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The Little Things

by Kobalstromo

Chapter 6: Day after party problems

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Cold. The first thing Barricade noticed was she was cold. The second thing she noticed were the hundreds of tiny ponies pounding their little hammers inside her head. Keeping her eyes clenched tightly shut, Barricade began shifting about, forehooves searching for that wonderously comfortable and fuzzy pillow she had spent the night with. After seconds of futile searching, she finally cracked an eye open to aid her search, only for it to be blinded by the light of the early morning sun as it shone into her bedroom window. Barricade allowed herself a plaintive groan as she clenched her eye shut again.

It was then that her mind caught up and noticed the third thing:

“You’re a cuddly sleeper, not that that’s a big surprise or anything.” Beryl smirked and handed Barricade a small cup. “Drink up.”

“My head hurts.”

“I know,” Beryl once more shoved the mug toward her. "Now drink. You'll feel better."

Barricade groaned as she sat up, taking the coffee from Beryl's hooves and gulping it down. She put the glass off to the side, swaying a little as the tiny ponies with hammers continued to beat at her skull. It was then that she noticed a distinctly red tie wrapped around her head.

"So," Beryl smirked as Barricade untied the cloth and threw it into the corner with a grunt. "You party like an animal, cuddle-cade."

Barricade's heart skipped as she tried to push through the billowing fog in her mind. "I didn't... We didn't do anything, questionable, did we? That wasn't my tie, I don't even have a tie."

Beryl chuckled as she opened the door a bit, the smell of something delicious wafted into the room as she spoke. "You hogged the dance floor for a bit and wouldn't let go of me last night, but you were asleep when that happened, so I won't hold it against you for holding me against you. As for the tie? I dunno, some stallion gave it to me last night, so I thought I'd play a joke on you. Now come on, I raided your pantry and fixed some lunch for you.”

Lunch. The word spurred Barricade to the window. The blinds flew open as she looked out at the mid-day sun. “Beryl, what time is it?! We missed Aptitude training! We—”

“... Don’t have anything until tomorrow.” Beryl sighed. “You’re really out of it. Come on, I’m bringing lunch with us, we’re getting you some real coffee, sleepy butt. None of this quick-fix, piss water.”

Barricade wanted to argue. For starters, her butt was most definitely not sleepy, and she was most definitely not out of it. This fact was reinforced by the fact that she aimed for the bed as she turned to leave, and tripped on her own legs.

If she was out of it, she’d just have aimed for the floor.

The covers made a satisfying fwump as Barricade scrambled to her hooves, pursing her lips and staring at Beryl. “Okay, I’m ready, lets go.”

“Are you sure?” Beryl managed between chuckles. “Need a minute to sort yourself out there, legs?’

Barricade furrowed her brow and charged.

The laughter was quickly stopped with a sudden: “Oh shi—”

Beryl darted out of the room as Barricade ducked under the doorframe, watching as Beryl threw lids on the food and tossed them into Barricade’s saddle bags. “You’ll have to bring the food! I forgot my bags at home!” she shouted as she scrambled outside.

There was something to be said about Beryl, Barricade thought. She was a cheeky blighter, a bit of an oaf, and a downright numpty. But she just had a certain, likeability to her. The thought brought a smirk to Barricade’s face as she grabbed her bags and stepped outside. To her surprise, Beryl was sitting next to the door, smiling up at Barricade with an innocent expression.

Barricade knew two things about innocent smiles: When done by those who are sweet, and pure of heart, those smiles are some of the most comforting things in the world

But, when faked by somepony with a streak of malicious, or mischievous intent. Expect anything. Dad taught her that.

Barricade locked her door and raised an eyebrow at Beryl. “You’re not running?”

“No need, there are witnesses out here.” She replied with a coy smirk. “Red’s? I’ll buy.”

Barricade pressed her hoof to Beryl’s mane and ruffled it.

“Hey!” She squeaked.

“Red’s it is.” Barricade chuckled.


“... and then I get Barricade to try shrimp, she’s never had seafood before.”

Red gave Beryl the blankest stare that Barricade had ever seen. His hollow expression drifted between the two mares before finally speaking up. “How was it?”

“It was pretty good.” Barricade said with a shrug.

