"I can't believe it, he actually fell asleep," Twilight's voice murmured through the blackness around me.

The truth was: no, I had not actually fallen asleep. In all actuality, I was dead bored. Sure, I had promised I wouldn't move from the couch for the weekend, but it had only been a couple hours and I honestly could not handle just sitting there anymore. I needed some sort of distraction, some sort of entertainment other than letting my thoughts fly away into the television screen, other than meaningless small talk as the girls walked in and out of the living room, attending to their daily business. I really just needed something to think about.

So I closed my eyes.

A good solution to the problem? Maybe not. But I personally found it the only way out of my boredom, as I couldn't so much as take a step away from the couch. If anything, this way I would either be left to my own thoughts, or maybe I'd actually pass out of sheer boredom eventually.

However, what I did not expect was the soft hand that ran through my hair a couple times, followed by a long sigh.

"Applejack… what happened while we were at school?" Twilight asked quietly. I felt my entire body tense at the notion that she never really bought the story she was given, even as Applejack was the one to tell it.

"Ya' know I'd never lie to ya', Twi," Applejack sighed solemnly.

"But it wasn't the whole truth, was it?" she was met with Twilight's superior wisdom. With that, I heard AJ pull out a chair and sigh to herself.

"Girls, I can tell ya honestly that… well, he's comin around." I felt the girls around me slightly shift at this statement, "I mean, look at him now. He's lettin us help him, he's not arguin as much. He's learnin to depend on us."

Then there was a long, agonizing silence in the room. You could've heard a paper clip hit the floor, a mouse run… Fluttershy scream. But there was nothing. Nothing but the almost inaudible sound of my hair as Twilight's hand continued to move through it slowly.

"...I wonder how the animals are all doing at home," Fluttershy's voice barely entered the room.

But all it took was that simple statement, one that many would never notice, to turn the atmosphere from slightly concerned, to completely solemn.

"I wonder how the cakes are doing without me," Pinkie attempted to laugh, but only managed to let out a depressed breath.

"Applebloom…," was the only thing that breathed out of Applejack's lips. I felt horrible. They had never spoken like this before. There had to be some way I could make them feel better, some way I could help them deal with being here, at least a little bit until we could figure out how to get them back. I had to do something, anything.

In all the nervous panic, I began to twitch, ultimately catching the attention of the girls around me. I held my breath, waiting for them to call my name and accuse me of spying.

"Do you believe… a nightmare?" Rarity almost whispered.

I felt Twilight sit beside me on the end of the couch, setting her hand on top of my own, "Is this why he hasn't been sleeping?"

All of a sudden, there was a brash movement from the other side of the room, causing me to flinch once more and Twilight's hand to tighten around mine.

"I'm going to re-wrap his leg," Fluttershy announced confidently, striding off toward the bathroom and medicine cabinet down the hall.

"OH! OH! I'm going to make him some cupcakes! That'll cheer him up for sure!" Pinkie shouted, causing a series of shushes to erupt around me, just as I heard Pinkie's feet begin to prance toward the kitchen.

At the same time, I heard another pair of footsteps, and another hand began to run through my hair. "Everything's alright, sugarcube," Applejack's voice softly entered my ear, "I'm right here, just like always."

And then it hit me, of course. Fluttershy and her animals, Pinkie and Sugarcube Corner, Applejack and her family. I now fully understood what Applejack meant when she said they were using my dependance to cope with them being here. I was Fluttershy's new patient, Pinkie's new customer… Twilight's new student, Rarity's new client, Rainbow's new workout buddy… Applejack's new family. I was their new family, their new routine.

I was the only thing that connected them to home.

Last time Applejack had a heart to heart with me while I was asleep, I decided to assert my independence by showing her I had been awake the whole time. This time… I didn't have the heart. I let out a small sigh. So let them fuss over me.

"That's it, sugarcube," Applejack whispered, "You're all right."

Literature class, usually one of my absolute favorites, but lately it was becoming a time of pure stress and deep thought, as it was the only one of my classes that I did not have at least one of the girls in.

Much to my luck, since the majority of my classes were two-year courses, the girls were required to sit in on the majority of my classes, as they'd be extremely behind if they were to go straight into their junior year. However, I must've been a wonderful English teacher, because all of the girls passed the English portion of the entrance exam with flying colors. Fortunately, this completely boosted my confidence with my English abilities.

