Day 1

Octavia woke up in the early morning to the rising sun. As she looked at the sun that was coming over the horizon she went to James’ room. Once she was inside she looked at the man that was sleeping on the bed peacefully. Being extremely quiet and careful she slipped herself into the bed and laid next to the man. Unknown to her James wasn’t actually asleep at the moment. James heard when Octavia entered the room and James didn’t want to scare her with him being awake so he acted he was asleep. As he was faking that he was asleep he could feel Octavia bring herself into the bed and lay next to him with her arm on his chest. James gave a little smile that she took the time to think over what he offered and was hoping that Spitfire will also take this into consideration.

The sun was now high in the sky and Octavia got out of the bed and headed for downstairs to get breakfast started. Lightning Dust was next to watch over James and she needed a little help. Once Octavia was gone James got up from his bed and started packing his clothes while keeping a pair out for himself to change into. Once he was packed James headed for the shower to get cleaned up. James didn’t know who was going to watch over him but he was prepared for who ever it may be. As long it was one of his friends that was watching him then he would be okay.

Once James was finished with his shower he looked into the mirror and stared at himself. James then looked at his hand that was bandaged and then back at the mirror. James felt awful that he broke one of Octavia’s mirrors and wanted to repay her for it. James dried himself off and then went to the spare room. James opened his pack and pulled out his wallet to get some bits. James pulled out fifty bits because he wanted to pay for the mirror and a little extra just because he was the one that broke it. James went to Octavia’s room and placed the money on her beauty desk. James also left a note apologizing for the mirror and thanking her for watching him. James exited her room and headed downstairs to join Octavia for breakfast.

As James headed downstairs he heard a knock on the door. James walked over to the door and answered it. When he opened the door he didn’t show any expression. Outside was Lightning Dust who smiled at James. James gave a small smile in return but then went back to being neutral. Spitfire saw that he went to being neutral after his little smile but wasn’t hurt by it. She knew that James has been having problems keeping his emotions from not showing after the incident. Lightning Dust knew that he was glad that he at least showed a little kindness as he stepped aside and let her in. Lightning Dust entered the cellist’s home and smiled when Octavia came out to see who it was. Octavia returned the smile with her own as she pointed slightly with her head at James. Lightning Dust knew that she wanted to talk to her without James present and gave a slight nod.

The three of them sat down at the table and had a quiet breakfast. The three of them exchanged small glances with each other but didn’t say anything at all. They finished their breakfast and James cleaned the dishes. As James cleaned the dishes Octavia brought Lightning Dust into the living room. Octavia looked behind Lightning Dust to make sure that James was cleaning and couldn’t hear what they were talking about.

“Okay Lightning Dust I just want to mention that James had a little accident during my watch.”

“What happened Octavia? Is James not feeling any better or did he try to something again?” Lightning Dust asked worried that James was going back to how he was when he had the accident.

“No nothing like that at all. It’s just that during the day James got very upset and punched one of my mirrors. He cut up his right hand and I had to use some bandages on it. So far as I can tell he is okay and hasn’t had any problems since then. Just wanted to give you a heads up in case you see him get emotional again.” Octavia assured Lightning Dust that everything with James was okay. Once they gave each other a hug James came out and looked at them. After looking at them for a few seconds he went up to the spare room and grabbed his bag. Once he came down Lighting Dust grabbed his hand and lead him out the door.

Once they were outside they gave each other one last hug and goodbye before they left. Once James and Lightning Dust were gone Octavia pulled out her phone and dialed Spitfire. Spitfire squealed in delight from what Octavia told her and then told her that at the end of the watches they would talk. Octavia hung up her phone and then looked out her window. She saw Lightning Dust and James walking away and stared until they couldn’t be seen anymore. Octavia smiled and went back to her room so she could get her cello and practice.

James was following behind Lightning Dust but didn’t have much distance but an arms length at most. Lightning Dust didn’t let go of his hand as they walked towards her house. Lightning Dust didn’t want to risk using any cloud walking spell since they didn’t know how it would affect the magic in his body. So to avoid James having to be up in Cloudsdale she brought down her home and settled it in Ponyville not far from the others. Once they arrived at her home James was a little surprised to see the cloud home on the ground instead of in the sky.

