Heyo! Bet y'all thought I was dead, huh? Nope. Just very, very busy. But where there's a will, there's a way. And I will for these stories of mine to never be forgotten!

So, fun fact: this chapter Sterling and I came up with one day by random, while thinking of ways we could continue the story. This actually was originally going to be Chapter Two, but then the overbearing parent thing came up, and now this is Chapter Three. Funny how that works out, huh?

Please enjoy!


Chuck hummed to himself as he strolled up to his house after a long day at the tavern, whistling a tune as he skipped along the cobblestone walkway that led to his front door. "Feels so good to finally be home." He sighed contently to himself. "Just me and my darling wife, and our three beautiful children," he listed as he stepped through the door, greeted by the sight of company at their kitchen table. "Aaaand Twilight and TD. Hey all." He said with a respectful nod as he walked passed his friends and wife at their table, making his way to the fridge for a drink.

"Chuckie, want to sit down for a second?" Pinkie asked him. Chuck turned and scanned the gaze of the 3 at the table.

"Interventions typically have more people." Chuck remarked. "Alright, let's do this." He said as he sat down at the table.

"This isn't an Intervention." Pinkie shook her head. "Twilight was just telling me about this great new restaurant in Canterlot that just opened a few weeks ago!"

"Yeah, and they're having a date night discount today!" Twilight chimed in, looking excited at the idea. "And I was thinking, since we both had plans tonight, we could all go there together!"

"I feel it necessary to point out, this was their idea - I had nothing to do with this," TD remarked, raising his hands in the air as if to emphasize - or he tried to, but given that pony homes were not built with human occupants in mind, they ended up hitting the ceiling, and he winced slightly as a result.

"Ohhhh, yeah!" Chuck nodded. "No, no yeah that's a great idea. But tonight?" He asked. "That's sort of short notice, I mean the kids' sitter isn't even in town this week. There's no one to watch them."

"I think Sugar Plum's old enough to watch the twins, it'd just be a few hours," Pinkie suggested with a shrug.

"Sugar Plum is 7 years old!" Chuck exclaimed. "She's not old enough to watch the twins on her own."

"And she'd be sitting for two half-Changelings, both with their fair share of magic," Twilight chimed in. "And we all know how babies with magical powers can be, Pinkie Pie."

"Still wish I could have been there to see it in person when you babysat the Cake Twins," TD chuckled, then added quickly, "I mean, uh... Sometimes, I hate it when you're right, Twi..."

"Okay, then Zach comes and watches them with her," Pinkie suggested.

"Another child..." Chuck massaged his temples with his hooves. "Why don't we just ask Snips and Snails to help out too while we're at it?" he joked before his eyes popped open, fearful his wife would take that as an actual suggestion, and turned to her quickly. "I was... kidding."

"Actually... Zach might not be a bad choice," TD mused aloud, nodding in agreement. "He's certainly one of the more trustworthy choices."

"But William, he's not much older than she is!" Twilight protested. "And he hasn't had any experience with this before!"

"Well now's the time to learn," TD replied, adding with a grin, "Besides, need I remind you that he was able to plan a course of attack, and fight by our sides against a resurrected Sombra's forces when he was only three?"

"...point taken," Twilight conceded, looking more than a little sheepish.

"Well at least he's ready to atomize the twins if they get fussy," Chuck mumbled under his breath, earning a kick to his shin from Pinkie. Wincing in pain, he turned to Twilight and TD. "That sounds perfect," he said through gritted teeth at the pain in his leg. "Meet back here at 6?"

"Sounds good to me," Twilight nodded.

"Sure, let me just call him," TD agreed, and then transformed into his pony form. A megaphone appeared above his head, and he marched over to the window. "Uh oh," Twilight said, and quickly covered her ears.

"ZACHARYYYYYYY!" TD shouted into the megaphone, and then added in a dramatically quieter tone, "Please come to the Murphy residence at your earliest convinence. Thank you."

