If ever there were a time that these two acted like Little Sisters, it was now! Ever since the princesses had called and told us about the fact that they could contact us once a day, I had noticed that my charges were acting a lot more peppy than usual. Under normal circumstances, this would be fine, but right now, Rarity was skipping around the room chanting 'Its almost time!' over and over again, while Fluttershy couldn't keep herself still whatsoever! At least she wasn't chanting though.

"Come on Fluttershy, join in!" Oh hell no! I had to come up with something, fast! I cared for these girls, I really did, but a man can only take so much! It was then that one of Rapture's tiny miracles came through for me, in the form of a red security bot.

A beeping from the other side of the door caused the two to cease from their merriment, and in turn, caused me to let out a sigh of relief. I stood from the couch that I had been so patiently waiting on, unlike my two charges, and made my way to the door. No sooner than I had opened it had Winston quickly begun to revolve around me, repeatedly beeping in what seemed to be annoyance. It was like he was a bug. Unfortunately, I was out of extra large fly swatters.

After about a minute of listening to this annoying beeping, which actually turned out to be even worse than what my charges were just doing, I let out a loud groan, asking him what was wrong. Well, more like 'WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT!?!'. Details, details.

He seemed to get the message pretty quickly though as he stopped his incessant beeping and spinning, and flew out the door again, floating in one spot pointing his light to his left. Rolling my eyes I followed him outside, hoping that he wouldn't be as vague this time as he was when we found that recording. I stood next to him and groaned, once again asking what he wanted before following his gaze. His light pointed to a nearby junk pile that I had been placing emptied cans of food and bottles of water in, beeping as he spun around a few times before looking to me.

Had I mentioned that Winston was a selective clean freak? No? Well, now you know. I groaned, placing a hand over my porthole in frustration as I realized that Winston wanted me to clean the pile. Rapture was a sunken junk pile, covered in rust, filth, and people of similar fashion, yet he cares about this one group of trash.

"Is something wrong dear?" I heard Rarity ask, turning and noticing that both she and Fluttershy had been watching from the 'living room' of the apartment. Glancing to Winston once again, I made my way back into the apartment, scooting past the two as I grabbed the marker that laid on the white board and began to write again.

'WINSTON WANTS ME TO CLEAN. I'LL BE JUST OUTSIDE. YOU TWO WAIT HERE.' To my surprise though, as the two read this message, Rarity spoke out, walking over to me and standing on her hind hooves so she could look up at me face to face, face to helmet really, lightly jabbing me with one of her forehooves while the other helped keep her steady.

"Oh no you don't! You've done enough for the past few days! So we are going to go clean that mess, and you are going to stay here and relax!" Rarity chastised, Fluttershy nodding with a smile in agreement. I looked at the two wide-eyed as Rarity placed herself back on all fours, walking to Fluttershy and gesturing to the door. "Shall we?" Fluttershy nodded once again, following Rarity as they made their way to Winston, who let out another beep and flew in the direction of the mess. As they left in the same direction, Fluttershy carefully closing the door behind me, I wondered to myself:

"What the hell just happened?"

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

I still couldn't get over what had happened earlier. Fluttershy and Rarity, the two that I, the Big Daddy whose job it was to protect and care for the two, had been told to take a break... just... what?

I sighed and shook my head as I looked around the room, bored of sitting in one place for so long, even though it had only been about half an hour. There had to be something I could do while I waited.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The two doors to the throne room groaned as they opened, revealing a group of 5 ponies, a pair of guards escorting them along. Princess Celestia and her sister, Princess Luna, quickly dropped whatever they were doing, smiling as they saw who had entered.

"Ah, you're all here." Celestia said, watching as the ponies made their way into the room, one particular filly letting out a 'wow' of amazement. SweetieBelle had never had the chance to explore Canterlot, let alone Canterlot's castle, so this was quite an experience for her.

"We came as soon as we heard, Princess." Both Luna and Celestia nodded their heads at Twilight's statement, making their way to the group from their thrones. Though everypony in the room was glad to see each other once more, they knew that this wasn't simply an average day to day visit. It was an important matter, dealing with the possible danger that was faced by two 'missing' ponies. SweetieBelle was blissfully unaware of this danger though, only believing that Fluttershy and her sister had gotten lost and the like. "Have you heard anything else about them?"

