever, but like all things with a beginning there was an end. "Now one last thing. I know you don't remember it but I always find you. This time you come find me."

I looked at her without comprehension and that quirky smile began to grow on her face. She raised her hand and flicked me on the nose and said, "Tag, you're it!"

Then I was falling.

Falling. Falling is easy to do. All that is required of you is to relax yourself and surrender to gravity.

I awoke staring at a sterile white ceiling. My throat was dry and my eyes crusty. I blinked slowly taking in the view. Turning my head I could see a window giving me a view of the sun setting over a town. Sitting on a chair beside me was Twilight Sparkle, my tablet hovering in a field of purple as she seemed to be engrossed with it.

"It's polite to ask before you borrow something Princess." I croaked.

Twilight's eyes shot to me and she said excitedly, "Oh my gosh you're awake! We were so worried!"

Weakly I stretched my left arm out and gave a playful bop on her shoulder, "Take more than some ill-tempered firewood to put me down."

Twilight gave a little humph at my seemingly blase attitude.

"So, how bad off am I?"

Twilight's face softened. "We almost lost you. In fact we did for a minute or so but Doctor Hoarse got your heart beating again."

"How bad Twilight?" I asked again.

"Three broken ribs, a punctured lung, broken arm, severed artery, concussion, more bruises than we could count, and ley line overload." She said.

"You have been in Ponyville General Hospital for the last month."

"A month?" I croaked. That was almost too much for me to take in.

"Could I have some water?" I asked trying to relieve my parched throat.

"Just a sec." Twilight said and levitated a paper cup over too me. I grasped it in my left hand and took slow careful sips.

I felt weak as a kitten. Speaking of kitten I noticed Tripod for the first time curled up sound asleep between my feet. On seeing him I smiled. He had grown a bit and was looking a bit plump and healthy. No more sleeping in my beard it would seem.

"Twilight," I asked, "Can you pull the sheet down just below my stomach, I want to see the damage."

Her horn lit up and the bed sheet slid down just far enough to preserve modesty. Looking down I blinked. Then I blinked again. There wasn't a mark on me. Other than the gauze wrapped around my wrist I looked perfectly healthy. Even the wounds from my arrival appeared completely healed over and without even the expected scars.

"Magic?" I asked.

Twilight shrugged, "I was hopping you could tell me. All our healing spells had no effect. Your own body did this. Even your ley lines and chakras have gotten stronger."

I paused then said, "Well your spells must have done something, healing like this isn't normal for a human, also what are ley lines and chakras?"

Twilight was silent for a moment before continuing, "You may have explained some of this. Chakras are the seats of magical energy in the body. Ley lines are the paths they flow through in the body."

I nodded trying to understand.

"When we talked you said humans have no magic so I wasn't surprised to see no chakras and ley lines when I did a body scan spell on you. What I think is that humans do have them but they are, dormant, for lack of a better word."

"Are you about to say 'You're a wizard Harry!' ?" I quipped.

"What does that even mean?" Twilight said with a hint of annoyance.

I waved it off, "Please continue."

Twilight huffed a bit but obliged, "Well it seems every time we cast a spell on you your body just soaked it up filling your chakras. Eventually they filled up and you began to heal naturally. They last few body scan spells we cast worked like a charm and now we have a good idea of how your insides work. That combined with your frighteningly efficient metabolism and you are almost fully healed."

I shuffled a bit, uncomfortable with this revelation. "Is that how I...killed...those things?"

"Timber wolves. And yes, somehow your body soaked up the magic they animated with and immediately used it to heal itself." She said matter-of-factly.

"So...am I a wizard?" Hey what guy hasn't wanted to chuck fireballs at things before?

"No, not by a long shot. I don't even know how you cast the magic to do what you did. You don't have a horn."

I looked at her and held up my hands, "Or maybe I have ten little ones."

The look on her face indicated I broke her. She sat my tablet down on the edge of the bed and excused herself.

Shrugging I lifted my tablet and looked at what Twilight had been reading, "The History of World War Two". Well that isn't a good first impression on human culture. I sat back and flipped over to something lighter, R.A. Salvatore's "The Crystal Shard". I lay there in my hospital bed reading, my little Tripod snoozing on my feet, and that dream about my late wife fading from my mind. For now I was content to just be. Next Chapter: 06 - Glossolalia Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 53 Minutes