“Pretty good?” Beryl shouted. “You looked like your taste buds were about to achieve transcendence! Don’t just play it off all cool in front of Red because he’s a solid nine-outta-ten!”

Red quickly became even more so, eliciting a chuckle from Barricade as she simply sipped her pumpkin spice coffee. Beryl was a better storyteller than she was, even if she had to clarify a few details from time to time. But Barricade was still feeling a little tired, the coffee hadn’t kicked in yet. She was more than happy to finish her lunch and drink.

“Yes… well, glad to know you’re the adventurous type, Thunder-hooves.” Red gave himself a quick shake and smiled back at Beryl. “Well, what happened after that? Knowing you, there was alcohol involved.”

“Um, duh?” Beryl replied sarcastically. “I had some mixed drinks, but the real slugger was ‘Arri. Girl put away like, a whole litre of straight pumpkin liqueur.”

At that, Red’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. He turned to Barricade, choking on his own words. “How are you not dead?”

Seeing the opportunity, Barricade slammed her drink down on the table, causing everything there to do a little hop. She beat her chest once with her free hoof and looked Red dead in the eye. “S’all cuz we Scolts are made ‘o sterner stuff, laddie! You’d do ‘ell to remember ‘at.”

Barricade calmly grabbed her coffee, and resumed her quiet sipping.

All was silent for about three seconds, before Beryl started laughing hysterically. “Oh my stars, Red. Your face… By the gates of Tartarus…”

Red seemed to pay her no mind. “Good gods, Arri. You must have had one hell of a hangover.”

“She did.” Beryl said, wiping a tear from her eye. “I told her to drink water.”

“And I did.” Barricade interjected. “Just as much as you did.”

“Yeah, and you’re what?” Beryl waved her hooves at Barricade. “More than twice my size? You should have had way more water, just saying.”

Red was wiping the counter clean of the recent Scoltish outburst. “Well you girls sounded like you had fun.”

“Aye.”

“Yep!” Beryl leaned back in her chair, throwing her forelegs behind her head. “after food, we had some tipsy dancing, stumbled home together, crashed at her place, cuddled all night…”

Red’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh?”

Barricade spat out her coffee. “Hey! I thought you were my pillow!”

Beryl, continued completely unabated. “Oh, Red, I tell you what. Barricade’s a great cuddler. She just holds on and snuggles close, she’s like a super fuzzy blanket that’s always warm.”

“Beryl, please stop.” Barricade’s ears pinned to her skull as Red started laughing.

“... the way she looks so peaceful when she sleeps. That not-small-at-all smile and thunderous snoring.”

Red righted himself from his raucous laughter. “Oh, did things get more, involved?”

It was, at that point and time, that Barricade wished for the ability to remove herself from existence. Sadly, the only thing she could do was turn increasingly vibrant hues of embarrassed and hold her head in her hooves.

Beryl looked over at Barricade, a small smile on her lips. “We fought over the covers a few times. That’s all. In all seriousness, I’m really thankful that Arri let me crash with her for the night; we were both really messed up.”

“So you had a hangover too, then?” Red inquired. “Shocking, never actually thought I’d live to see the day.”

“Now hold on, Poison Joker!” Beryl retorted. “I said messed up, Arri was the only one hung over.”

Barricade groaned and held a hoof to her temple. “Only other time my head hurt that much was when I got my cutie mark.”

The table fell silent. Beryl and Red looked at each other. Then Red faced Barricade. “What happened?”

“I got hit by a train.” Barricade shrugged, and sipped her drink.

Again the table fell silent.

“You can’t just say ‘I got hit by a train’ and leave us hanging!” Red shouted. “What kind of thrice-damned awful storyteller leaves a cliffhanger like that! Go on, tell us what happened!”

Barricade sighed and rolled her eyes. “Back when I was a filly, we had a group of troublemakers at school. These ponies liked to dare other ponies into doing stupid things, or get beat up for not doing it. You know, typical playground stuff.”

Barricade shuffled her wings, and grimaced. “The problem with this, is that every group of bullies has one pony calling the shots, and one year, the power shifted. This new bully took control of the group and singled out a good friend of mine, Summer Rain. They dared her to fly between the cars of a train as it passed. I caught wind of this dare, and the fact that she was going to do it because she was too scared of getting beaten up.”

