“Ooooh, buck you Celestia, put it back down.” Barrier pulled the blanket over his head, though it did little to block the sun from filtering into the room. With as much grace as a fish-out-of-water, Barrier rolled himself off of the bed, landing in a tangle of blankets and flailing limbs.

“Elegant.”

Barrier managed to poke his head out from his cocoon of blankets. “Thank you, miss.” With a grunt and a thud, Barrier tried to climb upright, and failed.

With a slight grin, Octavia watched the unicorn struggle in vain, having wrapped himself beyond movement.

“Yeah, laugh it up, chuckles.” Barrier flopped around a couple more times before freeing a limb, followed shortly by the rest of him.

“I’m surprised. I didn’t expect you to wake up this early.”

“And yet you came into my room? Were you going to watch me sleep?” A lecherous grin worked it’s way on the stallion’s face. “Naughty, naugh- Ow!” Barrier flinched in pain as the mare swatted him. “Damn your horseshoes hurt.” Rubbing his head, he sighed, “So, why did it matter if I’m up this early or not?”

“I was going to tell you that I’m leaving and that I only have one key to the apartment. Until I can get a duplicate made, you’ll be locked out until tonight.”

“All good. I can teleport in.”

“There are magical enchantments to prevent just that.”

“I’ll just put a binding on something to bypass the spell.”

“I...what?” The mare shook her head, throwing the thoughts away. “Very well, I’ll see you this evening then. Feel free to explore the apartment,”

A grin was working it’s way onto Barrier’s face.

“As long as you stay out of my room.”

The smile vanished. “Just answer me one question and you have my word.”

The mare waited expectantly,

“What color are your socks?”

and promptly facehoofed.

“How the hay does anypony live here?” Barrier talked to himself as he went through the cabinets, hunting for breakfast. The fridge had been nearly empty, with the exception of what had once been milk, as was the rest of the house and cabinets. With the exception of the couch, everything looked brand new, if a bit dusty. “I guess she isn’t here all that much.” He continued to keep himself company as he closed the last of the cabinets; he had only found a hoofful of silverware and some dusty dishes. Glancing over at the couch, Barrier mentally smiled. The apartment was grey, the curtains were grey, the walls were grey, even the carpet was grey, but the couch was a deep burgundy, and it looked comfortable.

Later… Barrier promised the couch, and took one final glance around the kitchen before glancing down at the floor. With a small burst of magic, a thin trickle of blood trailed down his hoof. With a sigh, he smeared it on the underside of one of the cabinets. The binding made, he turned and began trotting down the hallway towards the bathroom.

The bathroom, unlike the rest of the apartment, clearly saw use. As he levitated through the bottles, a frown steadily grew on his face; there were four bottles of conditioner, a bottle of body-wash, and not a single bottle of shampoo. Well, this is clearly a mare’s bathroom.

After a cold, shampoo-less shower, Barrier found himself dripping wet. With a twist of his head, his horn lit up and the water separated itself from his fur, forming into a shapeless blob in front of him. With another flare of energy, the mass of water all but exploded in a blast of warm steam.

“Please?”

“Nopony gets in before opening hours. Boss’ orders.”

Unlike last time, there was a blue earth-pony blocking the front door of the establishment.

“Just tell her Magic Barrier is here to talk to her.”

The stallion remained silent.

“Just te…” Barrier trailed off, looking off to the left, causing the stallions gaze to follow his.

Pop; Barrier vanished in a flash of magic.

Is she head bobbing in her sleep?

Barrier glanced down at the mare, seemingly unconscious on her desk, a small puddle of drool forming; it was kind of cute and reminded him of a young Sparkle, except her leg kicked like a dog occasionally.

The office door slammed itself open as the earth-pony rushed in, anger written clearly on his face.

“I don’t like bananas!” Vinyl screamed, suddenly jumping up and falling to her haunches, breathing heavily as she nervously glanced at her surroundings.