The monarchs gestured for the group to follow them, rather than answering the question, causing a majority of the ponies to let out unsure expressions. Regardless, they trailed after the two princesses, their hooves lightly clopping below them in a seemingly similar, yet unorganized manner.

"As of yesterday, we have kept in contact with Rarity and Fluttershy through the use of a large scale telecommunication spell." Princess Celestia began. Twilight's interest was piqued, to say the least, at the prospect of seeing a spell that normally would only be used as a last resort. As for the other ponies though, they simply shared in their confusion, never having heard of such spells due to either their inexperience with magic, or overall lack of necessity towards it. Celestia noticed all of this, but decided it would be more efficient if she would explain it later.

Soon, the group came upon a small white orb, no bigger than an average pony's forehoof, floating in place a foot or two above the throne room floor.

"This is the magic we have been using. Though we had some trouble at first, we managed to condense the magic of several unicorns into this spell, ensuring that it would be self-sustaining and efficient." Everypony looked at the orb in curiosity, occasionally reaching out and passing their hooves through it, the orb breaking apart, then quickly reforming before their eyes.

"Wow. Princess, I've never seen magic like this, even in my studies!" Twilight exclaimed in amazement, drawing further questioning looks from her many friends, while SweetieBelle continued to fiddle with the orb.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Egghead doesn't know about a spell? Geez, how serious is this?" Rainbow Dash interjected, slightly joking while at the same time showing a serious demeanor. Applejack looked to her friend with annoyance while Twilight let out a small blush of embarrassment.

"Now hold on there pardner. I'm sure that if'n Twilight don't know somethin', it ain't guaranteed to be somethin' worth frettin' about... right?" She added uncertainly in the end, glancing towards the princesses behind her.

"Of course not! If anything, that just gives us more to look forward to!" Pinkie added in, bouncing about in her usual hyperactive manner and bringing out a giggle from SweetieBelle. The other ponies in the room couldn't help but smile as well. If there was anything Pinkie was good at, it was breaking a bad mood.

"Yes, well, as my sister was saying, this spell will allow us to communicate with Kindness and Generosity once a day, provided that we don't attempt to over exert the spell itself." Luna continued for her sister, accidentally referring to Fluttershy and Rarity by their elements, rather than their names. Nopony seemed to mind though, knowing that Luna still hadn't completely mastered her new form of talking.

"Does that mean we can call her now?" Everypony's head turned to face a now excited looking SweetieBelle, a sparkle in her eye as she sat by the small white orb, returning the gazes of the ponies. Celestia and Luna smiled at the filly's cute form, nodding their heads to confirm her assumption. SweetieBelle's sparkle seemed to grow as she began to bounce in excitement, a manner similar to that of PinkiePie as she excitedly asked for the ponies to start the call.

"Please, please, please, please, please, can you do it now?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...Huh. So that's why this stove never worked. When I had told myself to find something to do, I hadn't really thought that I would prove to be this desperate. I had literally gone through all three rooms in the apartment, fiddling with everything that I could and trying to pass the time, including the one room in the apartment that neither I, nor the girls, had entered since they had arrived. At this point, the stove had ended up being the last thing I could look over. Speaking of which, I'm pretty sure that a stove isn't supposed to have rocks in it. Not like coal, I'm not that misinformed, but actual rocks. Whoever had previously used this must have been a complete moron.

Sighing, I began to pick out the rocks one at a time, holding them in one of my large gloved hands while I picked them out with the other. Truthfully though, I wasn't particularly interested in fixing this stove, or anything else in the apartment. I was just trying to distract myself at this point. Rarity and Fluttershy had been out for over an hour now, so naturally, I was worried. Every second that ticked, I thought of another situation that they could find themselves in, usually with Winston nowhere near them as they were surrounded by splicers, and on one occasion, Winston turning against them, his gun cocked and ready to fire at them, the two being blissfully unaware of their robotic friend's betrayal. Granted, it was just stress that was causing these thoughts, along with my Big Daddy programming. After all, Winston wouldn't hurt a fly if it didn't give him reason.

Still, these thoughts just... they wouldn't go away. It was around that time that temptation came to me. Maybe it was time to go into the room again. These thoughts were quickly swept away, however, as the one light to the apartment shut itself off, and the projector began to flicker.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ugh, I'm covered in grime and garbage." As it turned out, Rarity and Fluttershy, regardless of Omega's negative thoughts, were completely fine, if not a little smelly. The reason they were taking so long, however, wasn't because the pile of trash near the apartment was too much for them. No, they had taken care of that mess within minutes. Winston, however, had other ideas for them.

