*knock, knock, knock, knock*

The sound of somepony trying to take down the door forced a very grumpy unicorn to get out of bed. Looking at the clock he saw that it was still 4:27 AM, way too early for the library to be open or for anypony to be up for that matter.

*KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK*

"I AM COMING DOWN! JUST DON'T BREAK THE FREAKING DOOR!" He shouted getting up and dressing in the same clothes for the THIRD day in a row. 'I really need those new clothes.' He thought to himself as he got downstairs. Once there, he unlocked the door and opened it. Before he stood a unicorn he didn't recognize. Green coat, yellow eyes, green and white mane, a golden harp on her forearm, blue T-shirt and black pants. "What can I help you with at...*yawn* sorry. What can I do for you at this hour?"

"I'm sorry!" The mare said realizing Arden's state. "I just need to find a book that is very requested here."

"Then you could wait until the library is open," Arden said closing his eyes and trying to remember the working hours of the place. "In one hour and thirty-three minutes."

"Can you please make an exception?" The mare begged and tried to win him over with puppy eyes, he just raised a brow at her. "*sigh* Please? I've been trying to get this book for ages but other ponies beat me to it. And whenever it's available I'm away in Canterlot. Please?" Arden examined her again.

"*sigh* Okay, the name is Arden Sila. Come in Mrs...?" He said opening the door and gesturing her to come inside.

"Lyra. Lyra Heartstrings." She said quickly getting into the library.

"Ok. Mrs. Heartstrings, don't say a word about this to anypony ok?" He said closing the door again. "Now, what exactly are you looking for?"

"Theories about creatures of myth." She said in a heartbeat searching the place. "I want to continue my studies on humans and to the few researchers that actually look into them. That book is a reference guide." She said looking at the wrong shelves. "Especially since it was supposedly written by a human that visited our world. There are only a handful of copies throughout Equestria. And most of them are in possession of nobles that only showcase them."

"Then you should be looking over here," Arden said browsing through the books, once he found the tome he pulled it out. "Here it is written by...Jack Reacher?" Arden tried to contain his laugh, which was pointless. "HAHAHA! My god, for real?!" He exclaimed as his laughing got worse.

"What?! He is a great author don't you dare laugh at him." She said taking the book out of his hands.

"I-I'm sorry...haha...It's just..." Arden tried to explain while trying to stop his laughter. "That's got to be a fake name! No way in bloody hell that is the guy's name. That's actually the title of a-" After starting that sentence he covered his mouth and took a deep breath. "Sorry about that, you got your book. Now you can leave." Arden looked at the mare that was looking at him wide-eyed. He literally slapped himself. "Sorry about that. I'm sort of a human fanatic as well. Traveling around I got to see a lot of different representations of them so..."

"Y-you said: My god. T-then you acted like you knew the writer's name." Her eyes were twitching Arden tried to keep his cool. "D-don't tell me...that you...you're..." At this point, he started to panic.

"PLEASE DON'T TELL OTHERS THAT I WAS A HUMAN!/YOU'RE ACQUAINTED WITH HUMANS!" They both shouted at the same time. Both of them just stared at each other for a few moments, Arden let out a sigh after punching himself. Then he walked towards a wall and bashed his head in it, after that he walked back to her and groveled to her.

"Like I said: Please don't tell anypony I was a human." Once he looked up he noticed the mare was but a few inches from his face staring straight into his eyes. Her eyes were twitching and her muzzle had a terrifying smile. "M-Mrs Heartstrings?"

"You...you...you...youwereahuman! DearCelestiadearCelestia! Pleaseyouneedtotellmeeverythingyouknow!" Arden was trying to understand what she said while slowly crawling away.

"I'll tell what I know. I'll even get you some of the notes I have on anatomy. But please keep this under the wraps!" The mare stopped her rambling and fell on her but once she heard that. "Do we have a deal?"

"Yes! YESYESYES!" She said getting up and starting to hop around with the book on her hands.

"Okay, now please take the book and leave. I'm free after 6:00 PM. I'll answer what I can then. So please try to keep this locked up. Otherwise, I'll disappear and you can forget about answers." He said in a serious tone which made the mare stop hoping and assume a military pose.

