Luke's POV...

When the sun started to set, I tossed out my newspaper and started heading for Sugarcube Corner. When I got there, I gave a polite smile to the Cakes and took a seat.

"Listen, Luke," Mr. Cake said, "Before you do anything, I need you to put your guns in that chest," he says, pointing to a wooden chest in the corner of the room.

"Wait, what?!" I said, dumbfounded.

"Your weapons are dangerous, and the twins...they can make a disaster out of anything if you let them. The last thing the world needs is to have my twins play with weapons as powerful as yours."

I hesitated. Ever since the Lyra incident...I make sure to NEVER leave my weapons. However, I ended up placing my gun bag into the chest, and Mrs. Cake secured it with a lock.

"Thanks for understanding." Mr. Cake said, "Now, they're already asleep. We just need you to stay here, and make sure nothing bad happens. Make sure to check on Pumpkin every once in a while. She sometimes...makes things levitate in her sleep. It rarely happens, but if she does do that...just pick her up and rock her to sleep slowly."

"Ok," I said, "Anything else?"

"Yes. Pound Cake wakes up at Eight PM every night. When he does, just give him a bottle. He'll get back to sleep in no time."

"Got it. And what if they both wake up?"

"Ooh! I'll answer that!" Pinkie said, "Funny sounds and faces work! And if that doesn't work, just dump a bag of flour over your head!"

"Classic."

"Well, let's not stay here and waste the night. Good luck, Luke. You might need it." Mrs. Cake said.

"Please. How bad could it be?" I asked.

"It won't. You'll do fine!" Pinkie said, reassuringly.

With that said, Pinkie and the cakes left the building and locked the door behind them.

"Wait," I asked myself, "Why did Pinkie have to leave?"

I shrugged, and sat down in a chair. I looked at the time, and took note that it was 7:23. Seeing that there was nothing else to do, I pulled out my cellphone and started to play a knockoff version of the game Tetris. My phone's battery was a little less than full, and I knew that I was going to have to find some way to power it someday. I played for a while, and heard some crying from upstairs. I looked at the clock, and sure enough...it was 8:00. Right on schedule. Grabbing a bottle from the kitchen, I went upstairs into the twins' bedroom. Pound Cake stared at me, looking more than scared.

"Uh....hi there!" I said, waving.

Maybe they should've introduced the twins to me first. I thought.

I should have been more quiet, because me talking woke Pumpkin cake up. Now they were both staring at me, giving me the same frightened expression. I held out the bottle, making it clear that I was just there to give Pound Cake his nightly drink. They didn't change their expressions. I slowly approached Pound's crib...and every step I took, I got more and more nervous. They could scream at any second. I thought to myself. The floor creaked as I carefully placed my boot upon it. Sweat ran down my face. It was like defusing a bomb! I gave Pound his bottle, which he took. I steadily started making my way out the door...until I heard the sound of something hit the floor. I turned around, to see an empty bottle on the floor. He already finished it! I looked at him, and he looked at me. He suddenly pressed his hoof on his belly, and I heard a rumbling. The face he made looked like he was about to vomit!

"Oh no..." I said.

I closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable mess....

*burp*

Giggling followed the sound of someone burping. I opened my eyes and found Pumpkin and Pound Cake laughing. I breathed a sigh of relief, and they stopped to stare at me. I looked at their little eyes. I never saw anything more...I can't believe I'm saying this word...adorable my life!

"Well. I like to burp too!" I said.

I then burped. Loud. It was a loud burp, and it could probably be heard outside. They looked at me for one second, and then burst out laughing. I started laughing too. Pumpkin cake released a belch that was even louder than mine! Now it was my turn to start laughing. It was too funny! I fell on the floor as tears ran down my eyes, I was laughing too hard. We all laughed for about five minutes until I got up, trying to catch my breath. The twins stopped laughing, and looked wide awake.

"Welp, so much for trying to get you to sleep. Would you like to stay up a little?" I asked.

They responded by getting up on their hind legs, with their forelegs raised up toward me. Okay, this was too cute. I picked them both up, and set them on the floor. They opened their toy chest and began playing with their toys. I watched in fascination as Pumpkin Cake used her magic to lift up a plush butterfly, and make it act like the real thing. Pound Cake flew alongside it, keeping up with it's speed.

"Wow...that's cool!" I said to myself.

I spent the next bit of time playing with the twins. I'll be honest...at first, I thought this was gonna be awful. However...I found myself having one of the best times of my life! Reminds me of when I was a teen, playing with my younger siblings. I kinda missed those days.