If Omega had been there, Winston surely wouldn't have made them do as much as they did. He couldn't take all the messes that were spread around Apollo Square anymore, so he had managed to get the two to clean nearly all of Apollo Square, moving the trash from its random placements to the side of the tracks with the rest.

He knew that Omega would surely rip him apart if he found him, but right now, he didn't care. He was just happy to see the mess was gone. Fluttershy and Rarity weren't as enthusiastic. Both of their fur coats were spattered with filth and the like, seeming darkened and in some parts, wet. Wings and horns alike were in similar condition, almost sticky with normally rotting garbage of metals, food, and miscellaneous messes.

"Winston, I don't mean to be rude, I mean, I'm sorry if I am, but, can we, maybe, go now? I-if that's alright that is." Fluttershy said shyly, unsure of how to really converse with this piece of machinery. She could converse with Omega fairly easily, almost never feeling timid around him, much like with her friends, but she didn't know Winston that well, so timidity was her natural defense.

Winston, noticing that the pony was talking to him, faced the two once again, pointing his built in lights to them, rather than the now cleaned area around him. He had had his fun, and it was about time to return the two before Omega got too suspicious. Little did he, or Omega's two charges know, a security camera had filmed the whole thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Screaming was the first thing I heard as the projector came on. Well, technically, it was silence, as a group of unfamiliar ponies, accompanied by the princesses, looked to me, and I returned their gazes in silence. It was about 20 seconds before they all pretty much freaked out, sprinting/flying/flashing out of the view of the projector screen, leaving only the princesses, and a much, much smaller pony behind.

I figured that she was a kid, considering her size, but the fact that she had stayed while the others ran was pretty... odd. The princesses looked on blankly as the two of us observed one another, expressing similar curiosity. My porthole light glowed yellow, while the little pony tilted her head to the side, an observant look on her face as she did so. Adorable, but now was not the time to think about that. Finally, after what felt like an hour, but was actually a few seconds, the small pony spoke up, her face of curiosity changing to one of youthful energy with a cute smile to adorn it.

"Hi there mister!"

... I wasn't sure how to react to that. I thought for sure that she would run and hide like the others, yet here she stood, greeting me. Apprehensively, I rose my right hand and waved, letting out a quick groan as I did so.

"I'm SweetieBelle, who are you?" SweetieBelle... Strange name, but considering the names of all the other ponies I had met, I figured it was normal. If anything, I thought it was nice. Though, something about her seemed familiar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Princess Celestia was barely able to contain her mirth as all but one of the ponies before her fleed at the sight of Omega, amused by not only their reaction, but by the fact that the foal amongst them was the only one who hadn't run. As for the four, they watched onwards from their various hiding spots, hints of curiosity and fear ebbing at them as they saw SweetieBelle stay put.

"What is she doing?!" Twilight thought to herself, SweetieBelle tilting her head ever so slightly in curiosity, before giving a smile as sweet as sugar towards the hulking metal being.

"Hi there mister!" Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight all felt their jaws drop as they heard the foal greet the strange metal creature, and they were even more surprised when they noticed the creature wave in return, letting out an odd groan as it did so.

The four glanced towards each other from their hiding spots, nodding their heads in unison as they all began to slowly make their way to SweetieBelle, one by one. As they went on though, Rainbow Dash noticed that Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm SweetieBelle, who are you?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before I could answer, Celestia and Luna both changed their blank expressions to those of kindness, and caring. I made a mental wager with myself that they wouldn't last more than a few minutes.

"Everypony, this is Omega."

Much to my mild surprise, three ponies soon managed to get into the view of the projector again, albeit cautiously, taking their places next to SweetieBelle as they looked to me in wonder, and some fear as well. Wait. Weren't there five pon-

"Hiya Omega! I'm Pinkie Pie!" Jesus mother splicing Christ! On the outside, it probably just looked like I had taken a small step backwards. Inside of the suit though, I was having a small heart attack as I tried to calm my now quickened breathing. She had come out of nowhere, pressing her face against the screen as if it were glass! Of course that scared the crap out of me! Not that I needed to actually use the bathroom, that is, what I meant was- You know, I'm getting off subject here.