"Gee, who needs a cell phone?" Chuck muttered as he rubbed his ringing ears.

Ringing ears aside, it got the desired effect, and soon with a flash of light Zach appeared just a few feet from them, giving a mixed expression of bemusement and irritation towards his father.

At least he was still polite when he asked, "You called?"

"How'd you like to make 3 bits tonight?" Chuck asked Zach, earning a side nudge from Pinkie. "Fine. 5," he corrected himself with a grumble.

"Uh... sure? What's the job?" Zach asked.

"Helping Sugar Plum babysit the kids while we go out on a double date," TD informed him.

Zach slowly grew a knowing smile on his face. "You don't have anyone else, do you?" When heads were shaken in agreement, he nodded once. "Sure, I'll help."

"Thanks, Zach," Twilight said with an approving smile. "I knew we could count on you."


"You know, as adorable as it is to watch you sleep, I need your A-game right now," Zach said aloud to the snoring form of Sugar Plum, who seemed to have chosen to take a nap sometime before his arrival, and had been sleeping long since the parents were gone. He had found her in her bedroom, and for a moment he had actually felt sorry that he would have to wake her - to him, she was far too adorable while sleeping.

Still, he needed her help with this task, and so he gathered himself together, and used a wing to tickle her nose, in hopes it would do the trick.

"Ah... Ah..." Sugar Plum scrunched her nose. "AHHHCHOO!" She shot awake, blinking her eyes that, without her thick glasses, appeared rather beady. She reached for her glasses on her nightstand and put them on. "Hi Zach," She yawned.

"Hi Sugar Plum," Zach greeted casually. "So, did they inform you on what's going on, or did they leave that to me to explain?"

"Well, when I first laid down, I heard my dad grumbling in the shower, which usually means mom's making him go out somewhere after working," Sugar Plum explained as she sat up. "Love that they didn't tell me what was going on. That's super."

"I'm sure it just slipped their minds," he assured, before summarizing, "Well, let's sum up then: your mom and dad, and my mom and dad are going on a double date, and you and I are watching the twins till they're back."

"Sounds like fun!" Sugar Plum perked up. "I've never actually been home for long without a grownup before."

"Then this ought to be a fun night," Zach said optimistically, and then frowned in thoughtfulness. "So... where are the twins usually at?"

"I should hope they're in bed," Sugar Plum replied. "If you and I are in here and were supposed to be watching them, I wouldn't want them anywhere else."

"Fair enough. Still, wouldn't hurt to check, right?" Zack suggested. "You know, just in case..."

"That... sounds like a good idea," Sugar Plum nodded, stepping out of her room.

"Lead the way," Zach said, giving a playful gesture with his hoof to let her pass him by.

"So our parents are out on a double date." Sugar Plum said as she walked towards her younger siblings' room. "I was going to say, going by my dad's grumbling he either had to go to Canterlot for something, or mom's parents were coming over." She laughed.

"I'm guessing that Canterlot isn't a popular place for you guys either?" Zach asked, sharing in her laughter with his own chuckles.

"Well, for him," she answered, opening the door. "He says it's a... cesspool, whatever that is, of unicorns with their heads up their own..." She hesitated. "Y'know." She turned to Sweet Tooth's crib first. "C'mon, time to get up Sweet Tooth," She hummed in a sing-song tone. Sweet Tooth opted to respond by throwing her pacifier at Sugar Plum's nose. "Brat," She mumbled.

Zach held back an amused smile, before looking at the other crib where Sterling was laying peacefully.

"Time to wake up, Sterling," he called lightly.

"BURRRRRRRAAP!" Sterling belched upon awakening.

"Classy." Sugar Plum scrunched her face.

"Whew! Stinks almost as bad as a Timberwolf. I should know," Zach muttered, using one of his wings to fan the stench away from his nostrils.

"Yeeaaahhhh..." Sugar Plum grumbled. "C'mon stinky, let's get you downstairs," she said, as she lifted Sterling from his crib.

