"Hey, Olly?" I heard a soft voice ask.

I groaned and turned over to meet with a pair of soft, light blue eyes. I blinked a few times, and then tried to sit up. The eyes seemed to get nervous, and I was softly pushed back down onto my pillow.

"It's okay, you don't have to get up," the soft voice said, "We just wanted to let you know we were going for a walk. Is that okay?"

It took me a second to comprehend what she had said, and then I slowly nodded, "That's fine… stay away from the side of town I found you guys in."

"Okay, we'll stay away from there."

"Promise?" I asked weakly. I knew I sounded like a kid somewhere, but I was too tired to care. Plus, this was Fluttershy. She wouldn't care either.

She seemed to laugh to herself for a second, and then took my hand, "I promise. We'll be back soon."

I slowly nodded again and closed my eyes until I heard her leave the room. I laid there for a second, trying to think about what had just happened. I was aware of it, but I wasn't really conscious of anything that was said or done. I sat up and looked at my clock; 9 AM. At least it was a little earlier than yesterday.

I stood and peeked out my window to see the six girls walking down my driveway, Rainbow Dash leading the way. I watched them closely for a second, until I noted that they turned in the opposite direction from the forest where I had found them. I breathed a sigh of relief and lay back down.

I was lost in thought for quite a while, much of which I can barely recall. It was a natural thing for me; becoming completely lost in thought as if I was dreaming, then waking up and not recalling a single part of it.

I looked at the clock again; 9:30. I yawned and stood up, deciding I couldn't spend all day laying there. Normally I wouldn't think twice about it, but I had six girls in my house now. I needed to get my life on track. I went to the bathroom and took my various medications, putting a stimulant patch on my side, and then I went downstairs.

I had to admit, it was a little strange being home alone again. It wasn't like I wasn't used to it, but the silence of the house was something I hadn't heard in a little while. I wasn't exactly sure what to do with it. I glanced down; watching my cat come out from under the couch.

"Hey," I greeted softly, kneeling down to her, "Haven't seen you in a while… how long have you been hiding?"

As far as I could tell, she was pretty healthy looking, meaning she had at least been eating all this time. I wondered if any of the girls had noticed the cats, which all seemed to hide whenever there was company. There were three of them total, and this one happened to be the most shy of the three. The other two were probably in my parent's room.

I had rescued this one from the deadly grip of apartment regulations. My friend was no longer allowed to keep her, as the apartment complex only allowed one pet per family. She was barely a two-month kitten then. Now, she was nearly full grown. As a result, she kind of lived in my room, and followed me out whenever I left it.

I lay down on the floor, allowing her to walk up onto my chest and observe me from there. It wasn't an abnormal thing; I liked to lie on the floor. I wasn't really sure why she always stared at me like that. When I was younger, I always used to suspect that she was checking if I was alive. The thought made me laugh and I decided to play dead for a second, just to see what she'd do. Suddenly, I felt a furry paw on my nose. I laughed again and sat up, causing her to jump back onto the floor.

Just then, I heard the door opening, and the cat ran back under the couch to hide. I sighed and tried to call her back out, but to no avail.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked curiously.

"Calling the cat," I sighed, "She came out for a little bit."

"Oh, you have a cat?" Fluttershy's eyes seemed to brighten as she walked in the door. I smiled a bit.

"Three," I replied, "They're not a fan of company, especially if I don't let them know about it before-hand."

At least, that's what I liked to think. I flashed back to the many pep-talks I had given the cats before I left to go on some adventure, or before someone decided to come over. I shook my head; maybe I really was lonely.

Fluttershy knelt down by my side and peered under the couch, only to be met with two green eyes staring back at her.

"What's her name?" she asked softly.

"Ashley," I yawned, lying back down onto the floor, "I didn't name her, but my friend's mom used to say that her full name was Ash Lee IV… because of her grey fur."

I closed my eyes for a minute, enjoying the comfort of my wooden living room floor. I almost was lost in thought again, until I suddenly felt a furry paw on my nose.

I opened my eyes to see the cat, once again sitting on my chest. Fluttershy was staring at us in silent bewilderment, as did the rest of the girls. I laughed.

"I'm alive," I laughed, sitting up once again. Ashley hopped back down to the floor and sped back under the couch. I sat there laughing again, and Fluttershy slowly joined in.