Shaking off the evident surprise that I had felt after that small scare, I watched as the pink pony was surrounded by an odd purple energy, carried up and away from the screen before carefully being put down next to the purple pony with a now glowing horn. She definitely earned a few points in my book.

"Heh. Sorry about that Mr. 'Omega'. Pinkie Pie gets pretty excited when she meets new ponies." You don't say? Wait, I'm not a pony. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends, Rainbow Dash." She gestured to a nearby pony who was currently keeping herself aloft in the air with her wings, an odd combination of blue and, as her name implied, rainbow colorings. Noticing that she was being referred to, she quickly lost whatever small sense of fear that she had shown, replacing it with a cocky smile.

"Fastest flier in all Equestria. Nice to meet ya." Well, she wasn't much for modesty, but she was definitely confident, I'd give her that. Twilight rolled her eyes at the winged pony's behavior, gesturing to another next to her.

"This is Applejack." This pony didn't have any wings or horns, sporting an odd hat that I had only seen at a western store in Rapture, freckles, though I'm not sure how fur could show freckles, an orange fur coat, and a blonde mane, held together in a ponytail... no pun intended, that's just how it was.

"Howdy pardner!" She greeted, tipping her hat as she did so. Yeah, definitely western. I'd only heard that accent one other time, and it was, by far, the most memorable one.

"And you've already met Pinkie Pie." Unfortunately, I had. Glancing to the hyperactive pink pony, I noticed her waving at me, a party hat slightly pushing down her extremely puffy and pink mane onto her similarly pink coat, and a party blower in her mouth. Where she had gotten the party implements, I would never know, nor did I want to. Suddenly, I heard the small, high pitched sound of someone clearing their throat, everyone of the ponies in front of me looking behind them in slight surprise as they noticed the small pony who had long been trying to get through the wall of ponies in front of her.

"Oh, right!" She said with a smile, her horn beginning to glow again as she floated over the small pony, placing her in clear view of me and themselves. "This is Rarity's little sister, SweetieBelle." That's why she seemed so familiar. Her fur, the slightly purple hue of her mane, and even that small glint in the corner of her eye that just screamed 'Rarity'.

"Is she there now?" SweetieBelle asked, the ponies around her widening their eyes in surprise. I guess they had forgotten about the two in their introductions.

Timing was on my side there though, as the door to the apartment opened, adding a small amount of light to the darkened room, revealing my two, apparently filthy looking, charges. Geez, how much trash had I put in that pile?

"Next time Winston comes by asking for help Fluttershy, remind me to bring a large towel." Fluttershy nodded as the two made their way in through the door, apparently still not having noticed the projector was turned on. At the sound of Rarity's voice, SweetieBelle's eyes widened, along with the other ponies with her, and she grew an incredibly wide smile.

"Rarity!" She yelled out happily, bouncing slightly in her step. Both Rarity and Fluttershy froze, seemingly trying to process what they had just heard.

"W-was that?"

"I... think it was. SweetieBelle!" Rarity and Fluttershy quickly rushed into the room, skidding to a halt in front of me before Rarity quickly came as close to the screen as possible, smiling with small hints of tears in her eyes. At the prospect of seeing her sister again, SweetieBelle let out an expression of nothing less than pure joy. Fluttershy was a few inches behind Rarity, happily looking towards the group of mares that she had likely thought she would never see again.

Figuring that the group would want some time to catch up, I made my way to the couch and sat down, watching with my own controlled elation at both of my charge's happiness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"SweetieBelle, how did you get there? Do our parents know you're in Canterlot?" Rarity asked her little sister, wiping away forming tears as she did so. SweetieBelle giggled and rolled her eyes.

"Of course they do! I told them that I'd be visiting you for a while, and here I am!" Rarity could very easily see many things that were wrong with the explanation her sister had given their parents, but she ignored it for now.

"Well, it's still really good to see you SweetieBelle." The other ponies glanced to each other, having remained quiet as they watched this display of sibling love, as Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes with a smile and quite loudly cleared her throat. Rarity's eyes widened slightly as she realized that she had all but ignored her other friends, looking towards them with a sheepish smile. "Oh, and you girls as well, of course!" The group snickered.

"When did you all get there?" Fluttershy asked, her wings fluttering ever so slightly in happiness.

