Author's Notes:

So this turned out as more of a regular chapter than a bonus chapter, not that I'm complaining. It was mentioned in the comments and {though it was going to be written beforehand, the comment made me want to write it sooner} here it is.

Thank you to ChasingResonance, Izanagi, Alticron, and DerRotSpassvogel for editing, proofreading, and generally being my punching bags while I was face-planted my keyboard repeatedly.

Barrier bit back the rage bubbling up inside of him as his eyes glanced over the letter.

“Barrier? Is everything alright?” Octavia sat across from him, looking up from a plate of food while their young filly sucked noisily on a bottle.

The stallion’s first reaction was to lie; he wanted to assure her everything was fine. Instead, a grimace worked its way into his expression. “No. I’m afraid it isn’t.”

“He deserved to know,” Luna spoke through a mouthful of toast.

“I know, sister, I’m simply afraid of how he will react,” Celestia knew exactly how the stallion would react. Of all the missions she knew he had ever carried out, it was always the ones involving children that he had the most trouble with. “I worry that Twilight and the elements aren’t quite ready for the level of brutality this will all no doubt reveal to them.”

“They would’ve learned of it sooner or later. They’re too vital to Equestria for it to have been any other way, sister,” Luna refocused on her breakfast while Celestia lapsed into an uneasy silence.

Barrier double-checked all of his provisions. Unlike his usual trips to Canterlot, he was entirely decked out: his sword, a simple iron shield each hung from his side, laying over a pair of lightly packed saddlebags, containing a scarf, goggles, and boots. He had packed less than fifteen minutes after receiving the letter, explaining to Octavia as he went.

“I’ve gotta go to Canterlot, something’s come up.”

“What do you mean something’s come up?” The mare followed him towards their shared bedroom.

“Have you ever heard of the Crystal Empire?” He fell silent for a brief moment before explaining, “Not long after I made Captain of the Guard, a unicorn went mad,” His mind briefly conjured up images of a black-coated unicorn, “turned to dark magic, and enslaved the place,” He stopped briefly. “He killed a lot of ponies. Thousands. Anyways, a contingent of guards and the princesses went to confront him, myself amongst them. The princesses fought him, and when he started to lose, he cursed the place or something. Disappeared. The only reason I didn’t go with it was because I was right next to the princesses fighting him. As soon as they figured out what he was doing, all three of us teleported out of the empire,” He dropped the saddlebags on his back, followed by his shield and sword.

“That’s awful, but I don’t understand, why do you have to go?”

Barrier, adjusting his sword and shield, smiled at the mare sadly. “The princess is sending Twilight and her friends. I know Sombra,” do I ever... “and Twilight and her friends aren’t ready for that.”

Octavia frowned knowingly and stood in front of the door, blocking the stallion’s way out. “I know you, Barrier. There’s more to it than that,” The mare briefly thought back to his concealed rage moments prior, “I won’t ask you to stay, it’s clear to me that this is a very big deal for you, but I deserve to know why you’re going to leave myself and your foal behind, especially if there’s any chance you won’t come back,” The mare wore a hard expression, locking eyes with him.

Barrier, like always, was unable to break the mare’s gaze. With a defeated sigh he began, “You’re not wrong. It’s probably about as personal as it can be,” A humourless chuckle escaped the unicorn as he ran over various thoughts. “Hat Trick, pegasus, eighteen years old. His cutie-mark was a magician’s hat, he got it for his talent in sleight-of-hoof,” The stallion trotted over to the edge of the bed and sat down before continuing, “Swiftsword, unicorn, two crossed swords. She got her cutie-mark because of talent with blades. Iron Forge, Winter Gem, Verdant Range,” the stallion fell silent. “I remember the name of every guard that Sombra killed,” He tapped his temple, “The ones I named were all little more than kids. They were all cadets and not a single one of them was over twenty,” His voice grew hard. “Fleetfeather was in charge of the final leg of their training. They went to the Crystal Empire for cold-weather survival training. She took one of their kids with her, Wind Whistler.”

Octavia’s eyes widened slightly at the name; Barrier had mentioned her on more than one occasion; she had been Flash Sentry’s - the old Flash Sentry - wife.

“Flash never blamed me for it, but I sure as hell did,” Another humourless chuckle.

“There was no way you could have known, Barrier,” Octavia was quick to say, though Barrier shrugged the statement off.

“I know, but that doesn’t make me feel any less responsible, Tavi. I think what hurts the most is that I knew Sombra before he snapped. The bastard was one of my teachers. Always felt like I should have seen this coming,” He stood up from the bed once more. “In any case, that’s my reasoning for this. I already lost family to him once, I’ll not risk losing Twilight to him.”