“You are just adorable.” Barrier deftly sidestepped another wild-buck. “Long time no see, Scratchy. What’s with the imbecilic doorpony?”

The stallion stopped as he tried to process the statement.

“I…oh mate, don’t do that, it’s not worth it. You’ve only got like two brain-cells and if you sacrifice one to figure out what the word imbecilic means then the other will get lonely and commit suicide and nopony wa-”

“Barrier!” Vinyl cut the stallion off as she trotted up to him.

“Morning Miss Scratc-” A resounding clop echoed through the room as Vinyl smacked the ever living tar out of him.

“Ow, son of a…” He bit his tongue. “What is it with mare’s and hitting me? By the gods that hurts.”

“That, was for picking on my doorman. And this,” she swatted him again, though not as hard. “is for waiting forever before you came back to visit.”

“Uh, miss Scratch…” The earth pony wasn’t really sure what was going on anymore.

“Oh, you can go on back to watching the door.” She waved the stallion off. “Now you,” Vinyl stared at Barrier, and her stomach rumbled. “are joining me for breakfast.”

“It’s lunch-time.” Barrier observed a nearby clock that read eleven-thirty.

“Breakfast.” The mare reiterated.

“So, you want a job.” Vinyl continued to stuff herself with hay-bacon, stopping only occasionally to speak.

How do you eat that much and stay that thin? Barrier glanced at the near-white mare and the huge plate of food she had, compared to his two fried eggs and a biscuit. “Yeah, I’ve got a roommate now and need to help with bills.”

“Well, what did you do before you had a roommate?”

“I lived off of my one-thousand years of back-pay until I went to Canterlot as a bodyguard. Decided to donate the vast majority of it to...somewhere. I didn’t actually ask the princess where it would go to, just told her to give it whatever ponies needed it most.”

“Well, alright then. Can you start work tonight?”

“That depends on the job.”

“Security. For the club.”

“What exactly does security for your club entail?” Barrier only had a bare understanding of what a club was, based on his single conversation with Vinyl months earlier.

“Basically just throw out any troublemakers. If somepony gets too grabby or drinks too much, or just causes any trouble, you ask them politely to leave. If that doesn’t work, you throw’em out quick and quiet.”

“So...a guard, basically.” Barrier chuckled, “I suppose I can do that. What time should I be there?”

“Club opens at eight, closes at four. If you can be there by seven-thirty, that’d be great.”

“Very well then, I’ll be there at seven. Til’ then Miss Scratch.”

“Oh, and stop calling me ‘Miss’, it makes me feel old!” She almost immediately went back to stuffing her face.

Almost six o’clock and Barrier finally found himself back outside the apartment, dozens of bags of groceries floating in his magic. “Alright, should be close enough…” Barrier sat the groceries down and lit his horn up. “Little to the left…” With a burst of magic, he vanished, leaving the groceries outside the apartment.

Octavia fumbled a pack of cello strings as yells suddenly rang out from the kitchen.

“Son of a motherbucking piece of s-”

Quickly identifying the voice, she trotted into the kitchen, only to find Barrier wedged between the kitchen-sink and the cabinets above it; his face was in the sink and his hind-hooves were pressed tightly up against the underside of the cabinets.

“That’s an interesting way to stretch, Magic.” The mare had a slight smirk at her roommate’s predicament.

“I will eat your face.” The unicorn retorted as he flailed wildly, managing to get a leg free and rolling painfully out of the sink to the floor.

“So, you didn’t knock because…?”

“Because buck you, that’s why. And I didn’t think you’d be home.” He winced as he arched his back. “Ponies really shouldn’t be able to bend that way. Blasted teleportation.” Barrier grumbled as he trotted towards the front door. “In other news, I have groceries. Oh, and I meant to ask, that milk living in the fridge, is that a pet or should I throw it out?”

