Author's Notes:

Heads up, there is a bit of a gore in this one. Not enough to add a stand-alone gore tag, but enough to merit a heads up here.

Had a bit of fun writing this chapter, though I was disappointed with the fight [I'm hard to please in that regard] so we'll see.

Thanks To:
Izanagi for editing and seeing me through this [and the next two chapters that are done] chapter. He's been an unbelievable help with writer's block.
Havokwithak for being you. Though we've not talked much lately, you're still here in spirit damn it!
Alticron For additional edits/proofs. Love you guys like a fat kid at a candy convention.

Dinner was once again a simple and quiet affair, though a bit late. Octavia seemed to be digesting the newest information dropped on her while Barrier was simply glad for the peace and quiet. Octavia had a LOT of questions regarding the past; specifically, the music and instruments of the time, but a lot of questions nonetheless. Barrier, having been a guard, had very little knowledge on the subject, much to the mare’s irritation.

The pair had left just before the restaurant closed and the sun had nearly completed it’s descent beyond the horizon, leaving them as two of only a handful of ponies that remained on the streets. Much to Barriers dismay, one of those ponies was a pair of pegasus ponies. Normally, he wouldn’t have minded, except they were the same two pegasi that he had seen at the hotel. It wasn’t paranoia if ponies were out to get you, Barrier reasoned to himself. Would they attack in such a public space?

“Octavia, hold.” Barrier held a hoof out, stopping the mare. Guess that answered that; a pair of pegasus ponies and a unicorn blocked off one end of the relatively narrow street; craning his neck around, Barrier noticed that another two unicorns, one of whom was the giant from a few days prior blocked the other path.

Swallowing hard, Barrier turned his back to the building, trying to keep the ponies on either side of him.

“Barrier, what’s going on?” Octavia had a fairly good idea -she wasn’t naive- but confirmation would be nice.

“Shite is about to go down.” Mentally, Barrier analyzed their location and tried to decide where the closest safe-house would be; the Sparkle household was closest, but there were no guards and it likely wouldn’t deter these ponies a second time. Barrier couldn’t see himself putting the couple at risk anyways. That left the castle and a small handful of other places where the guard-presence was heavy, such as bars.

“When I tap my hoof four times, close your eyes as tightly as you can. Be ready to run.” Barrier whispered from the corner of his mouth to Octavia, who had backed up against the wall with him.

“Honestly, five stallions sent to eliminate a single mare. Your parents must be ashamed of you.”

One of the pegasi made a step forward, his face set in a scowl, only for the giant unicorn to hold a hoof out, stopping him.

With a wave of the unicorn's hoof, the five ponies began to carefully trot forward together. As soon as the ponies grew close, Barrier began to carefully tap his hoof on the ground.

One tap, two, three… Octavia slammed her eyes shut as Barrier’s horn erupted into a painfully blinding light that illuminated the entire street.

With a tug, Barrier took off at a dead sprint, all but dragging the mare behind him. A notable metallic scent filled the air, and the five ponies were groaning and rubbing furiously at their eyes as Barrier and Octavia sprinted towards the pair of pegasus ponies and their unicorn compatriot.

“Keep running until you get to the castle! Don’t stop for anypony!” They were approaching the three ponies; with a burst of magic, Barrier shoved one of the pegasus ponies aside, creating a small gap for Octavia to shoot through. Rather than following the mare, Barrier charged headlong into one of the pegasi, burying his horn forehead-deep with a wet thud. The ponies had recovered just in time to watch Barrier flare his horn and jerk out; the smell of charred flesh filled the air.

“After her!” The giant unicorn finally spoke, calling to the remaining pegasus, who took flight.

“Oh no you don’t!” Barrier glanced upward and vanished with a pop, re-appearing above the unfortunate pegasus. The sudden additional weight caused the pegasus to swerve unstably; wasting no time, Barrier brought a hoof crashing down in-between the ponies wings several times in rapid succession. Each time his hoof connected, the pegasus screamed in pain before a wiry snap rang out between the two ponies and the pegasus’ wings fell limply to his sides.