"Yes! Sir! These lips will remain sealed!" She said before heading towards the exit like she was marching. When she reached the door she turned back and said. "I'm looking forward to our Q&A." Then she winked and left.

'Thank Celestia she bought that. Time write to Celestia and see if there are any mind-erasing spells.' The stallion thought to himself as he cursed his existence for being such an open book at situations when big secrets like that were on the line. Keeping his connection to the princess was different because he felt the responsibility he bore because of the hope he gave her. Him being human was nothing compared to that, so he would go above and beyond to keep that part. However, having that secret out could make his life harder so making Lyra forget about that was the best way out. So he went to the table and wrote down a letter explaining the entire situation and sent it.

"With that out of the way..." He muttered getting up. "...time to try to learn how to fucking cook."

'Too easy.' The mare thought to herself as she carried the book outside and then used her magic to send it back to its original place. She then proceeded to hide away.

Once it was 5:45 Arden was placed in front of the carousel boutique. The shop wasn't exactly something easy to miss, a huge round building with fancy looking windows and decor. The entire place screamed 'FANCY CLOTHING' or 'HIGH SOCIETY'. Then he knocked on the door.

"Coming!" The door opened revealing Rarity, wearing a white and pink robe. Arden just focused on her eyes, they looked like sapphires. "Oh! You're early dear."

"Sorry. I'm kind of an early bird." He said closing his eyes and tilting his head. "Can I come in?" The mare gave him passage and Arden walked in.

"Rarity! Who's at the door?" A high pitched voice asked it sounded like it came from what looked like the kitchen, then a little unicorn popped out. Her mane was pink and purple, green eyes, white coat. She was wearing a baby-pink t-shirt with a baby blue skirt that went all the way to her knees. Once she saw Arden she looked at Rarity. "I didn't know you got a special somepony!"

"Sweetie Belle!" The seamstress glared at the little one without blushing or anything of the sort. Meanwhile, Arden just chuckled before he walked up to the filly and said.

"Hey, little one. The name is Arden Sila." He said getting on eye-level with the filly, she backed away from him before he continued. "No, I am not your sister's special somepony. I doubt she would settle for a stallion like me. I'm just a new employee here at the boutique." The stallion stated while giving her a smile and tilting his head.

"Are you a noble?" She asked fidgeting.

"No."

"Are you a knight?"

"No?"

"Do you know royalty?"

"I'm met Princess Celestia yesterday and had a conversation about ancient tales."

"Then you have a chance." Arden tried o muffle his laugh while Sweetie ran off as her older sister started to chase her. This time, however, Rarity was blushing as she chased the little filly through the house. Eventually, the filly returned and hid behind Arden. "Please control your marefriend!"

"SWEETIE BEEELLE!" The seamstress yelled as she heard that.

"Calm down honey," Arden said while trying to suppress his laugh, the mare was glaring at him the same way she did with the orange pony from the previous day, she was also turning into a tomato while she started to pout. "Okay...listen, Belle. How about you stop teasing your sister and apologize? Messing around with that subject never ends well with any of the parties involved." His voice shifted to a firm tone as he said that.

"Okay..." The filly said while coming out of hiding. "Sorry for teasing you, big sis." The unicorn started with the puppy eyes thing, her older sister eventually caved in and offered a hug.

"Okay now go to your room do your homework." The little filly smiled and ran up the stairs giggling. Now Arden was sure the mare was going to exact her revenge. "As for you sir..." Arden just braced himself for a slap or some sort of weird punishment. "Thank you for being so nice to my little sister."

"Uh...you're welcome?" He said tilting his head as the mare walked by him into the kitchen, 'That was an awfully generous pardon...I was sure she would gut me right then and there.' He thought to himself before shaking his confusion. "So where do I begin?"

"You can start by cleaning this mess I made while working on my next designs," she said pointing to a bunch of materials scattered around the entire workplace.

Arden stretched and started to collect all of the materials and discard the ones that were unusable. That took about two hours of cleaning and choosing the usable things that she left. Once he finished he noticed that the filly had returned downstairs and was pouting over a notebook.