Lightning Dust opened the door and let them both in. When James entered he saw that there was cloud on the ground and as he walked around he could feel the earth beneath the cloud. Lightning Dust lead him to one of the rooms that he could stay in. James took the room that was near the bathroom that was also near Lightning Dust’s room. James placed his bag down and it only sank a couple of inches before hitting the ground. James then looked over at the bed and wondered if he would be able to sleep on it. James went over and sat on the cloud bed. As he sat down he sank a couple of inches before hitting something solid. James adjusted himself to see that there was a bed underneath all the cloud. The cloud was there to make it a little more comfortable to lay on. James looked over to Lightning Dust and nodded his head in approval of the room.

Lightning Dust left the room and went to get lunch ready. James looked around his room for a bit so he could get an understanding of his surroundings. There were two desks in the room. One of them was used for storing clothes while the other was used for any type of work. James went over to them to see if they were solid or just cloud. James placed his hand on the clothes desk and it was solid after a couple of inches. When James went over to the second he actually wanted to take a gamble that this one was actually made of cloud. So James lifted his hand up high and made a fist. James brought his fist down and when he thought that he was going to go all the way through he hit the solid oak that the desk was made of. James grabbed his hand in pain as he held in his scream so Lightning Dust wouldn’t come running in. James looked over his hand and saw that it was okay but he would have a serious bruise.

James walked back outside rubbing the sore spot on his hand and went to the kitchen. As James got closer to the kitchen he stopped rubbing his hand so Lightning Dust wouldn’t be all over him. When he entered Lightning Dust smiled at him as she brought out two plates and the drink that he needed to take. James sighed at the drink because he was hoping that they had forgotten but he was wrong. James took the drink and slammed it down so he could just get it finished with. They ate lunch in silence but sat next to each other. Once lunch was done and the dishes were clean James followed Spitfire to one of the lower rooms and saw that one of them was for exercising. James guessed that she probably had her own gym set since she was always in shape everytime he saw her.

James went over to the punching bag and looked it over. James gave a small smile inside that he could finally find something to do combos on. Before he could do anything though Lightning Dust came over and place a hand on his shoulder and shaking her head. She lead him to one of the other training equipment and let him get started. She knew that James wouldn’t be able to handle the bag since he didn’t have much of his strength. If James really wanted to practice on it though she would let him as long as she was around and took proper precautions. Once James was finished with his exercises Lightning lead him to the shower so he could get cleaned up. As he showered she started dinner and waited for him to come back. Once James was finished showering he came back downstairs and joined Lightning Dust at the table. They ate in silence again just letting the clouds move around make the only noise. Once dinner was finished James went back to his room and go to sleep. Lightning Dust headed for the shower to get clean after her exercising with James. Once she was clean she went to her bedroom and went to sleep.

Day 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

The next few days were met with some painful areas. James was still his quiet self as he has been for the past while. Lightning Dust did everything she could to get James to come out of his shell but was being too difficult. There were a couple of times where she had to force James to take his drink because he didn’t want to take it. Lightning Dust had to take some time away from him because he was being so difficult. She locked her self in her room for a day so she could calm herself because her anger was being misplaced. The whole reason for all of the problems was because of what he went through. So in order for him to get better she just needed to give him time and let him workout some of his own problems.

As the days went on James could feel his strength come back a little more than how it did before. Even though he was doing twice the amount of workouts and was also pushing himself to the brink he was happy. He knew that his friends would be mad if he was pushing himself so hard so he did it during early morning before any of them got up. Lightning Dust left one day to get some supplies for his god awful drink and to help a friend out. Once she was gone James went to the workout room and got to exercising.

James did his regular workouts and some of his extreme ones as well. As James pushed himself he had to go over to one of the trashcans and vomit. Doing this wasn’t healthy but it was working and James wasn’t going to complain. James could usually keep it down and didn’t have to worry about it happening. During when it did James just shrugged it off after he was finished and went straight back to it. Once James was done with his regular workout he started to head out. As he was leaving he passed the punching bag and looked at it. A couple of times Lightning Dust let him beat on it for a bit just so he could hone some of his relexes.

As James stared at it he decided to give it a go. James started off slow just building a steady combo of attacks. As he went through it he slowly increased his pace. As his pace was increasing so was the amount of force he was exerting to hit it. James was now going as fast as he could and as hard as he could which wasn’t much. James was getting tired of just punching it and was now throwing in some kicks. James was now going all out on the bag that he didn’t hear the door open from behind. As James was pushing himself as far as he could against the punching bag he went for a spin kick. Once his leg made contact with the bag he felt pain shoot through his body. James fell to the ground on his leg and felt even more pain shoot through his entire body. James heard a gasp and turned around to see Lightning Dust standing in the doorway. Before James could say anything Lightning Dust ran over and looked at his leg.