"So, what did ya do while we were gone?" Applejack asked casually.

I looked up at her, my eyebrows raised. Something was telling me that the stimulant hadn't kicked in just yet, for my thoughts were running at a thousand miles per hour.

"I laid on the floor," I replied simply, "And talked to the cat."

"That's it?"

I took me a second to understand the question, but then I nodded, "That's it."

I quickly stood up and went to sit at the counter, trying to collect all of my thoughts.

"Where'd you guys go?" I asked, my head becoming a little steadier.

"These guys wanted to explore the neighborhood a bit," Rainbow Dash explained, "So I just lead them down the path we went running on the other night."

I nodded, silently thanking them for not nearing the bad side of the neighborhood. I looked out the window to see that it was actually rather nice outside. Still snow on the ground, but the sun was shining brightly.

"It cold out there?" I asked, not taking my eyes off of the window.

"This world is REALLY cold," Pinkie shouted over-dramatically, shivering as she did so. I raised an eyebrow and looked over at them.

"It wasn't very cold yesterday… at least fifty degrees."

"Well, I wouldn't say we're used to higher temperatures… be we do lack a… well… extra coat, for lack of a better word." Rarity stuttered.

I was extremely confused for a little while, until I realized that ponies had fur; something that humans had only excuses for.

As if my instinct, I walked over to the thermostat and turned it up a couple notches, making sure the room was warm enough for them. I saw Twilight shake her head and walk over to the table, while everyone else went about their daily thing. I went into the kitchen and grabbed an apple, and then went over and plopped myself down on the couch. Fluttershy was still at my feet, softly staring at the cat hiding underneath me.

"So," I started, "What do you guys wanna do today?"

"What do ya usually do on Sundays?" Applejack asked, coming and sitting by my side.

"Oh, I usually just lay around," I replied sheepishly, "Play video games and such…"

"I was wondering about video games recently," Twilight perked up from her spot at the table, "What are they, exactly?

"Oh boy," I sighed, knowing that this would involve explaining a lot of technology, "I can tell you what they are basically, but technically I'd have a harder time explaining. Robby's coming over later… he's better with that kinda thing than I am."

I sat by as Robby explained the programming of video games to Twilight, and whoever else was pretending to be interested. I fiddled with a couple wires, attempting to hook up my laptop to my flat screen and sound-system in the basement.

"There are a lot of counsels," I heard Robby explain, "But most games are also available on PC, which stands for Personal Computer."

"I wouldn't say 'available'," I laughed, "I mean; Steam does a good job with most of them, but the rest you have to illegally download."

Twilight's eyes got wide at the word 'illegal', to which both Robby and I laughed.

"It sounds bad," Robby said while laughing, "But I don't know a single person who doesn't. No one really cares. If they do, then they just make it harder to download the game. There are some I haven't managed to get my hands on."

"Yea, even I do it," I added in, finally finishing my set-up, "It's not too hard most of the time."

I logged into my laptop and opened up Steam, allowing Robby to log into his account, as he had more games than I did. The list of games lit up the side of the screen, and the girls stared at it, wide eyed.

"What do you wanna play?" Robby asked, turning to me.

This was a surprisingly difficult question. I didn't want to play anything too brutal, as the girls weren't used to that kind of graphic activity yet. Nothing too dark either…

"Ah screw it," I finally sighed, "Portal 2. If they get confused, we can explain it."

Robby raised an eyebrow for a second, but then shrugged and opened up Portal. Throughout the game play, there were constant questions coming from the girls. Robby answered most of the technical questions, whether they were about video games in general or what they were doing at Aperture Science. I answered any questions about the plot, analysis being my passion.

After a while, I felt like they were beginning to get used to the atmosphere of the game, laughing along with Robby and I at all the jokes. A few of them seemed more into it than others, for example Rainbow laughed harder than Rarity and Fluttershy most of the time. It probably just wasn't their thing.

By the time we got to the final boss battle, it was already early afternoon. We all had a different bag of some kind of snack in front of us, and we all watched intensely as Robby battled it out with Wheatley.

