It was that blank face, that black glossy emptiness that struck fear in her as it stared into her soul. She rested in the pile of rubble, watching as the destruction took place around her. The walls crumbled around her and caused the ponies to run in panic, only to fall to the ground like her in paralyzation. She turned her head to see the large dark figure stare at her and whisper in its deep demonic voice a tongue she had never heard before, it sounded almost alien.

As she lay there, frozen in fear, she heard something. Something that sounded like tapping on glass, but no matter where her eyes looked she could not find the source. The tapping's echo grew louder around her, causing her surroundings to shake until they began to vanish. As the tapping continued, the images began to swirl into the black emptiness around her until her eyes cracked open. There she lay, paralyzed, with a breathing tube forcing air down into her lungs. The cold sensation of a tear on her cheek was all that she registered until the tapping started again.

Her ear twitched to the noise, it came from the window to her side. It was probably a bird that wanted to remind her she had met with a terrible fate, that she was to remain frozen inside her body until she died. Slowly looking to her left, her heart skipped a beat when she saw what was resting on the tree branch was not a bird but something else.

"Lyra," he struggled to whisper, "I have coming to aid." It was Anthro, resting on the branch outside her window as he forced a smile on his face.

It was at that moment that Lyra felt like herself again, like she could jump out of bed to hug Anthro as tightly as she could. Yet there she lay, unable to unlock the window for him and let him in. In a faint whisper, Lyra spoke to him for the first time in what felt like forever, "I can't let you in. I… I'm paralyzed."

She waited for Anthro to simply lose hope of getting through, seeing as the window was locked from the inside, but he motioned his head to the door opposite of the window which gave her an idea.

Lyra rolled her head over to the right, where a small button lay beside her pillow. Using her magic, she picked it up and pressed the small red button to call for a nurse, a faint beep emanated from the device and surely enough a nurse walked through.

"Is something wrong, Ms. Heartstrings?" The small pony walked through the door, she had white fur with a red cross as her cutie mark and a candy-pink mane that bobbed with each step.

"Yeah," Lyra motioned her eyes towards the window, "it's getting a bit warm in here, do you mind opening the window for me please? My magic isn't able to turn knobs yet."

The small pony nodded her head, "Sure, hold on a second." She walked over to the other side of the room and used her hoof to lightly tap on the handle and push the windows open, letting in the cool summer breeze of the night that sent a chill down Lyra's neck. When she and put herself back on all four hooves, the nurse looked at Lyra with her sky-blue eyes as she asked, "Is there anything else?"

The unicorn shook her head, "No, that's… good thank you."

The nurse began to walk out into the hallway when she turned back and said, "Alright, well you need to get some sleep, you're going to be let out tomorrow afternoon." With nothing more to say, the mare closed the door behind her and walked out of the hallway.

Lyra waited for a few seconds, listening to the sound of her hoof-steps getting more distant before she rolled towards the window and said, "Alright, come on in."

What Lyra expected was to see Anthro poke his head out like a meerkat to inspect the room, instead she witnessed a great ball of naked creature barrel through the open window into the room, causing a loud thump as his rump smacked against the cold hard floor.

Lyra winced at the loudness, and her heart began to race when she heard voices from down the hall speaking urgently, "Ms. Heartstrings fell out of her bed, we need some help."

The unicorn looked at her hairless friend with a panicked look in her eyes as she whispered, "Hide somewhere." She watched as Anthro looked around the simply empty room, looking for a place to hide as the voices got closer and closer to the door. Hoping that Anthro would react fast enough and hide, Lyra rolled her head opposite of the door and closed her eyes as though she pretended to sleep.

Suddenly, a large burly stallion burst through the door as he spoke in a serious tone, "Get her… in bed?" To his surprise as well as backup's, they found that Lyra was back in her bed and still tucked comfortably.

She looked over to them with a confused look on her face, "Is something wrong?" Her eyes scanned the group with a look of slight panic.

There was a short pause broken only by the sound of her breathing apparatus, the group of doctors and nurses looked around the room in confusion and curiosity as the white nurse from before asked the bedridden Lyra, "We… we heard something… or some pony… hit the ground and we needed to make sure everything is okay."

Lyra's eyes shifted from right to left, "No, no, no, everything's A-okay in here."