Red and Beryl looked at Barricade with wide eyes. Beryl spoke out quietly. “Holy shit, that sounds awful, the authorities never got involved? I mean what those bullies were asking could easily kill ponies, I thought it was stuff like ‘fly the sky hoops upside down and backwards.’ Not some sort of stunt-pony shtick.”

“Yeah, well…” Barricade shrugged. “This ringleader was definitely ‘off’ if you get my meaning. But that’s not the point. So I find Summer, and she’s at the top of a hill outside Manehattan with the nasties. I swoop in, tell them I’ll do it if they let her go and never bother her again. They agreed.”

“I don’t like where this is going.” Red mumbled.

Barricade nodded. “I didn’t either, but I was young and stupid. The train came, I went for it. And the rest of it is just a big void. Apparently from what Summer told me, she saw me disappear between the cars, and waited for me to zoom up from the other side.”

“But you didn’t.” Beryl interrupted, leaning forward with her head in her hooves.

“Aye. I didn’t. She says the Train passed and all she saw was a crumpled heap of brown, red, and turquoise. She said I was bleeding all over, my wing was twisted all funny. I was a wreck. The doctors got ahold of me, popped everything back in place. I broke my rear legs, a few ribs, twisted wing. But miraculously, I had nothing that wouldn’t fully heal. They said that I shouldn’t have lived. But I did! the first time they took off my leg casts, there was my mark, all shiny and new.”

Red and Beryl simply stared at Barricade.

Beryl looked down at her mark. “I made a piece of jewelry. Doesn’t seem as impressive as taking a train to the everything for a friend.”

Barricade chuckled a bit. “Train to the everything… Hah. Well, maybe not, but that doesn’t make me any more special than anypony else. It’s just how I learned what I’m good at.”

Red cocked his head to the side. “Getting hit by trains?”

Barricade swore that if it were possible, Beryl’s sides would have exploded.

“No, protecting stuff! I’m one of the sturdiest ponies you’ll ever meet. If you ever need to put somepony between harm and what you need defended, I’m your mare.”

Beryl and Red nodded, though beryl kept looking at Red inquisitively. “What about you?”

Red looked at the two mares. “Hmm?”

Barricade pointed a hoof at the stallion. “What about you, Red? How’d you get your mark?”

Red smirked. “I lived in a small village, far beyond the maps of today… In our village a terrible beast of the Spirit world would arrive every full moon, and steal someone away in the middle of the night! Nopony could find a solution, nopony… But me. I took my cunning 7 year old wits and handsome looks, and went out into the forest. Where—”

Barricade was trying her hardest to keep a straight face, she looked to her side, where Beryl was suffocating on her sense of humor. She turned back to Red and waved a hoof. “Alright, hilarious. If you didn’t want to tell us, you could have said so.”

“Nah.” He smiled. “It’s more fun making Beryl laugh.”

Barricade looked over at the still-snickering Beryl, who had her hooves over her mouth, doing her best to hide her rosy cheeks.

She took a deep breath, and grabbed her drink. “Well, as interesting as this all is, I have to go run some errands before tomorrow. What with weapon aptitude training and all that.”

Weapon aptitude. The words stuck in Barricade’s mind like a bad taste in her mouth. She knew it was going to be part of the job, but it had always been something conceptual, something distant. Now that it was less than a day away, she couldn’t help but be a little concerned.

“Yeah.” Barricade replied. “That’s tomorrow, huh? Guess I should go make sure everything is in order before tomorrow too, then.”

“Well, I wish the two of you the best of luck!” Red chuckled as he cleaned a nearby table. “Not that you need it or anything.”

Beryl stood and grabbed her drink. “I’ll see you two beautiful ponies soon, alright?”

“Of course.”

“If by soon, you mean tomorrow. Then yes.” Barricade playfully pushed Beryl’s shoulder. The two of them thanked Red for the drinks, then all went their separate ways.

As she headed into town, Barricade had to shake herself a little. She felt scared. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was. She thought she was ready, she had months to come to terms with what the position demanded. But it wasn’t something months away anymore. Tomorrow was a big day; she was going to learn what weapon she was best at killing things with.

And she couldn't feel any less ready for it.

Author's Notes:

Had a friend draw a thing, props to Ask C-Minus of tumblr for an awesome job!

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