"I think he's gonna blow!" Rainbow shouted, more into the game than any of the other girls. Other than Pinkie, that is, who could hardly contain her excitement throughout the battle. Before long, the ending scene was triggered, and the credits began playing. Both Robby and I enthusiastically sang along with GlaDOS, and the girls laughed as we did so.

"You've got your short, sad life left. That's what I'm counting on."

"I'll let you get right to it, now I only want you gone."

"That song is surprisingly dark," Twilight said, but still had a smile on her face.

"That's what makes it great," I replied, "its humorously dark. Kinda like the whole game, actually. I've played a lot darker."

"What other games do you have?" Rainbow asked excitedly.

"Darker?" Twilight asked.

"A lot," Robby said, "But I think I'd better get going. I've got errands to run. Olly, do you need to do anything?"

"It can wait till tomorrow," I yawned, "I'll do it after school."

"Ya have school tomorrow?" Applejack asked.

"Well yea…" I said awkwardly, "Every Monday through Friday unless they say otherwise."

"Hey yea," Robby perked up, "They don't look older than high schoolers. Are we enrolling them in school?"

I shuffled uneasily, "I'm not sure. I mean, first we'd have to somehow make records of them… and then we'd have to apply them to the IAM and see if they get in."

"Right, cuz you don't want them going to Romeo," Robby pondered.

"Why not?" Pinkie asked, "You go to Romeo!"

Robby laughed, "Yea, but it's easy and I hate it."

"Like I said yesterday," I added, "The people there are awful. I'd rather you not go to school at all then be exposed to that."

"Like those people from the other day?" Pinkie asked again, innocent as ever.

"Y-yea," I stuttered, "Yea, they go to Romeo."

They all had looks of concern now, all except Pinkie of course, who just looked plain confused. I could tell both Applejack and Rarity wanted to say something, but apparently Robby got this as well, and quickly stood up in order to change the subject.

"You shouldn't wait," Robby blurted out. I raised an eyebrow along with everyone else.

"I mean," he gathered his thoughts, "Would you guys be okay alone here for a couple hours? I'm gonna take Olly to run some errands. If we're going to enroll you guys in school we'd have to start tomorrow, which means we wouldn't have time to get these done."

I blinked a couple times, but then understood where he was going with this.

"Yea, okay," I replied, standing up along with him, "Will you guys be okay? I would take you guys along but Robby's car isn't huge, and it's not like we're going anywhere for a long time like the mall."

It took them a second to process this new development, but then Twilight slowly nodded her head, "I think we'll be okay. Will you be gone long?"

"Nah, I don't have too much I need to do," I shuffled my feet, "A couple hours at the most. You can call if you need anything."

"Call?"

I sighed, "Robby, hold up a few minutes. I'm gonna teach them how to use the house phone."

He nodded and headed up the stairs while I walked over to the counter and grabbed the house phone. It was relatively easy to explain; just pressing the numbers until they heard the dial tone. I demonstrated by calling my own cell phone, in which Pinkie's… or… Witchcraft Pinkie's… voice flooded the room. I quickly hung up and the music stopped.

"So here's my number," I said as I wrote down the digits on a piece of paper, and then stuck it on the basement fridge, "If you need ANYTHING, or think I've been out too long, just call."

"We got it, Olly," Applejack winked, "Go on, now. We got everythin' handled."

I smiled weakly, "Okay, see you guys later!" And with that, I walked up the stairs to meet Robby.

"Thanks for this, man," I sighed, breaking the silence as we drove down the freeway, "I think I might've needed this."

"No problem, you've got a lot to deal with," he replied simply.

"Yea… it's like a whole new family," I scratched my head, "It's amazing, sure. But it's like I have six kids to take care of. Man, I'm tired."

"They'll get better. I mean, they just got here. They'll get the hang of things."

"Yea, and they'll be forced to blend in even more if we end up enrolling them in school."

Robby turned to me a bit before looking back out the windshield, "I think we'd have to eventually. If the state finds out that there's six teenagers without records and not going to school, we're gonna have to deal with that."

I laughed, "Damn, it's been a while since I've had the government on my back."

He looked confused. "It was a long time ago," I said sheepishly, "Back when I lived down in Detroit. Let's just say I wasn't as chilled back then as I wanted to be."

"Understandable," he shrugged.

