"Uncle! UNCLE!" Cherry yelped as Atticus was holding her down. "Yow... Oww!"

"How come you didn't tell me?!" Atticus glared.

"I promised I wouldn't!" Cherry groaned.

"Wait, you promised?!" Atticus glared.

Cherry smiled nervously. "You wouldn't beat up your own best friend, would ya?"

"No." Atticus said, letting her go.

Cherry smiled innocently then before standing on all fours. Patch soon stopped in his tracks as he saw Atticus and tried to hide. Cherry looked over and looked nervous.

Atticus narrowed his eyes to her. "What're you-"

"Tag, you're it!" Cherry punched his nose and ran off one way.

"That was random." Atticus said, confused.

Cherry kept running.

Atticus rubbed his nose and looked to his hoof to see blood. "Oh, Cherry, you gave me a nosebleed somehow!"

This caused Cherry to stop in her tracks.

"Ugh, son of a..." Atticus groaned.

Cherry walked back over. "I gave YOU a nosebleed?"

"Yeah, what the heck, Cherry?!" Atticus glared.

"I... I panicked..." Cherry stuttered.

"It's alright." Atticus said before using his magic to heal his nose/muzzle.

Cherry looked to her own hoof. "How'd I do that?"

"I don't know, but you're not doing it again!" Atticus lunged out for her.

Cherry screamed to that.

"Atticus, don't!" Patch called out.

Atticus landed on Cherry and looked back. "Patch, there you are!"

"Get off her now," Patch said. "I've never seen you lunge at her."

"She lied to me..." Atticus growled while Cherry looked nervous.

"But she only lied because she promised to not tell you where I was going." Patch said.

"You went to those timberwolves again, didn't you?" Atticus asked firmly.

"Yeah, but just to play Hide and Seek." Patch said.

"Patch..." Atticus sighed.

"Will you just trust me?!" Patch replied. "I know timberwolves are bad, but I met one who's actually really nice!"

"Really?" Atticus asked.

"Yes!" Patch frowned. "It hurts me that you won't trust or believe me."

"But it's just that because no one's ever met a nice timberwolf." Atticus explained.

"I have!" Patch glared.

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you." Atticus said.

"Oh, so now you're gonna listen to me?" Patch asked firmly.

"And I should have listened to you before," Atticus sighed. "Listen, how's about you and Apple Bloom bring Timber over to me and Granny Smith?"

"How do I know you're not gonna try anything?" Patch glared.

"If I sense any evil in him, I'll strike, but if I don't sense any evil in him, he's gained my trust." Atticus said.

"And I'll never come back home." Patch said.

Atticus looked hurt by that, but he deserved it for not listening to his nonhuman best friend, he gave a sigh. "Yes... If anything goes wrong for your friend, you can do whatever you want to be happy."

"I'm sorry for biting you." Patch then apologized.

"It's okay," Atticus frowned. "I deserved it."

"No offense, but yeah, you kind of did." Patch agreed.

"Thanks for not biting me on the butt." Atticus then smiled sheepishly.

Patch simply laughed a little. Atticus smiled since he could make Patch laugh. Patch smiled back and they went off together into the sunset. Cherry soon followed them.

---

They all then met at SugarCube Corner. Twilight was there too and she looked very wore out.

"Man, Twilight, you look terrible..." Cherry said. "Maybe you should take a vacation or something."

"She's right, Twilight, you should take it easy." Mo added.

"I'm fine... Really..." Twilight smiled before yawning very loudly.

"No, you need to get some sleep." Atticus said.

"It's okay... Really..." Twilight smiled. "I just need to put the hay in the apple and eat the candle."

"Yeah, you really do need to sleep, luckily, I learned a sleeping spell." Atticus said before he used his magic on Twilight before teleporting her to bed.

Twilight's eyes widened.

"'Scuse us a minute." Atticus said to the others as he used his horn on Twilight.

Twilight soon felt sleepy and she soon fell asleep instantly.

Atticus lay her in bed and tucked her in. "I hope you're not sick, Twily..." he frowned to himself in concern of her. After he got Twilight in bed, he decided to get back to the others.

"Spike is Twilight okay?" Cherry asked.

"She's been acting funny lately." Mo added in.

"She has been exhausted lately..." Spike replied. "I haven't seen her this bad since I tried to take over for her as princess for the day."

"Yikes!" Mo said.

"I know..." Spike agreed. "I don't know what's wrong, but the doctors say she's healthy and isn't sick."

"Well, that's good." Atticus said as he sat back down next to Mo.

"Well, then maybe it has something to do with her wings horn and cutie mark disappearing." Mo said.

"I was hoping I was seeing things with that..." Atticus said.

Rarity and Fluttershy seemed to walk by, but their horn and wings were missing along with their now diminishing cutie marks.

"It's not just Twilight!" Atticus panicked.

"I have a theory." Patch said before using his magic to make diamond appear.

The others then looked to Patch.

"Uh, what's the diamond for?" Cherry asked.

"Think about it." Mo replied since Rarity was in the SugarCube Corner.

"Oh, Rarity, look what I have?" Patch called the former fashonista pony.

Rarity looked over to Patch.

"Ta-da!" Patch grinned as he showed the diamond to her.

"MINE!" Rarity yelled out greedily as she lunged out to take the diamond from Patch.

