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// Practice 
// Story: I'm Not Proud Of My Special Talent 
// by ABagOVicodin 
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	As a teenager who was a few years away from turning into a full adult mare, it was hard for me to focus on what I really wanted. Having to juggle the secrets behind my cutie mark, the secrets behind stress, my desires for the bodies of other ponies (while being unable to clarify what I wanted about their bodies), and school work was becoming challenging. Something eventually had to give, and it was my social life that became the main handicap. I was on the playground less, and my visits to my friend's houses would eventually dwindle down to one a month, as long as it wasn't on a weekend or Friday. Maybe if I didn't take those stress classes right away with Lotus, then I would have been able to spend Fridays with friends, and in turn, spend more time bonding with my friends. I would have probably been able to date someone if I bonded with my friends more. But you aren't listening to me ramble on so that you could hear the wonderful story of the famous Stress Relief, having her way? You want to listen to me crash and burn. My apologies if I am boring you, that part will come soon, I promise.
I remember this colt in my class, he was extremely good at testing, and it seemed that he was able to take in the lessons and remember each of them perfectly. He was the kind of person that I needed in order to pass my classes, since I was focusing more on the endorphins that move through a pony's body when they were stressed or unhappy, then the fact that there was a Great Pony War that involved Disord, or Diszord or whatever his name was. Smart Cookie, I believe that was his name. The name of the colt that I started to cheat off of, not the Pony War general that no one cares about. Either way, I remember the first day that he started to help me. I walked up to him at the end of class one day, and I struck up a conversation with him. I suggested that for the upcoming test, it would be best if he were to have a study partner. I also told him that Monday through Thursday, I was available to study with him, if he didn't mind. He thought that those days were perfect, since he had family things to do during the weekend days. I had four days until the test, it was time to study.

Both Smart Cookie and I sat on my bed, the door hanging ajar while the colt had to take in the girly quality of my room. Our books were open on my sheets, and I was taking notes based off of the pages that Smart Cookie was giving to me. Every now and again, I would sneak peaks up and down his body, just so that I could take in the colt's body, and what it looked like. Certainly different from mine. His shoulders were more broad then mine, and he had more muscle strength then I did. That was expected. His dark blue coat was able to be seen through my peripheral vision, but it was extremely hard to take more then a few second glances. I was more curious on how a male body would relieve their stress. Certainly they didn't have the same mechanics that I did in order to do so? Sex had completely slipped past me, and they were not teaching it in schools yet, since there was no need for teachers to explain it. You only need to teach things to avoid problems, and premature sex was never a problem.
The question hovered in my mind as I wrote down the years of the Pony War, and the main generals on each side. General Discord on one side, and General Luna and Celestia on the other side. The year, 0 to 300 years before the common pony era. I paused as I looked back to Smart Cookie, and I found that he was staring right at my flank. Whether he was trying to take a glimpse of my body, or trying to realize what my cutie mark was, I wasn't able to know. “So what were the causes of the war?” I asked, and Smart Cookie's eyes had immediately shifted from my flank to the pages. He was good at keeping his composure, his face wasn't red at all. But he was bad at catching glances. He was a teenager, and he was probably letting his imagination run wild. Smart Cookie knew more about sex then I did, so his mind probably had all sorts of imaginary scenes playing out.
Smart ended up turning a few pages back and pointed at a paragraph, which had the entire answer replicated in paragraph form. I smiled as I continued to write. “Thank you.” I remember telling him. For the few moments that I wrote down the paragraph, obviously copying it into my own words, the question of male masturbation had moved into my mind again. I didn't know how they did it, I was able to see that males did not have the same core that I did. I finished off the paragraph and then I turned to the dark blue colt. “Hey Smartie, do you mind if I ask a personal question?” I asked him.
Smart's face turned slightly red. So much for composure. “Yeah?” he responded, his voice cracking slightly.