I stared out the window, thinking about the girls. It had only been two days, and I already felt like they were becoming a big part of my life. I had to watch over them. It made me a little nervous to think about, since apparently I could barely take care of myself. I was a professional babysitter, and an assistant student teacher at elementary schools, so I knew how to work with people, but this was different. These girls were from another world, plus they seemed a lot older than me. I don't know why that bugged me, but it was stressing me out.

"I think I know a way to get them records," Robby suddenly brought up, "It's risky though."

"As far as I can tell, it's the only option we've got," I turned to him.

"I've got a friend who's good with this kind of thing. All we need is information for them."

"Well," I thought out loud, "I doubt anyone would believe their names. As much as I hate to, I think we've gotta change them."

"Right… any ideas?"

"I want Twilight to be 'Tara'," I said immediately, "It's the name of her voice actress. I've heard so many different messed up names for Twilight. Tara is fine."

"Okay, one down," he nodded.

"Applejack… let's go with 'Jaclyn'. Or… 'Jackie' I guess," I hesitated, "And then… Rainbow… 'Robin'?"

"I like that one," Robby smiled, "Three more. And we should ask them their opinions on them when we got more."

"Good plan," I agreed, "Okay… Rarity… damn what to you say for Rarity?"

"R names…," Robby pondered, "uh…"

My eyes lit up with an idea, "Ruby? It fits her… but I already have a Ruby friend…"

"Hey, can't think of anything else so whatever. Ruby knows their ponies anyway, so around Ruby we can just call them by their real names."

"Okay, I can deal with that," I nodded, "Two more… Fluttershy and Pinkie…,"

I had to think about these two for a while. I had seen so many different humanized Pinkie's named 'Patience'. It was a good name, but I didn't think it fit her at all. Sure, it was pretty ironic, but too ironic for me to call her.

"What about 'Promise'?" I suddenly blurted out, "Like… a Pinkie Promise."

"Hey, that's pretty good," Robby mused, "Now Fluttershy."

"Ugh," I groaned, wanting the process to end, "Animals… 'F' names… Ah! How about 'Fawn'! Like, a baby deer."

"Okay!" Robby agreed, "So we've got Tara, Robin, Jackie, Ruby, Promise, and Fawn."

"Perfect, now let's go get some food."

"Stop at the girlfriend's first?" Robby smiled.

"Okay," I laughed, "Let me call them up."

"Call Liz," Robby reminded, "Julia never answers her phone."

Before I knew it, we were in my girlfriend's basement playing stupid party games. I felt kinda bad leaving the girls at home to just be playing video games again, but they seemed like they were going to be fine.

"Ha! I win!" My girlfriend's sister, Liz, shouted ironically.

"Ah! That doesn't even make sense!" Robby shouted, exasperated.

"She's a cheater," Julia, my girlfriend, laughed.

Liz and Julia were pretty similar looking people. You could tell they were siblings, at least. Julia was beautiful, with short, bleached blonde hair similar to my own. Her eyes were pale blue and she had the body of a dancer. Liz was a little taller, being around the same age as Robby and Kendall. Her hair was also pretty short, but dyed blue… for now. She changed her hair color pretty often, actually. It was purple a couple weeks ago. Her eyes were a similar color to my own.

"Let's get going," Robby jumped up from the couch, "We still have things to do."

"Yea, okay," I said sorely, sticking my tongue out at Liz, who was still shouting about winning the game.

"Hey, wait," Julia pouted.

I giggled a bit and kissed her on the cheek, causing myself to blush, "See you tomorrow."

"Bye guys!" she shouted again as we walked upstairs and out the door to Robby's car.

Julia and I had been dating for a while now; a little over a year. We had been pretty good friends a little while before that, as well. I asked her out on the night after a school dance, when we were the only two of our friends that decided to go. It's been a pretty good ride since then.

"Ready to go home?" Robby asked, hopping back in the car.

"Yea, let's go. But I'm hungry," I complained, "Let's pick something up."

And so, we did, and quickly started driving back home. I opened the door to my house to reveal, surprisingly, nothing insane. Everyone was simply going about their business; talking to each other, eating what they could find, and watching television.

"Hey, Bunny!" Pinkie shouted as I shut the door behind me, "Did'ja get all the things you need? Did Robby leave already? Did you have fun?"