With an ungraceful thud, the two ponies crashed into the ground, the unconscious pegasus on bottom.

Ignoring his bruised and aching body, Barrier rolled upright and back up to the three unicorns who were now advancing on him from all directions, his back to a wall.

Licking his lips in a sadistic manner, Barrier grinned creepily at the three unicorns. “It’s been a long time since I got to kill a pony.” Barrier’s eyes gleamed dangerously as his horn lit up, the gore caked on it glowing as well.

The statement caused one of the unicorns to pause in his approach, only to continue a moment later when his companions ignored the remark.

“Don’t blink!” Barrier called out, accompanied by a flare of his magic. All three unicorns slammed their eyes shut, as Barrier had hoped. The moment they did, the unicorn disappeared in another pop of light, rather than the bright flashbang-like spell they had expected. Rather than using the second of darkness to run, Barrier reasoned it would be better to stop the threat dead in its tracks, and reappeared in front of a particularly unfortunate unicorn. With a swift wave of his horn, Barrier cut his fellow pony’s throat wide open with the sharp tip of his horn. Most unicorns didn’t use their horn in such a manner, what with it being such a vital part of unicorn physiology, but Barrier was one of the few who saw it as an effective weapon in certain situations.

“And that leaves two.” Barrier grinned the sadistic smile once more. The unicorn who had faltered before licked his lips nervously before he turned and sprinted off, leaving Barrier alone with one freak-of-nature unicorn.

“Or one. Don’t suppose I could convince you to give up and turn yourself in can I? I don’t actually like killing if I can help it.”

A slight grin crossed the giant’s face. “I’m afraid that I’m a professional, Mr. Barrier same as you. Just as you refused to back down, so shall I.”

“I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage mister…?” Barrier mentally ran over how to combat the giant. Unlike the ponies had just slain, the unicorn was clearly a cut above; his body was toned and his eyes sharp. Only now did Barrier note the actual color of the unicorn. The stallion was a deep crimson color with a baby-blue mane. His magenta eyes gazed at Barrier with a sadistic glee, similar to what Barrier had tried to portray moments prior, only his was genuine. The fact that the death of his allies clearly didn’t bother him, meant he had likely seen such things before.

I should’ve killed this one first. Barrier mentally berated himself for such an obvious oversight.

“Iron Hide.” The unicorn started off at a trot after he stated his name; no reason to further delay.

Well that explains the size. Barrier briefly thought back to his long-dead CO and one absolute giant of an earth pony.

Barrier took off at a sprint as well, meeting the unicorn’s charge. As the two approached, Barrier's horn lit up and he vanished with a flash. Unexpectedly, he felt a freight-train catch him in the ribs as he reappeared behind Iron Hide.

With a meaty thud, Barrier crashed into the window of a pony’s house, going clean through the glass.

“I deserved that…” Barrier climbed to his feet wincing. Those were definitely cracked ribs he felt. “Why is it always the ribs?” He muttered as he glanced around the house. It showed clear signs of ponies living in it, though they were nowhere to be found. Hiding, perhaps? Ah well, irrelevant.

“I guess I choreographed that one.” Barrier carefully climbed out of the window. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through him once more as he locked eyes with Iron Hide. With a single teleport, Barrier closed the distance between the two and lashed out with a hoof; he had to end this before the adrenaline wore off and his ribs put him out of commission.

With practiced ease, Iron Hide fell to the side, the hoof missing him by centimeters. In response, he lashed out again at Barrier’s injured side, only for his hoof to be met with the solid surface of a hard-mana shield.

Momentarily caught off guard, the shield bashed Iron Hide in the muzzle, forcing him to take several steps back and press a hoof to his muzzle.

His own horn flaring to life, Iron Hide tried to cast a spell only for the shield to bash him once more the instant his horn lit up.