Unfortunately, my own skills had landed all of the girls in a higher level English class than me.

I nervously flipped between the pages of my book, wondering how the girls were doing, trying to remember what classes they were in and who they were with. It was the last class of the day, the time of day where I normally got panic attacks. And with the sheer amount of of nervousness I was feeling, imagining the girls by themselves, I felt my hands begin to shake.

"Mrs. Demay?" I shot my hand into the air, "Can I go to the bathroom?"

Without even having to explain myself, my English teacher nodded and I hastily made my way out of the room, shoving the door aside as I power walked down the hallway. The world around me began to blur, and I walked even faster, passing by numerous open-doored classrooms and the girls restroom before reaching the end of the hall.

"Olly?" I heard someone shout down the hallway behind me. I ignored them and forced open the boys restroom door.

"Olly!" The voice shouted again, muffled slightly by the bathroom door. This only made my panic increase and I gripped the sides of the sink, trying to pull my mind together. I heard a knock on the door and I started to hyperventilate.

"Olly, please come out here," I heard the voice call.

My feet began to move. I kept telling them to stop, but eventually they made their way through the bathroom door and out into the hallway. I couldn't see what was infront of me, but I stood strong, letting tears flow unchecked down my face.

"Sugarcube, what happened?" I heard the voice ask.

The second I heard that name, the second I realized just who had been calling my name this whole time, I felt my entire body relax. I brought my hands up to rub my eyes, allowing the world around me to once again come into view. However, before I could take a first look, Applejack's arms enclosed around me.

"What's happenin'? Is it one a' those panic attacks again? Why didn't ya answer me?"

I took a long, deep breath, "I'm okay, AJ, I'm calming down."

Her arms tensed, closing me more tightly into her hold, "What happened, sugarcube?"

I shook my head, "The usual, I guess. The medication started to wear off, I got shaky… I was sorta worried about you guys."

She flinched, "Worried? Now why would you be worryin' about us? We're in classes right down the hall."

"I know, I just… I dunno, none of you were in my class and… and I just kept thinking about how you might be doing or…" I tried to explain myself, every so often my voice cracking along with the tenseness of my state.

"Hush," Applejack sighed, "There's no reason you should be worryin'. We're all just fine, nothin' out of the ordinary. Just worry 'bout yourself right now."

"I'm fine," I breathed out, "Really, I just need a minute."

There was a minute of silence between us, with Applejack giving me the slightest bit of space, but still never letting out of her hold on me. I let myself breathe slowly, taking full advantage of Applejack being in front of me. She was okay, nothing out of the ordinary. I let out a final sigh and felt myself relax. I was okay, too.

"Ya'll right?" She asked nervously, I simply nodded in return.

"What time is it?" I asked suddenly.

"Uh," she slowly turned to look at the clock, "Two thirty."

I shook my head, "School ends in five minutes, no use in going back to class now. I'll get my stuff on the way out, I guess… what class are you in?"

"Biology," she shrugged

I nodded, "That's all the way across the school. Come on, let's go get your things. Why are you out here, anyway?"

She shrugged once again, "Restroom."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she signed, "Ya just scared me a trifle, sugarcube."

"I'm sorry," I scratched the back of my head, "I mean, this always tends to happen around the end of the day. It's just the medication."

"Why do ya take it if it does all this to ya?" she groaned.

Now it was my turn to shrug, "All medications here have side effects. Can't have a good thing without a couple bad, I suppose."

She nodded in understanding at the strange logic of this world. I sighed, I really wished they wouldn't have been sent to this world. Don't get me wrong, I loved having them around, and I had never been so happy in my life, but they weren't raised to see the kind of things my world had to offer. They were so innocent, I hoped to Celestia, they would never have to see anything too rash.

"Olly?" she broke my thoughts, "How's yer leg doin'?"

I shrugged, "Okay, I think. Better since I stayed off of it so long, still a little sore but I barely notice it most of the time."

We walked briskly past the hall monitor of the 9th grade center attached to our building, having nothing to hide but still feeling slightly nervous as she eyed us walking toward the biology room.

