Arden found himself surrounded by a thick forest after he managed to recover from the insanity drive that was the warp spell. The trip was similar to the one he experienced in his first arrival in this world, without all the pain and burning...and the face planting into a wall, knocking out a princess, and ending up being arrested for it. But it was replaced by a strong sensation of nausea and the urge to vomit.

"Al-urp...uhg. Alright, I get the 'I hope I you have a strong stomach' part now." He said as once again he felt the urge to vomit. "Now I get why she had the cooks prepare such a great breakfast this morning. She is devious...I better get some payback ready. Now-?!" Arden froze in place as he felt the sensation of being observed. He realized he might look a bit suspect if he just froze there, so he tried his best to loosen up as he looked around.

Arden turned his head around he saw with the corner of his eye a pair of glowing green eyes with pupils that looked like the eyes of a feline. Arden was stood in front of such eyes so that he would be standing sideways from the watcher's point of view. 'God that's creepy. I hope it works.'

Arden got closer to the ground and started to draw on the ground with his index finger, after a few strokes he placed his palm on the dirt and grabbed a good amount of dirt while keeping his attention to the pair of eyes on that were following his every move. With dirt in his clenched fist, he stood up while staring at his fist, and then he proceeded to slowly move towards the eyes until he was facing them. Their eyes met and they just stood like that for a little while, until suddenly Arden tossed all the dirt straight toward the eyes. A hiss came from the eyes and Arden had already started to run in the opposite direction.

'Thank the lord it worked. Wait what is that sound?' Arden thought to himself as he heard something that sounded like a bug's wings buzzing behind him. He forced himself to run even faster. 'Please don't let it be a giant bee! Please don't let it be a giant bee!'

The sound got louder and louder as Arden continued to run, but as he ran he noticed out of the corner of his eye he had passed a small hut with some sort of tribal mask at the door. The sound of wings died down before the sound of flames took over. It was followed by the sound of steps. 'I don't know what is chasing me but I don't wanna look!' A few moments later Arden saw a clearing in the distance he made one last effort to go even faster as the sound of steps got louder.

Arden emerged out of the forest running like a mad stallion into what looked to be a town square. Stumbling around as he ran, Arden finally landed on his butt and turned around. Whatever it was that had been chasing him did not follow him into the town. 'Talk about a close shave.' He thought to himself as he got back on his hooves and brushed off the dust. However, as he was doing it he felt his entire body freeze as a voice echoed in the back of his mind.

"Aren't you clever? The little act, looking straight into my eyes..." The voice was somewhat unsettling. It sounded female and from what he could hear, it seemed as if two voices were overlapping as it spoke. "...then tossing dirt in them. And then finally running to cower in the village. I'll be keeping an eye on you, little one huhu...a VERY close eye." The voice made a chill run down Arden's spine before he could start moving again. The stallion kept staring into the forest as his breathing slowly returned to normal.

"A new face around town and our party organizer is visiting her family. What a shame." Said a voice from behind Arden. The voice made him snap back from his search of the forest. "Those are some magnificent clothes, my dear. Might I ask you where you acquired them?" The voice sounded female. When the stallion turned around, he saw a lot of ponies staring straight at him. He then noticed a white coated mare with a purple mane and blue eyes. She was wearing a black sleeved white shirt and a pair of jeans. As she stood there in front of the crowd, He realized she was waiting for an answer.

"Er..." As Arden tried to come up with an explanation, he scanned the crowd. There were way more mares than stallions there. Until that moment he had thought that Celestia was exaggerating on the birth ratio difference, but this was solid proof about it. "...Canterlot?" The white mare gasped and her pupils started to sparkle.

"You've been in Canterlot?! You need to tell me all about it!" She said while shaking the stallion's shoulders making the urge to vomit return once again.

"I-I would love to, but I want to find my workplace and home first." Arden finally managed to say once she stopped shaking him like a maraca.

"Oh, my stars! Where are my manners?! My name is Rarity Belle. I am the local seamstress and I run the shop known as Carousel Boutique." She said while brushing her mane.

"Well, you got the Belle part covered," Arden said without thinking. "I am Arden Sila. It means 'strong bond' I...I'm a kind of a wanderer but recently accepted a job proposal to work as this town's library keeper. But the warp spell ended up sending me into that forest over there instead of the town's entrance." He said, extending his hand to her as a greeting. As he did though, he noticed that he was talking to a unicorn 'How did I overlook the horn? Jesus! I need to get it together.'