Barrier was glad; combat-casting had never been a particularly easy art and it wasn’t widely practiced beyond basic defensive spells; most creatures had an innate resistance to magic that made it all but impossible for it to affect them and many never bothered with learning to concentrate and fight hoof-to-hoof at the same time. Lucky for Barrier, this unicorn was no exception. His horn still flush with power, Barrier charged once more, determined to end the fight as soon as possible.

The shield, floating alongside Barrier lashed out at Iron Hide; with a frustrated grunt, the unicorn lashed out at the shield, bashing it with a hoof. His eyes widened as the shield shattered like brittle glass. Reversing the same hoof, he swung it towards the unicorn, only to rear back and yell in pain as dirt released itself from Barrier’s magic, directly into his eyes.

The moment Iron Hide’s eyes shut, Barrier reared onto his hind-legs and latched a hoof onto Iron Hide’s head. With a jerk, he yanked the unicorn's head down and, gripping his horn, lashed out with his second hoof, striking the base of the unicorns horn as fast and hard as he could.

With a sudden blood-curdling yell, Iron Hide felt his horn snap. Shoving his hooves into Barrier’s underside, he reached up with a hoof to feel his horn.

As soon as he felt himself shoved away, Barrier squatted and shoved the now-severed horn of Iron Hide into his knee, driving the sharp bone clean through the joint. With one final scream, Iron Hide collapsed on his side as his knee gave out.

Falling to his haunches, Barrier touched his side gingerly; why was it always the ribs?

“Over here!” A mare’s voice yelled out from around the corner, followed by the sound of many hooves on stone. Octavia, and a half-dozen night-guards all rounded the corner.

“Bloody thestrals…” Barrier murmured angrily as he turned towards Octavia, only to see her eyes wide in horror.

“This isn’t as bad as it looks…” Barrier finally vocalized, only to take in the scene. There were two dead ponies -one whose throat had been torn open, still leaking life-fluids and another with a charred hole in his chest- while the giant of a unicorn was unconscious with his broken horn driven through his knee, and finally, there was the unconscious pegasus.

“Okay, scratch that. It’s exactly as bad as it looks.” Barrier wiped some of the blood from his mane.

“Sorry Octavia.” Barrier sighed and rested his chin on the cold floor of the dungeon. He had willingly surrendered to the thestrals until the situation could be sorted out; much to his surprise, Octavia had come to his defense when they cuffed him. In response, the night-guards arrested her as well. For some reason, that had pissed him off and he laid two of the night-guards unconscious before they piled on and subdued him. If he hadn’t been injured, he might have tried to fight back. At least they had bandaged him up and given him a painkiller.

“It’s fine, Barrier.” The mare’s resigned voice responded. She had come to terms with the death surprisingly well, though the gore had clearly unsettled her stomach. “I shouldn’t have lashed out at the guards like I did.”

“Not that I’m complaining, because it means a lot that you’d defend me, but why did you do it?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. Something about seeing them put hoof-cuffs on you bothered me. You fought and killed in self-defense and they were treating you like a criminal. In hindsight, I understand you looked like a criminal, but…” The mare trailed off, uncertain of how to continue.

“Well…thanks. And sorry you had to see that. I hadn’t planned on you coming back with the guard.”

“It was…shocking, but I don’t know what else I expected. I’m not as naive as other ponies, I know ponies die…my father made certain that I wasn’t blind to the world. And besides, it was ultimately my fault you had to do that. They were after me, after all.”

“Hey ‘Tavi” Barrier still had his chin on the floor, his eyes half-lidded as he bordered on falling asleep.

The mare frowned at the shortening of her name, but responded all the same. “Yes Barrier?”

“Wanna go out to lunch when we get out of here? Somewhere nice maybe?”

The mare blushed slightly and glanced over the half-asleep unicorn, her expression softening as she did so. He looked surprisingly peaceful when he was asleep.

“Yes Barrier, that would be lovely.”