“James what the hell were you thinking going at it like that?”

“I don’t know Lighting Dust I was just finishing up my exercises and then I just wanted to hit the bag. So how bad is the damage to my leg?”

“Well from how it feels it seems that you tore your hamstring a bit and have a slight tear in your tendon behind your knee.” James just groaned that he hurt his body that badly in just only four weeks of doing this.

As Lightning Dust looked him over she began to think about everything that has happened. She lived a tough life as filly and tried everything that she could to get stronger. She would train everyday and push herself until she couldn’t move anymore. She practiced so she could join The Wonderbolts and make a better life for herself. She learned as time went on that not everything would go as you planned. Life had a funny way of making it difficult for her to reach her dreams. Ponies would mock her and say that she wasn’t good enough to be part of The Wonderbolts and that her dreams were not realistic. Lightning Dust tried her hardest to make sure that she could prove them wrong when the time came. Though after she left college she wasn’t able to train much because she had bills to pay. She was lucky when one day she ran into Spitfire and she was kind enough to help her out. As they lived together Lighting Dust was able to get back into training and try to make her dream a reality again. When she was out over the Everfree that was when she first met James even if she was unconscious. When she woke up she avoided him because she didn’t want to be in another ponies debt. Though as time went on and Spitfire talked about the stallion called James she started getting curious. After words of encouragement as Spitfire called them she went to go find James. When she saw James for the first time she couldn’t help but feel her heart skip a beat. James was unlike any stallion that she had ever seen before but was the first to make her actually feel nervous. She hasn’t even talked to him yet and her mind was already filled with different types of fantasies. Though when she saw Trixie that was when she lost it. She couldn’t lose a battle especially one that hasn’t been declared. Even after the bad things that she did to his friends he was more than willing to forgive her. He treated her fairly and even gave her a second chance. Lightning Dust used this as a chance to get to know James better and he was willing to get to know her also. After all the time she spent with James she was happy to know him and glad that he gave her a second chance. Lightning Dust wasn’t sure if she wanted to change one thing because it may be that there wasn’t anything to change. She learned that James was kind and caring for everypony and she would always love him no matter what.

Once Lightning Dust was finished thinking she went over and got a first aid kit. She wrapped his leg in some gauze and helped him to his feet. She took him to his room and laid him on the bed. As he laid there Lightning Dust couldn’t help but smile at the man. He may be stubborn some times but that is what made him unique. Lightning Dust left the room to make dinner and bring it to him so he could get some proper rest.

Day 7

James woke up in the afternoon and got out of bed. This was his last day here with Lightning Dust and wanted to talk to her about what he has planned. He went down the stairs being careful not to rush down them. James was feeling a little better after Lightning Dust got that healing potion form Zecora. Once inside the kitchen they exchanged smiles as he sat down at the table. Lightning Dust brought over the food and sat down at the table. She sat next to him as they ate in silence. The silence didn’t last long as James said that he wanted to speak to her in the living room. She was worried that she did something to upset James but didn’t let it show. Once lunch was down and dishes were cleaned James took her to her living room and sat down on the couch.

“I know about the date bet that you made with everypony. I want you to know that I do love all of you very much. Though what I wanted proposed was not a herd but a harem. Spitfire is already the lead mare and Octavia, Fluttershy, and Rarity seemed to have shown interest in joining. I won’t be hurt if you don’t want to join but I want you to take the time to consider it. If you do decide to join then you will need to speak with Spitfire along with the others. I love you Lightning Dust and can tell that you do hold feelings for Spitfire. So I do hope you take this into consideration and think about.” James slowly walked away and headed for his room to give Lightning Dust time to think.

Once James was gone Lightning Dust went to the workout room and just looked around. She held her heart as she thought about what James said. As she thought about it she thought back to the moments that they shared. She could feel her heart race and her hair was tingling slightly. After standing there for a few minutes she decided on her answer and pulled out her phone. She pulled up Spitfire’s number and called her. Once she was done she headed to the kitchen and got started on dinner that they would have in a few hours. Once dinner was done she brought it to James and they ate together in silence just letting the sound of the clouds be the only thing that they hear.

Author's Notes:

Thanks to ErikTheSoulReaper for the idea on this chapter.