"I've got the brat," Zach said jokingly, then blinked when Sweet Tooth's pacifier flew out of the crib and hit his nose next. "...Okay, that only proves my point."


"This eggplant parmesan better have gold flakes in it if it's that much," Chuck mumbled to himself as he glanced at the menu at the high class Canterlot restaurant that Pinkie, Twi, TD, and he had come to.

"Oh relax you." Pinkie slugged him on the shoulder playfully. "You're not in college living off of SpaghettiOs anymore."

"And if worst comes to wear, we can always pay for the expenses ourselves," Twilight assured them both.

"We can?" TD asked, prompting Twilight's frown before he chuckled. "Relax, I'm just kidding!"

"I wonder if this place has unlimited breadsticks like Olive Garden did back home," Chuck mumbled to himself. "Ehhh garçon," he gestured to a passing waiter. "I don't know what your guys' breadstick policy is here, but there's 20 bits and whatever's left on this Cluckin Bell gift card in it for you, if you make sure they keep em coming for our table," he finished with a wink.

"I'm... not taking that from you, sir," the waiter remarked with a grimace. "I will see to it if you promise not to talk to me for the rest of the evening."

"Done," Chuck nodded in approval.

"You do know that you're going to get us thrown out if you keep pulling things like that, right?" Twilight inquired with a small frown.

"True, but it'll still get us a good laugh out of it when we look back on this," TD commented, evidently not concerned in the slightest.

"That's the spirit." Chuck replied with a grin.

"Do you think this place has a payphone? I think we should check on the kids." Pinkie spoke up, uncharacteristically responsibly.

"They're fine." Chuck shrugged nonchalantly.


Meanwhile, back on the homefront, everything was decidedly NOT fine.

"Well, this is a mite embarrassing," Zach said aloud, as he stared at where Sweet Tooth had evidently managed to escape from him, get into the bathroom, and emptied Celestia-knows-how-many bottles of shampoo into a tub of running water all at once. Thankfully, she herself was not inside the tub, but the pegasus was not liking how precarious the tower of soap suds was starting to look.

"Why do my parents have to use so much hair product?" Sugar Plum lamented as the sudsy mass began to touch the ceiling. "Dads gonna be soooo mad when he finds out you turned his new conditioner into that foaming heap."

She turned to Sweet Tooth, who was now entertaining herself with a rubber duck.

"We'll have to worry about that later," Zach stated, as he used a glow of his wings to shut off the water before things got worse. Unfortunately, by then, the suds had become like a mountain, and it was starting to tip over.

"Uh oh... Brace for impact!" Zach called, just as the mountain of soap suds cascaded down upon them.

"Hahahahaha! Winter time inside!" Sweet Tooth cheered as she popped out of the soapy mound.

"What am I going to do with you?" Sugar Plum growled, wiping her glasses clear as she poked her head out of the cloud.

Zach's head soon appeared out of the mound as well, before frowning with concern. "Wait a minute... Where's Sterling?"

"He's still downstairs," Sugar Plum answered, then added with realization, "Alone..." Before darting through the foam and out into the hall, leaving a little tunnel Sweet Tooth found herself tumbling into with a giggle.

"Come here, you," Zach remarked, catching her and levitating her right beside him. "I can't have two babies unaccounted for."

"Sterling is fine!" Sugar Plum called from downstairs.

"However," she continued as she came back up the stairs, Sterling in hold with her magic. "I can't say the same for dinner." She finished, holding up an empty pizza box.

"Let's get you cleaned up. You're covered in tomato sauce and cheese... so gooey." She grumbled as she stuffed the giddy colt into the soapy wall.

"A whole pizza?" Zach whistled aloud. "And I thought pony babies had big appetites." He then glanced at Sweet Tooth with a wry expression. "But then again, Changelings are much different, aren't they? Even hybrids like you."

"I'd say that's the Chuck in them," Sugar Plum replied. "I've seen that wild stallion take buffets to court because they denied him 'all he could eat' as their signs suggested."

