James woke up to the rising sun. If there was anything that he hated more than the training that he went through during boot camp was having his inner clock ruined. His training always required him up at the crack of dawn and has been a curse since then. Knowing full well that he won’t be able to go back to sleep, he got up and got dressed. He left his room and decided to go for a walk before Twilight got up so she could tell him where Rarity’s boutique was at.

When he left the library he pulled out his phone and put his headphones in. He was glad that when everyone was looking away during the first meeting that he took the chance to take back his phone and knife. He did feel though that it was too easy to get them back and that Celestia just allowed him to take them. Whatever the case may be though he was glad to have them back. He picked one of his favorite songs to run to and began at a slow jog.

As he got further through town he decided to pick up his pace and start going for a sprint. He ran for as far as he could before he came to the edge of some forest. He stared at the forest, mesmerized by the darkness of it. The forest itself seem to be calling to him, beckoning him to enter and explore the vast expanse of what it may hold. He took a few minutes to ponder if he should go into the forest and ultimately decided that he should at least give it somewhat of a look around.

He entered the forest and noticed the deep contrast it held to Ponyville. It felt colder inside in the forest and it looked like it was about to rain. As he looked around it felt like there was something else to this forest but couldn’t tell what it was. After he felt like he spent enough time in the forest he turned around and started to head out.

As he was leaving though he couldn’t help but feel that he was being watched by something. Never the one to take any chances with what his gut told him he turned around. When he turned around he saw something that made him just stand motionless at what he saw. There standing not ten feet away was a wolf. What James found interesting was that this wolf was made of wood.

They both stood there a few seconds before the timber wolf made a high pitched howl. The sound was so loud that he had to cover his ears. Once the timber wolf was done howling, he saw that seven other wolves made of wood showed up and had circled around him. Seeing as there was no escape, he pulled out his knife and got into a defensive stance.

Compared to Demarco who taught him how use a knife properly in a fight, he was just below par. Though one thing that always stuck with him was that Demarco told him that no matter how much of a great knife fighter you may be never forget the basics. You forget your basics then you are just an infant playing with fire just waiting to get burned.

Always holding true to what Demarco told him, he continued to follow the basics. More than once has this saved his life when he got into a close quarters fight. As he got into his stance he got low enough to the ground, kept his feet spread apart, and kept his breathing controlled and even. He stayed like this, waiting for one of these wolves to make the first move.

After what felt like hours of waiting one of the wolves from behind him jumped into the air trying to get on top of him. He quickly sidestepped the airborne wolf and brought down his knife on the wolf, severing its head from its shoulder. The next one ran towards him and he quickly kicked out his foot and sent the wolf flying into a nearby tree shattering it. Two wolves this time charged at him and he quickly retaliated by grabbing the one to his left on its tail and pulling it off the ground and smashing it down on the second one.

Four wolves down and four to go, he decided to take the initiative this time and open up with his own attacks. He ran at one of them and brought up his fist. Using the hilt guard that is on his knife, he brought down his fist on the wolf’s head and shattered it to dust. He couldn’t help but laugh at how easy it was to kill these creatures made of wood. He looked at the last three standing wolves and motioned with his hand, telling them to come at him.

The wolves took the bait and charged at him. The human just continued to laugh at how easy it was to bait them to attack him. Acting quickly he spun his knife so he was holding the blade and threw it at the wolf on the right of the pack leader. The two remaining wolves continued to charge him.

He jumped into the air and landed on top of the other wolf. Now it was just him and the pack leader. They circled each other and then charged straight at each other. The wolf was able to knock James on his back, but he held the wolf’s mouth open with his hands. Using all his strength, he ripped apart the wolf’s jaw and effectively killing it.

“I knew that you could never leave behind all the things you could do.”

“If you just open yourself up you can gain back all that strength that you once had.”

“You were one of the six best soldiers that existed.”

“You could easily be someone if you stop trying to change yourself.”

“You know that you cannot hide and your promise to your friends was just a lie to yourself and them because you couldn’t do anything to help them.”

He knew that the shadow was right and that he couldn’t continue to hide from who he was. He was a trained soldier and could easily fight any battle and come out on top. He decided that he would give it some thought and that if he kept his training up he will continue to be the best there was. As he stood over the bodies of the timber wolves he saw green smoke leave the rubble and head deeper into the forest.