The others looked in shock. Patch soon made the diamond disappear.

Rarity looked hysterical. "WHERE'S MY DIAMOND?!"

"Rarity... Calm down..." Cherry sounded scared of the fashionista pony.

"What's happening to the girls?" Spike asked.

"This is not good..." Cherry said. "We have to do some investi-" she then looked to Atticus and sipped her milkshake.

Atticus twitched and shook, mentally urging her to finish that sentence.

"Ah..." Cherry smirked as she paused to drive him crazy on purpose.

"Are you serious?" Atticus asked.

Cherry wiped her muzzle.

"SAY IT!" Atticus shook Cherry violently.

"Gation." Cherry finished with a smirk.

"Cherry, I don't think you have ever done that before." Patch said.

"She actually does it a lot now, it's her thing after going to a midnight movie with her theater friends." Atticus explained.

"Ohh." Patch smiled.

"Yeah, it's really hard to give into tempt-" Cherry said before taking a long sip while Atticus looked like his head was going explode.

"Are you serious?!" Atticus glared.

Cherry smirked to him. "Tation."

"Just stay calm, just stay calm." Atticus told himself.

"You okay, Atticus?" Cherry smirked. "You look full of antici-"

"Cherry!" Atticus growled.

Cherry just laughed at him. Atticus started to chase her. Cherry yelped and then ran from Atticus. Patch rolled his eyes until he looked over and saw Mr. and Mrs. Cake tending to their twins and decided to go see the young foals. Pound kept hitting stuff while Pumpkin was rolling around and giggling.

---

"Hey there, Cake Twins." Patch smiled.

Pound and Pumpkin then looked up and smiled to Patch. Pound went right up to Patch, ready to test out his strength on him. Pumpkin clapped her front hooves together. Mrs. Cake came by.

"It's okay, Mrs. Cake, I got them." Patch assured the mother of the twins.

"Oh, thank you, Patch." Mrs. Cake smiled.

Patch smiled back. Mrs. Cake then went back to work as her twins could be properly looked after now.

"Ya ready for this, Pound?" Patch smirked to the strong Cake twin.

Pound nodded as he was ready to show Patch how strong he was.

"Okay, show me what ya got, buddy." Patch told the colt foal.

Pound soon went to Patch's front right hoof and lifted him up with one hoof. Patch's eyes widened. Pound smirked as he lifted him up easily.

Patch chuckled. "You're just like Bamm-Bamm Rubble."

This gave Pound a devilish idea.

"Uh-oh, maybe I shouldn't have said that." Patch said with wide eyes.

Pound narrowed his eyes with a smirk. Pound soon started to bang Patch around the room like a club and a rag doll.

"Oh, no, Pound, stop that!" Mr. Cake rushed over and picked up his son. "You know what your mother said..."

Pound soon grabbed his father, thinking he wanted to also join in the fun.

"Pound, no, don't, stop!" Mr. Cake yelped.

Pound giggled as he started to do the same to his father, thinking it was plain and innocent fun, and where he soon gave both his father and Patch a spin and sent them flying at a table. Derpy Hooves was given her usual order of muffins until Patch and Mr. Cake landed flat on the table and made the muffins fall onto the floor.

"Looks like I might need to train that son of yours to learn to control his strength and to not use it on other innocent ponies." Patch groaned.

"Heh... I would be insulted if you didn't." Mr. Cake chuckled weakly.

"You two okay?" Derpy asked.

"We'll be okay..." Patch said.

"Erm... Are you okay?" Mr. Cake asked.

Derpy looked in her reflection to see her eyes were normal, she then hit her head and made her eyes wonky. "Ah, much better."

"We're sorry for spilling your muffins." Patch said.

"Ah, it's okay, one of them survived..." Derpy smiled as she then took out a new muffin from her mane and ate it.

Patch and Mr. Cake blinked oddly and then backed away from the estranged pegasus mare. Pound continued clapping, ready to play some more.

"Okay, Pound, that's enough." Mr. Cake smiled nervously to his son.

Pound simply pouted.

"It's okay, Mr. Cake; I can entertain Pound Cake for the rest of the time." Patch said.

"Please do..." Mr. Cake replied. "I haven't seen him like this since he picked up the habit."

"How's about we play Patty Cake, little guy?" Patch asked Pound.

Pound tilted his head.

"Here, I'll show ya." Patch sat down in front of the foal. "Hold out your hooves..." he then held out his own to demonstrate.

Pound held out his hooves, copying him. After their hooves touched, Patch clapped his hooves together and then held them out again, they began to play the game. Patch and Pound played and Patch hoped this would distract the strong foal from nearly tearing down the whole shop, and it seemed to do the trick. Pound giggled as he enjoyed the game.

---

Patch smiled as they had fun. He soon got push back by the sudden force of Pound's strength as he seemed to now have a bit too much fun. "Okay, I think it's time for a break..." he then smiled nervously.

Pound firmly pouted.

"It's okay; I just think we should take a little break." Patch said.

Pound glared.

"Pound, please calm down..." Patch told him. "We can play again later... Stay out of trouble."

Pound then hit the counter, leaving a dent in it.

"Ah, ah, no hitting things, Pound!" Mrs. Cake warned.

Pound then smiled sweetly and innocently to her.

"Wow." Patch said.

Mrs. Cake smiled to Patch as she then walked by.