"Everything alright there kiddo?" Arden asked startling the little one, looking at her notebook he saw some basic first-degree equations.

"I can't solve this one..." She said pointing a pencil at the problem she was stuck. Arden looked at what she had done and noticed she forgot to add a two while transcribing the problem.

"Here, you forgot to add this to the equation. So that's why you're getting a negative answer." Arden said pointing his index finger at the missing number. The filly looked at the number, then she did the entire thing again and arrived at the answer written in the book.

"Finally! Thanks, Mr. Arden sir!" She said closing the notebook and then pulling another one from her backpack. "I'm not good with numbers...but I'm really good with grammar!"

"Fair enough," Arden said with a smile. "I'm pretty decent at multiple subjects...but I'm a bit slower with numbers. And please call me Arden. Or you can come up with a nickname." He said petting her head before walking away.

Soon after he heard the entrance bell ringed and Rarity practically darted all the way to the door to greet a customer. Arden recognized the customer, it was Lyra. She was talking to the seamstress about needing a dress for a special date for that night.

"No problem dear!" The seamstress exclaimed clapping her hands. "But I got to say I'm surprised to see you away from your studies in Canterlot. I thought the break wasn't going to begin until next week!" Arden was hiding while they talked. 'Really now...she must have been desperate for that book.'

"I-I actually got a few days off." She stuttered while giving a nervous laugh. 'She is lying isn't she?' Arden thought to himself as the seamstress also gave the mint mare a weird look. "A-anyway, I really need this dress! I-I'll pay extra!"

"Nonsense dear!" Rarity shot back. "I'll do it with a discount! First time special!"

"O-okay. Thanks rarity."

Then the white unicorn led her to the fitting room and stayed there for about half an hour. Coming out of the room she told the customer to wait while she worked with the fabric to make the dress. "MR. SILA!" She called out.

"Yeah, boss?" He answered coming out of the kitchen.

"Take that broom and please sweep the shop's entrance please?"

"Got it!" He answered going to the pointed object. Meanwhile, he noticed the mint mare eyeing him. "Can I help you with something Mrs?"

"Can you? I heard you can do a harmonous heart by yourself." She said leaning forward while keeping her weird glare focused on him. "I want to see it."

"Ask the boss. then I'll see what I can do."

"RARITY! CAN YOUR EMPLOYEE DO A HARMONIOUS HEART FOR ME?"

"AS LONG AS HE IS OKAY WITH IT!" The green mare looked at him with a smile.

"Anything special in mind?" The mare tilted her head when he asked that. "A theme?"

"How about love?" She said winking at him, Arden let out a sigh and leaned on the broom thinking.

"Okay," He said with his eyes closed. "This is called 'Poet'."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5NIoWpkdj4

Arden sang the song while sweeping the floor. His movements matched the song's rhythm almost as if he was dancing with the broom, once he finished he noticed that his boss actually came down to work while he was singing and the filly that was in the kitchen came by to watch him perform.

Suddenly the front door opened and citizens started to come by. Rarity started to beam seeing so many ponies visiting her workshop. The mare looked at Arden practically begging him to do it again, Arden sighed again and started with another song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDoU-gE2AXA

Once the second song finished came a round of applause and the ponies started to browse the clothing available. Rarity ended up selling twelve dresses, two tuxedos, and about thirty accessories. According to her, that was the best sales day she ever had since she opened up for business.

After the place had no costumers again, guards came by looking for Lyra that had disappeared during the presentations. 'What was that about? They were looked really serious about it...did she break some law to come here?'

The rest of the day went by without a cinch. Rarity gave him the clothes she promised: a white T-shirt with a dark-blue flannel and a pair of jeans. He sang a few more songs before leaving a very happy mare and a little filly that claimed to be his fan back at the boutique.

Once he was inside the library he was pulled in by a golden aura.

"Thank the stars you're alright!" It was Celestia, she checked his top to bottom trying to see if there were any signs of injury.

"Um...what's up?" Arden said backing away. "Did something happen?"

"It appears you're being stalked."

"What?"

Meanwhile back at her cave, the queen hissed and cursed.

"I need to be more careful with my disguises! Not to mention my cover ups! But learning he was a human...this just keeps getting better and better!"