Lyra didn't break eye contact with the group, worrying that they might call her bluff. Eventually one of the larger colts spoke, his grey fur and muscular physique intimidated the poor pony as he spoke in a deep rumble, "There aren't any visitors sneaking through, are there?"

Lyra, beginning to panic, darted her eyes back and forth again as she gave a nervous and drawn out chuckle, "No… why would you think that? Just uh… a nightmare."

The large stallion didn't believe her, he began to inspect the room from top to bottom, making his way closer to her bed which only made her panic even more. Eventually, he looked her dead in the eyes as he said, "Who's under the bed?"

"N-no pony at all."

The guard narrowed his eyes on her as he lowered himself to check, Lyra's heart racing as he slowly made his way to the bottom of the bed. There was a pause as the pony lifted up her sheets to look under, eventually he got back up as he said, "Strange, couldn't find anyone, she was right."

Lyra looked around the room, even she was surprised to hear that come from him, after all there was only the bed and behind the door that could make good hiding spots. She scanned her eyes around the room herself to see where he'd be, and he wasn't even hanging outside the window.

Eventually the group of nurses began to leave the room, the white coated nurse apologized to Lyra, "Sorry for disturbing you, must have been just a weird coincidence that we all heard the same thing. Have a good night."

Lyra quickly replied, "Yeah… don't worry, no illegal aliens here…" She bit her tongue at the immediate regret of her saying that when the nurse popped her head back in the doorway with a confused look on her face, the look on her face made it clear that it was extremely unusual for her to have said that. Using her quick thinking, Lyra giggled nervously as she continued, "You know… from the book called Teenagers that Glimmer in the Sun?"

The nurse gave her an even more confused look before rolling her eyes and saying as she walked down the hall, "Must be one of those stupid teen books."

Finally the room descended into silence, Lyra waited for her heart to slow down before she whispered into the empty room, "Alright, come on out." She was quite curious as to where he had hidden himself in such an empty room, her eyes looked everywhere for him to pop out.

Suddenly, a faint noise came from the wooden bedside that rested to the right of her bed, she looked over as the drawer that was no thicker than a book began to wiggle outwards. She watched in morbid fascination as Anthro's head popped out of the drawer and looked around the room. It was almost hilarious how Anthro managed to fit himself into such a small hiding spot yet didn't seem phased in the slightest about it as he slowly pulled his arms out and eventually his entire body. As he climbed out, she noticed that the books were still inside the drawer, making it even less possible to understand how he fit in there.

Lyra simply shook her head and quickly forgot about it, she looked towards Anthro as they finally had a moment together and she said in a faint whisper, "Anthro… I'm so glad to see you."

He smiled, showing his large white teeth as he said back with a tear in his eye, "I'm so happy to see you again." He gently hugged her, making sure not to bother her breathing tubes as he picked her up.

To Lyra, it was the first time that she had been hugged like this, and it was almost ecstasy to her to feel Anthro's hands run through her hair as he breathed against her fur. He whispered in a shaking voice that was on the brink of tears, "I'm so sorry this had to happen to you."

Lyra rubbed her cheek against his, since it was the only way she could show affection, as she hushed him, "It's okay, I guess this happened for a reason, the doctors said that there isn't a way to fix this anyway."

There was a pause, Anthro continued to hold her head but his hand stopped stroking her hair, she felt it slowly descend down her neck before venturing into the affected area of her spine. Anthro quietly mumbled, "Stop a minute…"

She couldn't feel anything, but she knew he was searching for the damaged area to which she slowly whispered into his ear, "There's no point, the doctor's said they couldn't understand why it was damaged like it is. They said they haven't experienced a case of paralysis like"

Anthro interrupted her thought, "Shh… hurt?"

Lyra felt his hand, "Yes, you're on my neck." She could feel his hand pressing on her spine right above the damaged area.

His hand moved a little lower, but still not on the paralyzed part as he asked her again while pressing hard on her neck, "This?"

Lyra nodded her head, "A little lower," she began to realize how hard it would be to describe her injury and the area of the neck to an exact point considering she had no feelings which could mean there was more than one damaged spinal disk.

Anthro moved his hand even lower, eventually leaving her neck and venturing into the numbed area as he whispered to her, "Feel?"

Lyra sighed, she felt bad for Anthro doing his best to help her, "Anthro, buddy, there's nothing you can do. The doctors themselves don't even understand why I'm"

Her thought was interrupted by the sensation of pins and needles that shot up her neck and pounded against her head like a migraine from the underworld before coursing back down her spine to her tail. The pain caused Lyra to wince as she grunted, "Ouch, stop that." before pushing him away.