I smiled before I closed my notebook. “Well... how do you relieve stress?” I asked. Smartie turned even more red, and he paused, trying to think of an answer that he could say in front of a mare, that he probably fancied. I wasn't able to tell at the time, but his body was probably pumped full of hormones and thoughts of me.
What he ended up responding with was the polite response, as if he was afraid of my father coming in the room and beating him senseless if he were to flirt with me, “I go for a walk, or I read up on my favorite subjects when I need to relieve stress.” he replied.
I nodded my head and then I placed my hand onto his shoulder. “You know a good way I learned to relieve stress?” I asked. Smart gulped and didn't answer. My hand moved down until it reached his side, and then I pushed him down onto his stomach. I climbed up on top of him, and I pressed my hooves into his shoulder blades.
Tense muscles were pushing back at me, and I raised an eyebrow at him. “Apparently your methods are not working.” I responded to him. Smartie didn't say anything, he was probably surprised by the fact that he had a mare that he considered attractive, sitting on top of him. However I knew now what was going through his head. I, being the innocent pony that didn't know what sex was, remained clueless... for the time being. I started to roll around my hooves on his shoulder muscles, feeling knotted up fibers pushing back at me, asking me to continue. Smartie let out a groan of delight, not wanting to interrupt this moment obviously. “I suggest that you go get a massage from time to time. I know, we are teenagers and we probably don't have as much tension as adults, but it would probably help for the test.” I told him. Smartie nodded his head, and I felt his waist pushing up at me a small amount, as his hoof moved to his lap to adjust something. I had no idea what it was, but I was more focused on my attempts at massaging then whatever Smartie held between his legs.
My hooves had managed to massage away the tension in his shoulders, but it was starting to get dark and I realized that I had to finish up the page of notes in my book, or else I would be behind for tomorrow. I moved off of Smartie and finished up the notes, asking him from time to time where the answers to the test would be, on which page. He didn't sit up, he remained laying there on my bed, probably because he had something that he was trying to hide from me, to avoid embarrassment. Good thing he did, because my descent would have taken less time if I ended up seeing what that smart horse held. I finished up my notes and offered to walk Smart Cookie home, but he refused and told me that he was fine with walking by himself. The both of us agreed to meeting up tomorrow, and he left. I moved back up to my room after seeing him off, and I closed my book, letting out a sigh of relief that I didn't have to study for hours, just so that I could earn a good grade on a subject that I didn't care for.
These study sessions continued until the test, which I managed to ace due to the help of Smart Cookie and the notes that we made. I remember him asking if I wanted to go with him to the nearby bowling alley on Friday, since he didn't have a family gathering that day, and I told him that I had my own plans. He looked deflated, but understood and he said that he wanted to study with me more often. I thought it was sweet of him (at the time) to offer to help me again, even though I was just using him so that I could read my stress books in the back of the class and ignore the lectures that were given to me. I didn't need his help anymore, since our teacher was shifting subjects, and I told him so. Smartie then bit his lip, and tried to invite me to one of his club meetings, which I denied as well. He told me that he understood, and he hoped to talk to me again. I thought the same thing, but I only nodded absentmindedly, since my stress book was out and open in front of me on the desk. He eventually gave up and walked away, although I didn't remember when since I was focused on electrical responses that carried pain from point A to B between nerves.
Friday had finally came around, and I smiled as I dashed out of class, running as fast as I could over to Aloe and Lotus' massage parlor. It wasn't 4 PM yet, but I was completely willing to wait. An hour and a half I waited, reading the stress books and I let out a sigh as I finished the first one. I placed “The Egghead's Guide To Stress” on the sofa, and then picked up the second book, one that was more catered to the adept focuses of massaging. The first paragraph was unreadable to me, and I put it down out of frustration, moving to the third book. Before I was able to open the cover, Lotus called out for me. “Stress Relief.” The blue pony called out, smiling as she looked out of the reception counter. “Oh, there you are. Are you ready for another lesson?” She asked.
I stood up and nodded my head. “Yes please.”