Zach smirked. "I can see why Aunt Pinkie Pie was so infatuated with him," he said jokingly.

"Are you kidding me?" Sugar Plum snorted. "They go grocery shopping, and you'd think is was for the whole royal guard."

Zach chuckled at the image it presented in his head. "They must go shopping quite frequently, then, if everyone's appetites here are so hearty."

"The grocer said my parents paid for his new pool," Sugar Plum snickered. "It's sad though, really, when the child has to pull both her parents away from competing in an eating contest at the county fair."

"Ah, it can't be *that* bad. If it was, I imagine Sterling would have eaten the box as well as the pizza," Zach remarked in cheek.

"No no, I'm kidding, for the most part," she replied. "I love my parents, I really do," she added, almost out of guilt.

Zach paused, and he looked her over with a curiously concerned face. Raising an eyebrow, he asked with a voice as soft as a breeze, "So why does saying that make you feel guilty?"

"I just don't want to be ungrateful. I mean, they found me, took me in when no one else wanted me. They gave me a home and more love and kindness than I could ever ask for." She shrugged. "I feel bad when I get frustrated, I wouldn't want them to think I was ungrateful for them." She paused, and looked at him questioningly. "Do you think that I'm ungrateful?"

"Ungrateful? No." He shook his head, then added, "But I do think that there's something more personal going on here. Something related to their antics, for sure." He frowned thoughtfully, and then it seemed to hit him. "Sugar Plum... Are you wishing that they'd act a little less... well, like how they do now? And more like how other ponies may act?"

"I don't know Zach," she said, and sighed. "It's a tricky thing. I love them exactly as they are now, but sometimes I'm scared the day is going to come where I really need them, and for whatever reason they let me down."

...

She felt something soft wrap around her back and over one of her sides, before it gently pulled her over to him, and she soon realized it was one of his wings. Pulling her into a hug of sorts, in which he gently stared her in the eye, and gave her his most reassuring, yet most serious smile he had given to her thus far.

"Sugar Plum, if there ever came a day when your family let you down, then I'd honestly be shocked," he explained to her. "Family is all about lifting each other up, being supportive, and loving each other. And I have no doubt in my mind that they would move mountains for your sake if they had to..." He gave a wry smirk. "I mean, they did travel all the way up from Ponyville to Canterlot just to find you again when you went missing that one time. And I guarantee Chuck was ready to head to the Crystal Empire next, if he had to."

He gave her a small squeeze, ignoring the sudsy mess around them or the babbles of the younger equines with them, and instead focused fully on what he had to say to her. "You have nothing to be afraid of. And if you are feeling afraid, then just remember that there are ponies who love you very much, and who will always be there for you." He paused, and his face scrunched up thoughtfully. "In fact... Would you mind if I made a small promise to you? Here and now?"

"No, I wouldn't mind," She answered after a brief pause. Zach smiled a bit more, and then he brought up one of his hooves, and placed it on his chest.

"No matter what happens, no matter how hopeless or how daunting your life may be, if ever you need me, I will always be there for you," he solemnly promised, and then with a light smirk he added a classic, "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

She giggled after he said the last part, and sighed with contentment. "Thank you, Zach," she spoke up, before acknowledging the mess they still had to clean. "We'd probably better take care of this mess before they get home, huh?"

"I don't know, maybe we could just shut the door and pretend nothing is amiss?" Zach suggested, earning a look from even the babies. "I'm kidding! I'm kidding!" he laughed. "Let's get 'er done!"


Ten minutes later, and with the younger kids now finally settled down to sleep (again), Zach and Sugar Plum found themselves settling on the family sofa taking a well-earned rest from things, while they waited on the latter's parents to return home. And just for the sake of it, Zach had managed to get them another pizza, with one half topped in peppers, and the other half with extra cheese and pepperoni.

Not necessarily his favorite toppings, but it was a classic, so it wasn't something to complain over either.