Octavia sighed, nodded, and stepped aside, allowing the stallion to pass. “Very well, Barrier, but you’d better come home to us. As I said before, I’ll not raise a foal on my own.”

“Barrier?” Twilight waved a hoof in front of the stallion’s face, uncertain about his slightly glossed over appearance. Octavia had mentioned them to her before; apparently it meant he was in deep-thought.

“Nervous?” Barrier stood next to the dark-green earth pony, watching Fleetfeather and Wind Whistler say goodbye to their husband and father.

The stallion turned to see who had spoken to him and immediately snapped to attention, throwing a salute.

“Relax,” Magic Barrier chuckled slightly.

“Sorry sir.”

“So, nervous about the survival training?”

The stallion seemed hesitant to answer, though the stall told Barrier all he needed to know.

“Why the career change, Verdant?” The captain asked as he watched Flash and his family.

“Sir?” The stallion glanced up uncertainly.

“Your file says you were a gardener before joining. Gardener to guard is quite a career shift.”

The stallion opened his mouth to reply, only for Magic Barrier to cut him off with a hoof. “What’s the real reason, not the crap recruits give their drill sergeants.”

The earth-pony closed his mouth for a brief moment before sighing. “I figured it’d be better to live in the guard barracks than a tool-shed.”

It wasn’t uncommon that a pony would join the guard to try and make a living; it was one the few jobs that was always in demand.

“Barrier!”

The unicorn shot off the bench and glanced around him for a moment before he realized that his entire body was tensed up and his horn was humming slightly with magic.

“Barrier, are you okay?” Twilight asked uncertainly, her eyes as well as the other elements’ all on him.

Taking a deep breath, Barrier sat back down on the bench. “I’m fine, just nervous.”

“So, you were there when this Crystal Empire disappeared, right?”

Barrier glanced briefly at Rainbow Dash and shook his head.

Twilight had asked Barrier several questions regarding the empire and what he knew of it, but he had been as tight-lipped then as he was now, only telling them to be careful and that it was going to be dangerous.

“Come on, it’d be a lot less dangerous if we knew what we were walkin’ into!” Rainbow Dash argued, pushing herself off of her bench with a few flaps of her wings.

“You’re dealing with a mass-murderer,” He bluntly stated, causing the mares’ expressions to widen. “And if it were up to me, none of you would be on this train.”

“Hey we can handle whatever this Sombra guy throws at us!” Rainbow Dash punctuated each statement with a jab of her hoof.

The stallion snorted in annoyance but didn’t comment.

“And why shouldn’t we be here?” Twilight finally asked. “We represent the elements of harmony, the most powerful artifacts in Equestria.”

“Because you all grew up in a very different time,” Barrier’s expression bore hard into the mares, especially Rainbow Dash, who he was focused on. “Sombra isn’t like Nightmare Moon or Discord. If he has any inkling that you girls are a threat to him, he’ll do everything he can to kill you without hesitation.”

None of the girls said anything, with the exception of Fluttershy who only curled up into a small ball.

“I’ve got nothing but respect for you and your friends, Twilight, but Celestia is out of her mind sending teenagers to deal with the second biggest mass-murderer in Equestrian history. Unlike Luna, with Nightmare Moon, Sombra enjoys what he did. There’s no second conscience trying to hold him back from committing atrocities. Make no mistake, if you give him a chance, he’ll kill you and your friends,” Barrier trotted out of the cabin as the train slowly ground to a halt, the screeching wheels indicating they had arrived.

“Come on, we’d better get moving,” Shining Armor had met them at the train station. “There are things we really don’t want to run into after dark.”

The group quickly trotted off after Shining Armor. Barrier vaguely registered Twilight and Shining Armor talking to each other. Instead, he focused on his surroundings, his horn glowing slightly as he tasted the magic around them. After a particularly dark spike, he yelled out over the storm.

“We need to get to the Crystal Empire, now!”

Shining turned back and opened his mouth only for a deep horn-like sound to ring out vaguely in the distance. Fluttershy opened her mouth to speak only for a mass of shadow to make its appearance behind them.

“Run!” Shining shouted out causing all six mares to sprint forward, Shining Armor following suit.

“Spike!” Twilight voice called out from a distance.

Breaking his staring contest with the ominous green eyes, Barrier realized that Spike was still behind him, shaking in fear. Giving the black cloud a backwards glance, he swore under his breath and sprinted, tossing Spike up onto his back with his head.