"We got here a few hours ago. You see, about two days ago, Princess Celestia sent us a letter about how you two had disappeared. We were worried, but we knew that there was nothing that we could really do. It wasn't until we got another letter from Celestia, telling us that she had managed to contact you, that we decided to come to see you." Twilight explained, glancing back to Princess Celestia and flashing her a thankful smile before looking back to her friends.

"Yeah!" Pinkie interjected, bouncing up as if she was on a trampoline floor. "And when SweetieBelle heard that you both were missing, she was soooo worried. So I tried to throw her a party to cheer her up, which kinda worked, like a lot of other things I do to cheer ponies up, since that's my job, well not really, my job is at Sugarcube Corner, where I make great sweets, but anyway, the party only cheered her up by a bit, which wasn't a lot, so when we got the letter about you two being found, we told her about it and brought her with us, now here we are, talking to you and you and you!" Needless to say, many of the ponies there weren't really sure of how she had pulled off saying that much without taking a breath, while Rainbow Dash and SweetieBelle giggled at her antics.

As for Omega, he thought that this was, by far, the most terrifyingly nonsensical sugar rush pony that he had ever met. Even now, he could feel a slight headache beginning to form, only quelled by the thought that this pony had still attempted to cheer SweetieBelle up in her sadness. Then, just as Pinkie was taking in a breath, likely ready to somehow continue her spiel, an orange hoof stopped her.

"Whoa! Hold yer horses Sugarcube. Don't ferget, we ain't got all day." Applejack was, of course, referring to the time limit that they had with the communication spell. All the ponies in the room, and Rapture, nodded at this.

"Y-yes. We have to use our time carefully. I-if that's okay." Omega slightly chuckled at Fluttershy's revert to timidity, attracting glances from the ponies in the throne room, but only short ones.

Suddenly, the sound of restrained laughter could be heard. Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack looked to a now snickering Pinkie, barely restraining a laugh behind the orange hoof of Applejack, who still had yet to remove it.

"What'cha laughing at Pinks?" Rainbow Dash asked as Applejack finally removed her hoof from her mouth. Pinkie continued to snicker for a small while longer though, eventually managing to control her laughter after a large amount of effort.

"S-sorry. Pffffft. It's just that. Heh. Y-you both look hilarious! HAHAHAHAHA!" Applejack and Rainbow Dash returned their gazes to Rarity and Fluttershy, only now noticing the filth that caked their furs as they began to restrain their own laughter as well, bringing about blushes from both Fluttershy and Rarity. Twilight and SweetieBelle just looked at the three, SweetieBelle not seeming to understand what was so funny about getting their fur dirty, and Twilight rolling her eyes at her friend's immaturity.

"Riiiiigggghhht. Anyway, how did this happen anyhow?" Twilight asked, raising a brow at the two. Fluttershy and Rarity both let out sheepish smiles as they stammered to explain.

"W-well, you see..."

"The thing is, darling, that... Well..."

"They had followed us." Princess Celestia cut in, deciding that it was best to save them the explanation. The other ponies looked to their now slightly blushing friends in confusion and shock, the laughter they had been attempting to withhold swiftly disintegrating.

"What!?!" Twilight exclaimed, looking to the two in slight annoyance. "Are you two nuts!?!"

"Twilight's right! What were ya both thinking?" Applejack agreed. "I woulda thought Rainbow to be the one ta do this kind of thing, but not you two!" Fluttershy and Rarity both flinched at this, Fluttershy tearing up slightly as her friends chastised them.

"Yeah! ...Hey!" Rainbow Dash turned and gave a small glare at Applejack, her agreement turning to annoyance as she realized that Applejack had partially made fun of her. Applejack just looked to her friend with an 'innocent' face, as though she hadn't said anything.

"Now, now. I understand that you girls are upset, but if there's anypony that you can blame for this mishap, it's me." Rarity said, taking a step in front of Fluttershy. Just the same, a heavy footstep came from behind the two. The four mares in Canterlot quickly quieted themselves as they noticed 'Omega' behind the two, his eye glowing yellow as he let out a small growl.

SweetieBelle turned herself to face the mares as well, giving them a similar, though still extremely adorable, glare. "... All right, maybe we went a bit too far there." Rainbow conceded, rolling her eyes as she did so. The other three mares nodded in agreement, bringing about a satisfied change in tone for both SweetieBelle and Omega, though SweetieBelle giggled as she looked back to the three in Rapture.