I suddenly felt very tired, my life circling around me in a gray haze as I simply walked in a routine direction toward a routine location. I looked up at AJ and smiled a bit, at least something about my life was unique. I slowly began to realize that, with these girls living along with me, I was given a purpose in life. Something I had never really understood before just then.

"AJ?" I suddenly spoke up, "Thanks."

She flinched, "Thanks for what?"

I shrugged, "Being you."

She blushed slightly and turned away from me, which caused me to chuckle a bit as we approached the biology room and tapped open the door.

"Oh, hello you two," I heard Fluttershy whisper as she was packing her things. I glanced down at her school supplies and suddenly realized that they had simply been using my old backpacks this whole time; ones I had used in middle school, computer bags, things like that. But our school was so advanced, honestly they could never fit everything. My suspicions were confirmed when Fluttershy picked up the rest of her books and carried them along with her.

"I have an idea!" I suddenly shouted, gaining some of my energy back, "When we get home, we're going to the store!"

"What for?" Applejack asked quizzically

I chuckled a bit, "You'll see."

"Okay! Pick out any bag you want! They'll be yours from now on."

"WOWZIE!" Pinkie Pie jumped at the chance to explore the the isle, as backpacks lined the wall. I nodded and allowed them to do their thing, while I sat back and watched them go at it.

As expected, they all ended up picking bags according to their color scheme. However, for my own intensive purposes, I tried to make sure each got a bag that was simply a plain color, without any designs or anything.

Pinkie Pie got a bright baby-pink backpack with brown straps, Rarity ended up getting a white messenger bag with a long, navy blue strap across her shoulder. Twilight's was light purple and black, Rainbow's was dark blue and brown, Shy's was light green and dark blue, and AJ picked out a simple brown messenger back with a black strap.

I nodded, my idea would work out perfectly.

The second we got home, I snatched all the girls bags and sped up to my room, shutting the door behind me and causing a slight uproar from downstairs.

Ignoring their protests, I lined each backpack up in front of me and dug around for some craft supplies, looking up on the internet the designs I desired. Once i was all set, and knew exactly what I was doing, I got to work.

"Olly!" Twilight banged on my door a few times, "What are you doing? It's almost time for dinner!"

"I'll make it in a second!" I shouted back, working quickly.

"Applejack's already taking care of it, but come out here! What are you doing?"

I was slightly taken off guard by her response, allowing some gorilla glue to pour onto my finger. Wiping it off in a panic, I attempted to work quickly before Twilight lost her patience and came barging in through the door. One more to go.

"Olly!" she grew impatient as I expected, "I'm coming in!"

I glued the last piece of fabric onto the material just as I heard the door unlatch. I quickly jumped up and got into position, revealing the new designed backpacks to the teenage girl in question, with a rather large, goofy smile on my face.

She stopped in her tracks, "Olly…"

Each backpack was now adorned with new, slightly messy designs. I had covered each backpack with objects and designs that pertained to each girl, lightning bolts, apple's, etc. But most importantly, a large image of their cutie mark was the center piece.

I reached down and grabbed Twilight's new bag, holding it up to her with her cutie mark facing outward for her to see, "You like it?"

Attracted by all the commotion, the other girls began to come up the stairs, all marvelling in my pretty messy and rushed designs.

"Sorry it's not very neat," I blushed, "I was in a hurry, I wanted to finish before you guys busted my door down."

"THEY'RE SO CUTE!" Pinkie squeaked, running to pick up her new bag decorated with cupcakes and balloons, "How'd you know these were my favorite?"

I shrugged with a chuckle, "Lucky guess."

Each girl picked up their new bag with a smile, all satisfied with the way they looked and felt. I took a deep breath and leaned up against my wall, watching all the excitement. It was a thank you. A thank you for giving me a purpose in life. Since I was sure none of them would take the acknowledgement if I said it to them directly, I would have to thank them in other ways. And seeing their smiles now, I was satisfied.

So this chapter has taken me FOREVER to write. I'm now in the process of graduating, so hopefully I'll have a ton more time on my hands to finish this masterpiece.
No matter what I do, I am going to finish this story.
Thanks for reading and please leave a review! I'd love to hear your ideas or plan to work together with you!

~~nwtp-dreamer~~