"Alright, form an orderly line to recieve your beating!" I jeered at the dogs. One of them snarled, then fell face forward with a full-grown wolf attached to his back.

"WHOA! FANG FIGHTS?!" Spike yelled. I laughed.

"Nope, he OWNS. Just don't kill them Fang! I'll be back in a few minutes with a few gems!" He threw me a small bark and jumped at two more Diamond Dogs. I started walking off into the mine area.

"...Are you sure he can take them alone?"

"Nope."

"THEN WHY ARE YOU LETTING HIM FIGHT THEM ALONE?!"

"Because if he needs help, he'll call."

"... He'll... call?"

"Yup."

".... Are you insane?"

"Considering I have to make sure I'm not dreaming every time I wake up, yes."

"Yo-you... Nevermind. So, how we gonna find the gems?"

"Wait, you can't?"

"No! I thought you had a way!"

"How am I supposed to have a way?!"

"Well I don't know! Ugh, I guess we came out here for nothing!"

"Nah, let's just go back and ask the dogs for a few gems."

"...You make the most terrible plans ever." I made my way back to the fighting. Fang had already dispatched 2 and was currently fending off the other 3. He was on the defensive though, so it was obvious this would go south fast. I put Spike down, then I crept up and smacked one of them in the back of the head with my axe, instantly knocking him out. Then Fang caught the last one and I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.

"So, do you wanna give me some gems now?" I asked. It was the pug.

"YES! YES! I WILL GIVE YOU GEMS! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"

"Don't worry, I won't kill you. I don't think any of your friends are dead either. I just wanted two gems, and no trouble. I'm sorry this happened."

"Y-YOU WON'T KILL ME?"

"No, I didn't even want to fight you."

"Y... you didn't?"

"No. You're a little slow aren't you? Look, can you just get me two gems please? I'll leave you alone then." He nodded vigerously. I released him and he took off into a hole a few feet away.

"You know he's not comi--" Spike started.

"Wait for it...." Two gems shot up from the hole. One large ruby and one large sapphire. "Ha! Told ya!"

"B-but... wh-why? H-how... you know what, just grab the gems and let's go..." Spike said.

"Umm... ok, do you wanna walk or ride my back on the way back?"

"... Ride your back?"

"Good choice!" I scooped him and the gems up and shifted him over to my back. "To town!" I started running back to Ponyville, Fang by my side like always.

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I had shrank considerably on the way back, and Spike ended up helping me carry the axe to the library.

"Wow, I hope these gems are worth what you go through to get them!" I exclaimed wearily as we reached the library. My voice was that of a 10 year old. I knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Fluttershy called.

"It's me Sharky!"

"You don't sound like Sharky..." She opened the door.

"Yeah, I was absorbing Spike's magic an--"

"OH MY GOSH YOU'RE ADORABLE!!" She scooped me up and cradled me.

"Well... this is backwards..." I muttered. She squealed and started showering my face with little kisses. "Eh? Fluttershy!? Stop! Stop stop stop! What are you doing?" I squealed. Fluttershy squeed and kissed faster. I rolled out of her grip and onto the floor. "No! Stop! I'm not a baby! Knock it off!"

"Oh! Sorry Sharky.... You're just... SOOO CUTEEE!!!" She tried to scoop me up again, but I jumped out of the way.

"NO! Don't! Please stop?!" She just squealed and kept chasing me as I dodged around the tree. Then Twilight showed up.

"What's with all the... OH MY GOSH HE'S ADORABLE!!" Twilight grabbed me with her aura and brought me to her where I was showered with kisses again.

"ALRIGHT, THAT'S IT!" I started expelling the magic as quickly as possible. I grew rapidly, and in the course of 5 minutes I had sucessfully rid myself of Spike's magic. I grabbed Twilight and Fluttershy and held them off the ground. "NEVER AGAIN."

"Aww... ruin it why don't you..." Twilight grumbled.

"Yeah, well you ruined my gem breakfast! Now I don't have enough time to re-absorb Spike's magic! Gah, whatever. I'm off to work. Bye!" I put my axe back in it's corner and took off.

"... Did he just say gem breakfast?"

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"Hi Mr. Cake!" I called as I walked in. He turned from the counter.

"OH! Sharky! You're early!"

"Yeah, we gonna get to work.... What's up with all the decorations?"

"Yeah... uhh... Sharky, we finished all our backed up orders yesterday. Pinkie Pie was supposed to go and tell you not to come to work today..."

"S-s-so... I-I'm just no g-good anymore?"

"No! It's not like that! It's just--"

"No, no, I understand... It's ok Mr. Cake... Bye..." I slowly trudged out of Sugarcube Corner.

"We... were gonna throw you a 'thank you' party..." Mr. Cake finished to himself.

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"Hi RD..." I muttered as I walked into Scootaloo's room. Rd was still in bed curled around Scootaloo. I sat down on the floor next to the bed.

"Hi Sharky. Thank you."

"What for?"

"Saving Scoots."

"No need to thank me... anypony else would've done the same thing... They woulda done it better too..."

"Yeah, I don't know about better, but they would've tried too. What matters though, is they didn't."

"Well no... but I'm nothing special..."

"What's wrong? You're bein' awfully hard on yourself..." I sighed.

"Well, I basically got fired..."

"FROM MONSTER HUNTING?!" She asked with a large amount of excitement in her voice.

"No, Sugarcube Corner..."

"What? Why?"

"They finished all the extra work... I'm not needed anymore..."

"Aww... I'm sorry..."

"It doesn't matter. I'll just move on I guess..."

"So... If you don't mind me asking... How much will this effect you finacially?"

"Hmm? Oh, none. I was working for free."

"Wait, so all those times you used work as an excuse to get away... you were really just--"

"Trying to help the Cakes catch up on orders? Yeah."