He thought that it was best to leave the forest for now and return later to see what else the forest held for him. As he started to walk out of the forest his phone vibrated. His phone notifications flashed on his screen, reminding him that on October 23rd he would need to go and say hello to his friends. That was only five days away and he would need to go out and get some flowers.

He exited the forest and was headed for Twilight’s library. He was glad that his encounter with the wolves was simple and that no one would know that he was in a fight since those wolves didn’t bleed at all. When he opened the door he saw the lavender unicorn sitting on her couch, her face buried in a book. She looked up and smiled at the man that had entered.

“Hello, James. Where have you been?”

“I just went out for an early morning jog to help clear my head and help me relax. I did want to know where Rarity’s boutique is because she wanted to help me get some clothes.”

“Yes, I do, but I was going to head over there so I can take you there myself.”

“Thanks, Twi. Hey, where is Spike at?”

“Spike is at Rarity’s boutique. Between you and me, he has a huge crush on Rarity.”

“Does Rarity know about this?”

“She might but she never really mentions it to anypony.”

“Is it possible that she may be stringing Spike along and just using his crush as just a way to get some help around her work place?”

“I don’t think she would do such a thing to Spike.”

“I really hope not because no one…”

“Pony, James, remember to use pony.” James quickly looked around the house and outside to find the source of the voice. He was unable to find the voice and just kept it to himself to figure out how Pinkie does that.

“But as I was saying. No pony deserves to have their love played with only to be used and never have it returned.”

He and Twilight left the library and headed for Rarity’s house. They walked through town and he noticed all the ponies at their stalls were selling many different kinds of products and services. Once again he saw that many of the ponies that were working were all mares and still no stallions were anywhere to be seen. Finally deciding to not let this confusion go on he asked his question.

“How come there are so many mares here? Where are all the stallions at?” Twilight knew that at some point he would ask this question, but was hoping that it would be later than this.

“Well the reason is…” Twilight was having trouble trying to find the best way to explain this to him.

She was afraid that he might end up overreacting or even freak out and try to run. She looked over to him and he was looking at her, waiting for the answer to his question. She looked into his eyes and saw that he would accept any answer no matter what it may be. So she took a deep breath and took the chance to answer his question.

“The reason is that the mares outnumber the stallions six:one. This means that there are few stallions around in this world and because of this many relationships are open to any kind.”

“Well, that makes some sense and at least you ponies are more accepting about different relationships. Back in my world people would just look at you funny and avoid you like you had the plague. People felt that you weren’t normal if you didn’t have a relationship between just a man and a woman.”

During the conversation they were able to make it to Rarity’s boutique and almost walked past it if they didn’t look up every once and a while to see where they were. They entered through the front door and heard the unicorn call down that she would be down in a moment. She came down the stairs wearing a dark blue dress that went down all of her legs and wearing blue heels.

The dress was very tight on her and pushed against her cleavage showing how perky and big they were. The dress even helped accent her curves making her look even more gorgeous. He couldn’t help the burning blush that was growing on his face from seeing this white marshmallow mare coming towards him and Twilight.

“Welcome, darlings to my shop. James, I believe that you are here for the clothes that you ordered. They are over in the back inside the changing room. Please go back there and tell me how they fit.”

He went quickly to the changing room so that he could avoid more eye contact with the mare. Once he got back he closed the curtain and looked at the clothes. Before trying them on he quickly punched himself in the leg to keep his erection down and from coming out. After it died down he began changing and trying on the clothes. As he put them on he noticed that all of them shared at least one special pattern on them.

One shirt had a lyre on it, another had two overlapping stars surrounded by more stars, another had three diamonds, another had three different colored party balloons, another had three pink butterflies, and the other had a rainbow lightning bolt. Each shirt on the front and back had some sort of symbol on them. He didn’t know what they were or what they meant, but they looked pretty awesome. He would make sure to ask Rarity what made her think of these designs.

Twilight and Rarity

“So what do you think of him, Rarity? Does he seem like a nice pony?”

“I believe that he could be a very lovely pony. But I must ask, why do you want to know of my opinion of him, Twi?”

“I just want to know what everypony’s perspective is of him and see what they felt of him is all.”

“Are you sure there isn’t another reason why you may be asking that question? Like maybe say that he has pulled your interest and that you may actually like him,” Rarity said, smirking at her lavender friend knowing that she hit the nail on the head.