That's when it hit her, like a train heading at full speed right into her, the realization of what had just happened caused time to seemingly freeze around her as she lifted her hooves again.

Lyra gasped, covering her mouth to hide the scream that was to follow. Her eyes looking into Anthro's before she was blinded with tears of pain and joy. She may be feeling the most painful sensation ever, but she was feeling and moving again. She looked down at her hooves under the covers as she began to kick and move the sheets around, feeling the sweat that had been caught up in the sheets bugged her as it stuck to her back. It was like waking up from a dream as her body finally began to work again on its own, causing her to cry in both pain and incredible joy.

Anthro smiled from the corner to corner as he asked quietly, "Does this hurt?"

In confusion, Lyra simply nodded her head and sniffled back the tears before embracing him as tightly as she could. Her joints were stiff and sore from being immobile for so long but it was a pain that she would be happy to feel the rest of her life if it meant that this was really happening. She could feel his warm breath, his hand stroking her mane as the other pressed against her back to the point where it hurt. She moved her hoof down to move it, but he simply shook his head.

Lyra asked in a loud whisper, "How… how did you?" It was almost impossible for her to imagine that this would happen, let alone with a creature that was so unfamiliar with this world. Somehow a creature that was so unaccustomed to the ways of Equestiria was capable of bringing her body back to life in one simple gesture, it was almost as though he were… divine.

Anthro shook his head, putting his free hand to her lips to silence her before putting it around her hind legs and lifting her out of the bed. Slowly, Anthro placed her onto the cold floor as he whispered, "Move... not fast."

Lyra complied, she did her best to stand on her own, feeling the light headedness come on as she took her first steps in what felt like forever. Despite her clearly being able to move, Anthro continued to press hard between the shoulder blades. It didn't matter though, she was finally able to move again and she was going to head straight out the front door in glory and triumph.

Before she could take no more than three steps, Anthro placed a hand in front of her and shook his head, to which Lyra begged to know, "Why can't we leave, somehow you fixed me."

There was a pause, Anthro began to look towards the ground like he was hoping not to reach this subject. Instead of answering, Lyra was picked up again by Anthro and placed back into her bed. The mare fidgeted against his grip on her, hoping her would at least let go of her back to stop the pounding aching it caused her. When she was put back in her bed, Anthro said silently, "You stay, because this."

Anthro let go of her back, and just as quickly as her sensations came, they left. Her body went cold, and her limbs flopped onto the bed like a rag doll as the paralysis returned her to her numbed state.

Lyra's eyes grew wide with shock, Anthro somehow was able to give her back her body and was able to take it away just as quick. Her body had become paralyzed again, but the joy of being able to walk once more still warmed her heart and made her smile. She looked up at her friend as he raised his hand that had been pressed against her as he whispered, "Me able."

Lyra was dumbfounded by this experience, she already knew Anthro was more than a hairless monkey, but now all she could see was something far beyond her expectations. She tried looking for the experiment that sat beside her, but all she saw was the adder.

As Lyra stared into Anthro's eyes, she listened to him speak in almost a whisper too quiet for her to hear, "Ego sum."

She was confused, that didn't make sense at all, let alone have anything to do with the conversation. She was slightly let down by what he said, "Ego sum? I don't…"

Anthro shook his head, placing a finger on her lips as he said once more, "Ego… sum." He then left her in her bed and climbed out the window, only looking back at her one more time.

It was for that brief moment, where Anthro stood outside the window as he rested on the branch before leaving her, that Lyra could swear she saw him flicker with magic. Anthro jumped away, leaving her to her lonesome and confused self. Lyra lay in her bed, the fresh memories of feeling once again were still in her mind as she spoke to herself in confusion, "Ego… sum."

Author's Note

Hey guys, thanks for being so patient, I was thinking of releasing this on the day of Season 4's release but I'm not a dickless arsehole so I figured it'd be best you guys got your fix before a whole other month went by without another chapter. Jeez I'm turning into Jontron here, it's almost like I'm busy with another story.

Also if you understand the subtext in this chapter, please don't immediately blurt it out, I'd like to lie to myself and think that I'm too awesome and deep for you guys to understand. I would also like to keep people from spoiling things because that's just a dick move, it's fun to play detective some times.