The mare blushed slightly and cleared her throat before answering. “The milk can go. I’m never home long enough to justify buying groceries-” The mare began to help Barrier in putting the groceries away. “as I work nearly fourteen hours a day between a half-dozen different restaurants. This is the earliest I’ve been home in months and it was only so you wouldn’t be locked out all night, though it seems you managed to make it inside.”

“So, any luck finding a job?”

“Yeah, I start in an hour and a half actually. I’m going to be security for Vinyl’s club. I get off at four in the morning, I’ll probably be back around five.”

“Well, that’s convenient, that’s about when I wake up to get ready. I’ll see about getting you a key made tomorrow.”

You wake up at five in the morning to play at restaurants…? Barrier shook the thought from his head. “Well, I’d better get going. Still need to get a layout of the club. I suppose I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Night ‘Tavi.”

Once again, Barrier found himself in a pattern. He would wake up around two in the afternoon, eat breakfast, and then go to the gym for a couple hours. From there, he would wander aimlessly around the city until his shift. He had long-since invested in a pair of earplugs to dull the sound of Vinyl’s music. It wasn’t bad, he was sure. A lot of ponies clearly enjoyed it, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out what was so great about it; he just couldn’t stand it on a personal level. Most nights were uneventful. Only occasionally having ponies who needed to be thrown out; all in all, it was a fairly dull job, but it paid the bills. From there, he would arrive home just in time to cook himself and Octavia dinner and breakfast respectively. All in all, it was a nice life minus the small amount of time he and Octavia got to see each other. Occasionally on weekends they would both have a day off and go to lunch, but those were far and few between.

“You’ve got a little bit right there…” Barrier motioned to his cheek, only for the mare to dab at her face with a napkin and miss the small smear of sauce completely.

“Did I get it?” The mare glanced down balefully at her plate of spaghetti. “Barrier?” She looked back up just in time to see Barrier closing the distance between the pair.

With a quick lick, Barrier removed the spaghetti sauce from the mare’s face, smiling in satisfaction when her face tinted red; the little things in life were the most satisfying. As the mare glared at him in embarrassment, he opened his mouth to laugh only for the mare to reciprocate the action, causing his face to heat up and the mare to smirk in victory.

Well played. The pair turned their focus to their food, occasionally glancing up at each other, slight grins on their faces.

“So, ‘Tavi. What are the chances you could get the week after next off?”

“I suppose I could. The restaurants are fairly lenient when I need time off.”

Barrier actually snorted. “Of course they are, you’re one of the biggest reasons ponies eat there.” Barrier had only visited the mare at work a couple of times on his odd weekday off, but they were almost always packed as opposed to when the mare wasn’t performing.

“So, I get the feeling that wasn’t a random question.” The mare looked at him in askance.

“Ah, no, it wasn’t. I got a letter from my granddaughter the other day asking if I could visit Ponyville to help her with something when I had the chance. I thought it’d be a nice change of pace rather than our usual hour or so of time together.”

“Hm, well, we’ve gotten ahead with the bills in the last couple of months, so I don’t see why not. A vacation to Ponyville sounds wonderful.”

“Excellent. I’ll write Twilight and ask her to reserve us some rooms at an inn and…” Barrier trailed off and slowly drifted his gaze to a neighboring table; after a moment, the mare’s gaze followed and he quickly reached in, licking her cheek once more.

“I believe the score stands two to one.”

Author's Notes:

So, the editors got new shackles. The new ones are laser-engraved with their initials and serial numbers as well as light wrist-padding, it's great. Thanks to Izanagi/Alticorn, as always, for not struggling when I changed out shackles as well as their continuing editing of this wreck I call a story.

Still no word on when my parts will arrive [guy doesn't get out a lot] so sad day there.

Also, I'm working on another story about a Changeling-Alicorn Hybrid that is also a Hunter from WoW. Be afraid, be very afraid. Also, it could use an editor/proofer if anybody is interested. Just drop me a message and I'll send the link along. S'about 5000 words in atm, I think.