“Well, maybe I find him somewhat attractive. Oh who am I kidding? I just find him very attractive. I know that he has only been here for two days and I just only had a few conversations with him, but I think I might be falling in love with him.”

“Don’t worry about it, darling. I will let you know that you aren’t the only one who has found him interesting.”

“Who else has their eyes on him?” Twilight was very worried that there were others that found him attractive. She cared for everypony and never wanted to hurt anypony’s feelings, but she really wanted to be with James.

“Well, if you must know, one of them is Lyra. Shortly after your questioning last night she came to me wanting me to make her a dress that would help to show off her features. Then there is also Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and then myself,” After hearing that her friends were also interested she was about ready to have a mental breakdown.

She knew that she couldn’t easily win his heart, especially if Rarity and Rainbow Dash had feelings for him. Rarity had womanly charm and she could easily make a dress that could make any stallion or mare look at her with amazement. Rainbow Dash with her brash attitude could easily show her feelings without any hesitation and always get a response back. Though Twilight had to ask one question for Rarity.

“If you like James so much then what about Spike?” Rarity’s face then took that of sadness knowing what she meant.

“Spike is a nice, young drake and I do care for him a lot, but I think it is best if we just remain friends. Besides, I think Sweetie Belle is starting to get some feelings for him and I thought they would make a cute couple.”

Twilight actually knew what Rarity meant. Sweetie has more than one time come to the library often enough that she came to have conversations with Spike than check out a book. She even caught the little filly with a blush when she talked with Spike and was even sad when she had to leave the library. She usually ignored it most of the time thinking that it might be just some schoolyard crush, but it became more apparent when Sweetie Belle started showing up at least five to eight times a day to continue talking with Spike.

“I agree with you there, Rarity. Spike and Sweetie would actually look good together.”

Rarity and Twilight turned around when they heard the curtains open and the human came walking out wearing a pair of blue jeans and the shirt with the three butterflies on it. Rarity seemed a little down that he wasn’t wearing the one with diamonds, but knew she could easily win his heart if she tried.

“Hey, Rarity, I do need to ask where you came up with these designs? They actually look very nice and beautiful.”

“Well, if you must know, darling, the designs were based on some of the ponies’ cutie marks.”

“Cutie marks? What exactly is a cutie mark?” James was then assaulted by loud gasps from the two mares because he didn’t know what a cutie mark was. So to explain what they are, Twilight stepped in to explain.

“Well, James, to make it seem simple, a cutie mark is a mark that we have on our body that shows our special talent. They help us to decide what we are good at and help us to make a living. Don’t you have one?”

“Humans don’t actually get anything like that. We can get something called a tattoo and they can either be permanent or temporary. Though tattoos don’t decide what kind of thing someone is good at, but are more of an art type thing. Humans usually go to school to learn some type of trade, though sometimes we decide that we don’t like what we are doing or learning so then we go back to school and try to learn something new. So if these designs were based on your cutie marks, how come I don’t see them anywhere on you?”

“Well, we have them on two places of our bodies. First they are on our hands like so,” Twilight showed her hand and there on her hand was two overlapping stars surrounded by more stars.

“The second place is on our hips,” Rarity then reached the hem of her dress and started to pull it up to show James where on the hips it was located at. His face then quickly turned red as a beet.

“No, no, no, no, no. You can keep your dress down. I’ll take your word for it that they’re there.”

Rarity giggled at the man’s embarrassment. She thought he was shy but didn’t know that he was that shy. She would use this to her advantage if she wanted to win him over. She then remembered that Pinkie had a message for Twilight and him.

“Oh, before I forget, darlings. Pinkie wanted me to tell you that she is throwing a party at Sugarcube Corner tomorrow evening.”

“So what is the occasion this time?” Twilight asked, shaking her head slightly that Pinkie was throwing a party.

“I don’t know. It seemed that she wanted to keep it a secret until then.”

“Well, I guess we have no choice but to go then. If we don’t she would just hunt us down and drag us there herself.”

After the discussion was over Twilight and James left the boutique and headed back to the library. They got to the library and headed for bed for the night. He laid in his bed and set a reminder in his phone for Pinkie’s party and to remind him to ask Twilight where he could get some roses.