"Seems as though she got a good first impression from him." Princess Luna mused to herself with a chuckle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Deja vu. This is the second time someone tried to chew them out for their mistake. Second. I couldn't just sit aside while that happened. And apparently, neither could Rarity's sister. Though, as she looked back to us and giggled, I wasn't really sure if she was doing it to help her sister, or to imitate me. Hopefully its the former, because, lets face it, I'm not a good role model.

"Um, not ta be rude or nothin', but how exactly do both of you and the princesses know Omega?" Applejack asked, looking between me and the girls, occasionally glancing to the princesses. Curiosity is fine, but holy crap was that a bad question to ask. Both rooms fell silent almost instantly. Fluttershy, Rarity, and even the princesses seemed to cringe at the question, attracting the questioning gazes of all the other ponies. On the bright side, I won my mental bet. They hadn't kept their smiles.

"Um... did I say somethin'?" The ponies still said nothing in response though. Noticing that this wasn't going to get anywhere, I decided to help speed up the process. Moving away from the projector, I grabbed the white board and made my way towards the group. I'd need to talk again if I wanted this to go well. Honestly, I'm not sure why the princesses didn't just translate me when the transmission began, but I guessed they had their reasons. As the squeaking sounds of the white board's wheels filled the room, my charges both snapped out of their silence, looking to me in confusion as I began to write on the board.

'PRINCESSES. MIND GIVING ME A VOICE HERE?' I wrote. That should do it. I looked back to the projector screen, moving aside from the white board as I gave them a clear view of what I had written. I noticed the princesses nod, both of their horns glowing faintly and covering the room in a dim light, signifying that the spell had been used. The group of ponies in the projector screen looked around curiously, unsure of what had just transpired. Though, I noticed that Rarity and Fluttershy had put on smiles.

"To ANsWeR yOuR QUEstioN APPlEjaCk, itS a lOnG sTOry." The ponies in the other room all let out small squeaks, akin to those of Fluttershy, once again fleeing the scene and leaving only a now giggling SweetieBelle, and the princesses, who also seemed to be holding a chuckle or two.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

None of the ponies were expecting Omega to be able to talk, so they were nearly scared out of their furs when he did. Especially in his odd, multi-toned voice. It wasn't long after they had gone back to their hiding spots that they heard laughter come from the portal, a similarly chuckling SweetieBelle and monarch duo accompanying it.

"I TaKE iT tHEy wErE SCaREd bY tHat?" Omega chuckled, not quite used to having a laugh like that. Or any laugh for that matter. Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie quickly made their way back to the front of the communication portal again, scowls on their faces.

"We were not scared!" Rainbow Dash remarked, her wings fluttering in annoyance as she said so.

"Yeah!"

"Darn tootin'!" Both Pinkie Pie and Applejack agreed, stamping their hooves to the floor in agreement. Omega's laugh rung through the room again as he watched this little display, an idea popping into his mind as he did so.

"Oh, REAllY?" Omega asked eerily, leaning closer to the projector screen over his charges, his porthole light turning a light shade of red. The three mares staggered back at the sight of this, Pinkie Pie falling onto her back as she did so.

"M-maybe a little." Applejack admitted, letting out a forced chuckle.

"WeLl tHeN... I SHOuLd prObaBLY teLl yoU tHAT tHerEs no ReaSOn tO." Applejack gave me a confused look, likely unsure of what I had meant. "SO lONg aS YOu dOnT giVE me REAsOn, saMe gOEs fOr thE OthErs, I WoNt bOThER aNY Of yOu." Applejack and her other three friends nodded in confirmation, if not a little jerkily. Maybe they were still a little scared of me?

"Um... what exactly would constitute a reason?" Twilight asked, raising a hoof up cautiously as she did so.

"ATTacKinG mE, UsIng thIs wORd," I momentarily went back to the white board and wrote out 'MONSTER', circling the word as emphasis. "Or tHrEAtEniNg thE sAFetY oF my TwO CharGes." Twilight had been nodding at each of my reasons, but paused at the last part.

"Charges?"

"What are charges?" SweetieBelle asked, raising a brow and tilting her head as she did so.

"It means somepony that somepony else is responsible for protecting, or caring for." Twilight informed her, looking back to me as she did so. "So, by charges, do you mean Fluttershy and Rarity?" Omega nodded once again.