"... Oh... Well..."

"What's gonna happen to Scootaloo?"

"... I don't know."

"I'm not letting her go back to wherever she was before."

"The treehouse?"

"No, whatever orphanage she was at before this. Obviously they don't do a good enough job."

"Yeah, you're right. I don't want her to go either.... She already almost left me once..."

"... I didn't know you cared for her so much."

"To be honest, I'm suprising myself..."

"I think it's awesome that you care about somepony this much."

"Y-you do?"

"Yeah. It's the same way I care about Unity."

"Well... What if I cared about somepony else just as much, but in a different way?"

"Oh, I know you and your friends are really close too."

"..."

"...So, what do we do with Scootaloo?"

"...I don't know."

"Well, I wouldn't mind adopting her too!"

"No, you've got your hooves full with Unity and Fang alone..."

"That doesn't mean I can't try!"

"Yes it does! You may be... well you Sharky, but even you can only do so much!"

"Well I haven't hit my limit yet!"

"WELL YOU'RE GOING TO! I DON'T WANT YOU TO END UP DEAD!"

"... Where did that come from?"

"... Nowhere."

"I worry you too, don't I?"

"... Maybe a little..."

"*sigh* Look, I'm sorry. But it's like you said, I do what I do to protect you ponies."

"... doesn't mean you need to do it so often..."

"... I don't like this discussion."

"Me either..."

"So, how's Scoots?"

"She still hasn't woken up..."

"Well... just give her time... I've got to go. I need to get to my son."

"Goodbye..." I got up and left the room. "... Focus Rainbow! Scoots is priority now! Yet..."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey guys, I'm back." I said sadly as I walked into the library.

"Hi Sharky! Err... Not that I'm not glad to see you back, but why are you back so early?" Twilight asked.

"I got fired..."

"FROM MONSTER HUNTING?!" Both Twilight and Fluttershy asked at the same time. Why do they think that right away?

"No, Sugarcube Corner... Thanks for the confidence in my fighting skills though..."

"Sorry Sharky... We don't doubt you... We just don't like you having that job... if that's alright..."

"Well... it does make me feel a little better, but I'm not quitting Monster hunting. I don't plan on doing bad enough to get fired either."

"... Well darn..."

"Well, you wanna help us take care of Unity now?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, I'd like that." Then I spent the rest of my day playing with Unity. He's an oddly easy to care for baby! Just feed him 3 times, burp him, and play with him. Oh, then also deal with the chaos magic, but that's more fun than anything. He turned the stairs into a slide, made Spike breathe Icees, made Fang's teeth chatter unstoppably, and made Twilight and Fluttershy D'awww a lot. Not sure that last one had anything to do with magic though. I didn't even realize how long I had been with him! Just when it got late, him and Spike just fell asleep out of nowhere. I was a little upset that I didn't get to play with him anymore, but I put him and Spike to bed anyway. I walked back downstairs and sat down next to the girls. We hadn't spoken all day. Well, they'd tried to speak to me, but I had shrugged them off.

"... Sharky... Are you ok?" Fluttershy asked.

"... Yeah... It was just nice to be needed I guess."

"... You're still needed..." I shook my head.

"No, I'm not. You guys don't depend on me for anything."

"... Well maybe we don't... But Unity does..."

"If I were gone you girls would take care of him right?"

"SHARKY?! Why would you ask something like that?!" Twilight yelled.

"Well, there's every possibility that I may not come back here from a mission one day. I wanna know he'll be taken care of if I die."

"S-sharky... D-d-don't talk l-like that!" Fluttershy scolded.

"As much as you may not like it, it's the truth. I need to know girls."

"S-sharky d--

"NO. Tell me I can depend on you! Please..."

"... I'll take care of him Sharky..." Twilight offered.

"... I-I w-w-will t-t-too..."

"Good. Thank you girls. I'm sorry I had to ask that. I know that's a lot to ask of my friends..."

"Oh, no, it's not to big to ask me at all..."

"M-m-me e-e-either..."

"... You girls are the best..." I pulled them both into a hug. They hugged me back.

"J-j-just d-don't t-talk about y-you d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d--"

"I won't Fluttershy..."

"G-g-good."

"I love it here, you guys know that?"

"You mean Equestria, the library, or hugging us?" Twilight asked.

"... Yes."

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"... Thanks for taking me home Sharky..."

"No problem. Hey, do you mind if I try and find somepony to get a house order set up?"

"Y-you want to get your own house? Twilight's not gonna like that..."

"No, not for me, for Blaze. Wait, why would Twilight care?"

"Oh! Umm that's awfully nice of you..."

"... Riiight. Well, it's the least I can do for him. I feel like I need to make up for the fact that I was sent to kill him." I walked into the market section of the town. It was still going suprisingly strong. "So, uhh... which stall would I go to for a house?" Then, the maroon news pony popped up a few stalls away. She looked around me, scanning for Fang I guess. (who I had left at the library.) Then she flashed me an evil grin and whistled for the news crew. "Crap, let's go Fluttershy!"

"But we just got here..."

"Yeah, and now we're just leaving. Come on!" I grabbed her and took off running, easily outpacing the news crew. I kept running and didn't stop all the way to Fluttershy's house. Which of course meant I was gasping for breath when I got there.

"What happened back there?"

"News crew. *gasp* Annoying. *gasp*"

"Umm... ok then... Well it's awfully dark now... you should stay with me." I looked around, and she was right. It was pitch black now. The clouds made it even darker.

"Y-you're r-right Fluttershy... T-thanks for being so understanding... but you're taking the bed."

"No."

"DANG IT! Fine, we'll share again."

"That... s-sounds nice..." Then something occured to Fluttershy. It was dark, he couldn't run off alone. She grinned as she remembered the promise.