"Pleasure to meet you." The mare answered accepting the greet. When her eyes locked on the ring placed on his middle finger. "My, my! Are you perhaps in a relationship with a special somepony? That is quite the ring! I have never seen any jewel with all of the rainbow's colors on it!" She was practically eating the ring with her eyes.'DAMN IT CELESTIA! I THOUGHT YOU SAID NOPONY WOULD CARE ABOUT SUCH A TINY JEWEL!' The mare then looked up and her eyes now locked onto the stallion's chest, during his escape the necklace he hid inside his clothes came out and the crude colorful stone was exposed.

"MY WORD! You have more of these stones?! Wherever did you get these??! I simply must know!" She said blinking rapidly as she stared into Arden's eyes and got closer. 'Is she really trying to use that on me? Sorry, but I won't fall for that.'

"Sorry, both of these were a gift. I don't know where they came from." The mare let out a sigh as she started to pout a little. Arden noted that the crowd that had been watching both of them had already begun to disperse and soon they were alone. "Can you point me to the library? I really want to settle in." Arden said rubbing the back of his head. "I also need to look for extra income so...do you know about any places that are hiring Mrs. Belle?"

"I could always use an extra pair of hands for running errands and cleaning the boutique." She said scratching her chin. "I wouldn't exactly be able to hire you since I just started the shop but I could pay you back with some clothing. And there is also the Apple family. Those ponies have some of the largest farms in Equestria and every so often they have positions available with good pay."

"Thank you so very much!" Arden said bowing to her. "How can I pay you back?"

"There is no need darling." She answered with a soft smile.

"How about I work cleaning and running errands for a while for free?"

"That simply won't do!" She shot back at his offer. "If you work for me you'll get paid! I insist, and besides. If you go around with my beautiful creations, my shop's popularity might increase!" She said clapping her hands together rapidly as she giggled. "Oh, yes! The library, it's over there past the fountain." She said pointing towards a fountain made out of pink stone that had a statue of a pony on top of it.

"Thank you. Both the offer and the help were very generous on your part. Especially to a total stranger that came out of the woods running like a maniac, as I did." Arden said smiling at her.

"Well, thank you, dear. I'll be heading back to my shop. Please come by once you settled in so we can discuss the details of your job as well as your working hours." She said before turning around and walking away.

'That was lucky...I hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass later. Karma is one nasty bitch.' He thought to himself as he watched the mare walk away, first he manages to escape a random creature with a stupid plan. Then he meets a mare that is offering him a job in exchange for some clothes...things were going way too well for him. 'Anyway, time to set up shop.'

The stallion headed towards the library following the mare's instructions. After he got past the fountain, he saw a huge tree with windows and a balcony. 'I didn't think that this was literally going to be an oak. This is AWESOME! If I go in and there is a fairy in there, I am going to scream like a little girl!' He thought to himself as he opened the library's door, sadly there were no fairies inside the place, only a lot of dust.

"*Cough**Cough* Okay...I’ll need to clean this place up." He said looking around the place, there were sections that were in fairly good shape, probably due to being more used. While others seemed to be a complete mix of dust and paper. Once inside he closed the door and started to look for cleaning tools. "This will take a while."

'That was an interesting encounter.' She thought to herself while scratching her eyes. 'Not the most elaborate of plans but a plan nonetheless. Not to mention he actually looked into my eyes, not many ponies actually look into our eyes like that. This oughta be fun.' She thought to herself as she made her way back to the local caves where she decided to reside due to her fair share of problems back at her home.

'That stallion is holding something back. I just know it!' The seamstress thought to herself while she got through the town heading back to her shop that also functioned as her home. 'I'll tell Applejack about it later so she can try to get something out of him. That mare can see a twitch from a mile away. Not to mention they could actually use some help at that farm of theirs. Maybe she can find out where he got those stones as well.' She thought as she opened the door to her workshop and saw all the leftover cloth from all of her designs resting everywhere, which resulted in her letting out a sigh.

'And I also really need a helping hand here.' She was very caring about her home, but when she was struck by inspiration there was no stopping her. Before she realized it everything she had just cleaned up was covered in rags and leftover threads and ribbons.

"That took waaaay longer than I thought," Arden said finally placing the mop and duster down. He had arrived in town that morning, but cleaning everything up and placing the books back took the entire day. It was already dark outside so he decided not to disturb Rarity at this hour and simply fell on the couch that was on the lower floor after he locked up the place. It didn't take long for him to black out.

"Aren't you an interesting one?" A voice echoed in his head, it wasn't the same he heard earlier that day. This one sounded different.

"Who are you?"

"A bad dream."