"Yes to all three questions," I smiled, cringing at the old nickname.

I looked up at the clock to see that it was nearly nine thirty. I usually got back a little earlier, but I've also been back later so it wasn't a big deal. Just something I didn't really do during the winter that often.

"We thought about calling you," Twilight admitted, "It was getting pretty late."

"Nah, this time is pretty normal for me," I yawned.

"But ya have school tomorrow, right?" Applejack perked up from her spot on the couch next to Rainbow Dash, "Shouldn't ya be getting' to bed soon?"

I laughed a bit and shook my head, "Probably, but I don't think any of us actually go to bed this early. This school is a lot of work, like I said before, and most kids are still up doing their homework right now. Will be all night."

"It's THAT much work?" Rarity gasped.

"Not really," I laughed again, "But we've also mastered the art of procrastination. They probably only started it half an hour ago."

"Did you finish all of yours?" Twilight asked skeptically; she most likely picked up on my careless habits from the way Kendall addressed it yesterday.

"Pretty much," I shrugged, "I have to read a thing, but other than that I'm done. Oh, that reminds me! Robby said he might have a way to get you guys legal records."

I explained to them what Robby had told me earlier, taking a spot on the couch next to Applejack. I also told them what names we had picked out for them, hoping they'd like them so I wouldn't have to think about changing them.

"Jackie, huh?" Applejack mused, "I like the ring a' that."

"I tried to have them all sound at least a little bit similar to your real names," I explained, "When that was harder, I tried to think of things you were interested in."

"How'd you think of 'Tara'?" Twilight asked curiously.

I blushed a bit, "I thought of it because… well when we all thought you were just cartoon characters, we had thought that a women named Tara Strong gave you your voice. She actually sounds pretty similar to you, so I guess it makes sense that they picked her. Still though… weird to think it's not actually her."

"Tara Strong?"

I smiled, "She's my favorite voice actress… along with Grey DeLisle. If all cartoons are real, though, I'm not sure how real of a job they actually have…"

"Oh! Oh! Who voiced me!" Pinkie asked excitedly.

I laughed a bit, "This is actually the funny part. They claimed that there were only four voice actresses total. You were voiced by Andrea Libman… but so was Fluttershy."

Rainbow Dash burst out laughing, "Those two? Having the same voice?"

"You and Applejack were both voiced by Ashleigh Ball," I snapped back.

She looked shocked for a second, but then began laughing again, her hand clenching her stomach as she did so.

"How could anypony be that stupid?" she laughed.

"AnyBODY," Twilight reminded, joining in the laughter a bit.

"Was I voiced by Tara Strong as well, then?" Rarity giggled.

"Nah," I laughed, "Tabitha St. Germain. Of course, she's also been in every other cartoon in the world."

We laughed about this for a little while longer, and then settled down and watched TV while exchanging occasional sly remarks to each other about whatever we were watching. I could honestly say that they just felt like really good friends to me. I could get used to this really fast.

"Olly," Applejack yawned around midnight, "I think it's time for y'all to get to bed."

"Lame," I complained, but agreed all the same. They were going to bed too, after all, and I wouldn't want to keep them up with all my racket downstairs. We all said our good nights, and then I made my way to my room.

"Hey, Olly?" Applejack suddenly said from behind me. I jumped; I hadn't realized she had followed me up here.

"What's up, Applejack?" I smiled weakly.

"I was just thinkin'," She started shyly, "Well, I think we're all jus' worried about ya. I jus' wanted to say… I meant what I said the other day. We're still here for ya. You can talk to us 'bout anythin'."

I put a hand on her shoulder, "Thanks Applejack… but really, you don't have anything to worry about. I'm okay."

"Okay…," she agreed quietly. I was expecting her to go back down the stairs at this point, but she followed me into my room. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Ya think I could sleep up here tonight?" she asked, almost sounding like a child.

I chuckled, "Yea, hold on a sec."

I took hold of my couch and unlocked it, revealing it to be a futon. She had her eyebrows raised as she watched me make up a bed for her on the other side of my room.

"There," I concluded, "Sorry that took a second."

"No problem," she smiled, sitting herself on the bed, "Thanks, sugarcube. Goodnight."

I grinned, "Night Applejack."