"Does that mean that Omega is kinda like, I don't know, their babysitter, or something?" Rainbow Dash interjected, bringing about further blushes from my charges and I. I was not a babysitter.

'To be fair, you kind of are."

Ignoring my mental comment, I looked to the now snickering Rainbow Dash, rolling my eyes from beneath my helmet. It was then that Princess Luna took a step forward.

"Omega tasked himself with the duty of protecting the two before we had even communicated with him, and until we are able to bring the two back, he will continue to do so." I nodded in agreement, crossing my large metal arms as I did so.

"YoU hAVe nO IdEA."

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

Surprisingly, this projection had lasted much longer than the last one, going for up to an hour before it began to flicker. When I had asked Princess Celestia and Princess Luna about it, they had said that the spell had been able to stabilize, and contact us with more ease.

Overall, the small reunion the girls had with their friends and loved ones went swimmingly. Granted, there were a few occasions that proved to be a little strange, most of them involving Pinkie Pie, but nothing too bad. Personally, out of the entire group, SweetieBelle had definitely proven to be my favorite. She was sweet, caring, and adorable, albeit she had the tendency of being ignorant from time to time. Besides, she had told me all kinds of things about her sister that I found to be rather... Interesting. Rarity promptly told her to change the subject whenever these kinds of stories came up, but that didn't stop her. Fluttershy mostly interacted with her friends, asking how everything was going back in 'Ponyville', I couldn't make that name up if I tried, and how her animals were doing.

I didn't know that she was such an animal lover, nor did I know that Rarity was actually a successful tailor back in her home world. You learn something new everyday huh?

Regardless, despite the enjoyment that my charges, the group in 'Canterlot', and surprisingly, I, had gotten from this call, time soon came close to an end as the portal began to flicker, along with the lights to the room. All of the ponies, my charges included, seemed extremely saddened by the fact that they would have to wait another day before they saw each other again, but they knew that there was nothing to could do to solve it.

"I guess its almost time to go." Twilight inferred as the spell began to flash on and off, inspecting the aura that surrounded it. Though saddened, everypony in the room nodded, soon letting out their farewells to the three of us, rather than just Fluttershy and Rarity.

"See ya soon you guys!"

"Bye sis!"

"Take care!"

"Call back soon! Maybe we'll be able to throw an hour long, intercommunicational party!"

"Catch ya later pardners!"

"Farewell."

"Yes, and Omega," Celestia added just as the projector had almost completely faded to black. "Take good care of them." I nodded, the projector finally shutting itself off as the light to the room turned itself on again, allowing me to get a much more clear view at my charges.

They had seemed so happy, so content. I was glad, really. At the same time though, I couldn't help but feel a small part of my mind cry out at the thought of them preferring to leave me as soon as possible for their friends. Needless to say, I quickly sealed this thought away.

One thing I couldn't seal away though was the disgusting slop that I noticed was all over their furs. Now I see that there was a reason for showers.

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

I'm a Big Daddy. I don't like doing nothing, especially in my current position. So, when an alert came on about a small repair that was needed in an upper apartment in Apollo Square, I was more than glad to fix it, shuffling through the apartment as quietly as I could so that I wouldn't wake my two sleeping charges. If they saw me working after they had specifically told me to take a break, they likely would have chewed me out.

Nonetheless, it was a simple enough repair. Head up and fix a leak in the water pipes. Besides, what could possibly go wrong?

Suddenly, as I was walking upwards, the wooden stairs beneath me let out a loud creak, followed by a snapping sound. '... I'm starting to think that I make this too easy for the universe."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fluttershy and Rarity were bolted awake by the sound of an extremely loud crash, causing the two to quickly burst awake, hiding under the covers of the bed shakily.

"W-what was that?" Fluttershy asked. Rarity, however, didn't really answer, letting out a groan and further curling herself up under the blanket.

"It was probably just another splicer dear." She yawned. "Just try to go back to sleep."

Author's Notes:

That last part was for you sact3rnlang3l!

Anyways, I'm happy to say that chapter 10 had officially been posted. And you all know what that means! Double digits, Whoo!

Im happy to see that so many people have enjoyed the reading so far, and I hope to gain more viewers from this! Glad you all like it, and thanks for bearing that long delay of mine. Two stories plus busy schedule equals no time for Brightlight. -_-