By 10:00 PM, I was sitting in a chair...the twins sleeping in my arms. I didn't want to wake them up again, so I decided to just sit there and wait for the Cakes to return. I was wondering when they would. Shouldn't be too long now. I thought.

Right when I thought that, I heard some knocking at the door. I knew that the shop had the sign outside flipped to "Closed," so I imagined they would notice and leave. However, the knocking continued.

"Sorry, we're closed." I said.

The knocking on the door turned to pounding. This raised a red flag for me. First of all, they didn't make a verbal response to what I said. Second, furious pounding is just concerning by itself. I slowly and carefully carried the twins upstairs into their room, and set them in their cribs. Luckily, they didn't wake up. I tiptoed downstairs and went back to the front door. The pounding now sounded like someone was RAMMING the door. Shit! I thought.

"Michael Meyers, is that you?" I asked at the door, "Nightmare Night isn't for a while right now!"

Yeah, I know. That probably wasn't a good time for jokes. All I knew, was that someone was trying to get in when they weren't supposed to. I ran to the chest containing my guns. Damn, that lock was NOT cheap. Without my guns, my chances against the invaders dropped. I patted myself, looking for a knife or...anything! By some miracle, I had a Mauser C96 pistol tucked away in my holster. I guess I forgot I had it on me. I pulled back the bolt, and frowned when I saw it was empty. Damnit! I checked every pocket for even ONE 9mm bullet.

Pinkie was sitting on a bench, coming up with new part ideas. Suddenly, her tail started twitching. Wasting no time, Pinkie jumped under the bench...only to have nothing fall.

"Huh?" Pinkie asked, "My Pinkie Sense was....wrong..?"

Luke's POV...

Suddenly, something fell on my head.

"Ow!" I said, and picked up the object from the ground.

To my surprise, it was a C96 clip...full of 9mm bullets. I quickly loaded up the bullets into the gun and ran back into the twin's room. Closing the door and locking it, I got in a fighting stance...my gun pointed at the door. The ramming stopped, and I could hear 2 pairs of boots clomp downstairs. I quieted my breathing. I had been in a few combat situations in my life...but something about this one actually made me nervous. I could hear 2 male voices talking. I heard every door downstairs open, and then the feet came upstairs. They opened the door to the Cake's bedroom, and then I heard the knob jiggling on the door to the Twin's room. They then started pounding on it, waking up the twins. They started crying, adding to my building anxiety.

"Listen, pal. If you come into this room uninvited...I have full legal right to pop a cap in your ASS. This is your one and ONLY warning." I said.

The voices on the other side laughed, "Shut the fuck up, trader. Your pony-hugging days are over."

I waited in my stance as the ramming turned into pounding. Finally....the door gave in...and it flew open. I immediately pulled the trigger over and over again at the doorway. I hit the man who was ramming, and he fell to the ground. The second guy screamed and ran out of the house like he had a propeller coming out of his arse. The twins were screaming and crying...but unharmed. I sighed in relief.

"It's okay," I said to them as comfortingly as possible.

Everypony in town was gathered around 2 things: Sugarcube Corner, and the corpse of a human outside of Sugarcube Corner. The Cakes saw the body, and ran into Sugarcube Corner...concerned for their foals.

"Luke?! Where are the kids?!" Cup Cake asked, panicked.

The Cakes ran upstairs to the twin's bedroom, and shrieked when they saw a second human corpse. Then, Luke walked out of the twin's bedroom, his pistol in his hand. He re-holsters it and looks them in the eye.

"I did what I said I would: Made sure the twins are safe." Luke said.

The Cakes simply stared at Luke, speechless.

"Hope I earned your trust! I'll come back for work tomorrow. Baking cakes, right?" Luke asked.

They both nodded, still freaked out over the situation.

The Cakes went into the twin's room...and sure enough, they were sleeping safe and sound in their cribs. Cup Cake went back downstairs to find Luke trying to open the chest containing his guns. She gave him the key, and he was able to reunite with his guns. After re-strapping the bag on his back, he got ready to leave the bakery. Before he left, Cup Cake stopped him.

"Wait!" she said.

Luke turned, "Yes?"

"How can we repay you?"

"By making sure I get paid enough to have a home to stay in."

Before Cup could respond to this, Luke was already walking out the door...and into the night. Obviously not caring about the deed he had done.

Author's Note

I am so sorry this chapter took forever to come out. Like I had mentioned before, I am struggling to find writing time. However, my production and quality of my writing will increase over time. With that said, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
As always, have a nice day.