"Did I ever tell you, there was a time Momma thought Dad was having an affair?" Sugar Plum asked. "A child shouldn't be aware of what an affair is, but Pinkie will vent to any ear she can vent to, regardless of how appropriate it may be." She snickered. "Turns out, he was sneaking away because your dad was setting him up with meat."

"Oh... so that's why Mom was chewing his ear off that night," Zach chuckled in amusement. "Sounds like you had quite an adventure that day, huh?"

"Well, you know how my momma is when she's anxious. You're gonna hear allllllll about it. Numerous times over the course of the day," Sugar Plum laughed.

"Yep. That's Pinkie Pie," Zach agreed, laughing along with her.

"That's me!" Pinkie Pie added, seemingly out of thin air, laughing with them. "Wait, what's me?" She asked before shrugging the question off. "Hi kids!" She cheered as the rest of the adults came through the entrance.

"All these years and you can still maneuver your way through the mail slot. My wife, fillies and gentlecolts," Chuck said in earnest admiration.

"She can do that?" Zach whispered to Sugar Plum, then to the adults he waved a wing and called cheerfully, "Oh, hi guys!"

"Remind me never to watch that happen again," Twilight groaned, looking a bit green as she came into view, TD right behind her in pony form. Not nearly as disturbed as she looked, but nonetheless a tad bit disturbed.

"Agreed. That was impressive, but something I could have done without watching in action," he remarked.

"How was dinner?" Sugar Plum asked, peeking at the adults from where she and Zach sat on the sofa.

"It was great!" Pinkie answered with a wide grin.

"We were asked to never return," Chuck said as he looked at his wife, surprised by her answer.

"Sounds about right," Zach remarked with a shrug, then noticed the weird look he got from Twilight. "What? That's so totally you guys!"

TD sniffed the air. "Did you have pizza?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. We've already finished most of it," Zach stated, while Twilight shuddered.

"Melted cheese. No thanks," she muttered to herself.

Chuck walked over to the living room crib where the twins were laid down to sleep, nostrils twitching as they picked up a strong, though pleasant scent.

"Wow, they smell so much better than usual. Did... did you guys bathe the twins? Holy shit, that's awesome." He remarked, taken aback by their responsibility, though he suddenly picked up a familiar scent. "Is that my good conditioner?"

"Their manes are so fluffy now!" Pinkie giggled, darting over to her babies.

"What can I say? They chose the soap, and we did the rest," Zach said, giving a small wink to Sugar Plum that went unnoticed by the adults.

"Well, I think that this night was a total success," TD remarked, smiling and nodding with overall satisfaction. "Certainly proved that you two are responsible enough for this kind of task."

"I'll say. I'm so proud of you both," Twilight chimed in, to which Zach humbly replied, "Just helping a friend in need, Mom..."

"Alright you, let's get up to bed." Chuck said to Sugar Plum, stepping over to the couch. "Ride up the stairs?" He asked, crouching so his daughter had easy access to his back. Sugar Plum nodded and hopped onto his back.

"Goodnight Zach, thanks for all your help tonight," she called, smiling warmly at him as Chuck started to head for the stairs.

"Goodnight, Sugar Plum. I'll see you next time," Zach replied in equal warmth, waving his hoof after her. He then turned to his parents, who looked back to him expectantly.

"Ready to go home?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah," he nodded, prompting TD to light up his horn with a spell.

"Next stop: our humble abode!" he called, and in a flash of light, all three Sparkles had disappeared from the Pie residence. After the Sparkles departed and a brief moment passed, a thought occurred to Pinkie, now alone in the den of her home.

"We're gonna have to send the restaurant some money to smooth things over," Pinkie called up the stairs.

"I'm aware of that," Chuck called back in reply.


Aaaaaaand, that's a wrap!

For any of y'all who were patient enough to wait on me to make any content, I just wanna say thank you for your patience. And sorry for the absence. I will try to get back into the swing of things, I promise. But life comes first, and I can't promise it won't get in the way of things; what I can promise is that you haven't seen the last of the Terror of Dimensions!

Stay tuned!