“Come on, we’re almost there!” The white stallion in the lead called out, racing towards a dome in the distance.

With a toss of his back, Magic Barrier sent Spike flying forward and through the shield, as he slid to a stop just outside of it. He could make out the elements and Shining Armor on the other side.

Almost casually, Barrier’s horn flared to life, pulling a thin leather tube and a pair of rocks from his saddlebags. With a short burst of magic, he launched the three objects into the black cloud, which shifted slightly to avoid them. Rather than fly past, the objects followed the mass of smoke, the leather tube uncorking in the process and spilling a thin clear fluid out of the tip. With a sharp clack, the stones rubbed against each other and the liquid caught fire, racing back into the tube, followed by a deafening explosion and a magical bubble wrapping itself around the cloud of smoke and the explosion; the explosion itself was dwarfed by the otherworldly shriek that tore apart the air and drew the attention of the mares on the other side of the bubble.

As the fire died down in the bubble, starved of oxygen, Barrier let the shield fail. Rather than the cloud of smoke, a lump of flesh fell out, making a soft thud as it impacted the snow, rolling to a standing position.

Barrier wasted no time stalking cautiously towards the lump, a black unicorn with a curved red horn. “You know, after a thousand years, I’d given up on ever getting the opportunity to kill you.”

Sombra, having regained himself, stalked sideways, eyes focused on the pony that had forced him out of his gaseous form.

“It sounds like you have a grudge,” Sombra’s voice was just as deep and foreboding as Magic Barrier remembered. “So, who was it? Your friends, your family, your lover?” A sneer worked its way onto the king’s muzzle as the two ponies began to circle each other.

“Five cadets,” Barrier hissed, “You killed five of my cadets and one of my sergeants and best friends,” Barrier’s horn lit up, a thin layer of magic settling over it.

“Guards?’ Sombra snorted in amusement. “I killed hundreds of guards, what makes yours so special?” Likewise, Sombra’s own horn ignited.

“They were foals!” A second layer of magic worked its way across his horn, his eyes narrowing in concentration.

“That doesn’t aid my recollection at all. I killed dozens of foals! I remember this one little filly,” Sombra gave a fanged grin. “Pink mane, blue coat. The way she wailed when I plunged my horn into her mother...it was del-” Sombra was silenced as his head snapped to the side. Sombra, as well as the elements and Shining Armor all stared wide-eyed at the spectacle.

Shining had seen a lot of sides of Magic Barrier over the last two years, but he’d never seen the expression of pure hatred the stallion now had. “Girls, we need to get to the castle.”

“What are you talkin’ about?! We can’t leave Magic Barrier out there with him!” Rainbow Dash was the first to respond, still trying and failing to leave the shield that surrounded the city.

“I gotta agree with Rainbow Dash, we can’t just leave ’im!” Applejack was the second to speak up. Rarity opened her mouth to speak as well, though Twilight cut her off.

“He’s right, girls, right now Cadance needs us. Barrier will be fine. I don’t think he’d listen to us right now anyways…” Giving the stallion one last glance, Twilight nodded at her brother and galloped off towards the city in the distance, five mares hesitantly following behind her.

Moments after Barrier had lashed out and their audience had left, Sombra had lashed back, throwing an immense bolt of magic at his aggressor only for him to disappear in a burst of magic and reappear right in front of his face. Unlike most unicorns Barrier went toe-to-toe with, Sombra’s horn didn’t light up; instead, he lashed out with a hoof, which Barrier caught and redirected before throwing one of his own, which Sombra caught and redirected, followed by immediately ducking as Barrier’s blade flew through the space his skull had previously occupied. Opening his mouth to call out a taunt, the shield once again slammed home in his jaw, snapping his head to the side; in the same movement, Barrier jerked around and threw his hind-legs out in a hard buck, sending Sombra bouncing across the snowy ground and towards the city-shield. Rather than crash into the shield as Barrier had planned, the shield faltered and Sombra slid right through.

Sombra adopted an expression of surprise as he realized that he was inside the crystal empire. With an unnecessary flourish, his horn lit up as he prepared a teleportation spell. As his magic erupted, Magic Barrier crashed into him, the pair of them disappearing in a flash of black energy.

“I hope Cadance is okay! She’s the one keeping the shield active right now!” Shining Armor slid to a halt with Twilight as a pair of black unicorns materialized in front of them; a notable distance behind were five more mares, all rushing to catch up.

Though slightly disoriented, Barrier kept sprinting forward; he could feel Sombra in front of him, equally disoriented and with far worse traction than himself. With a grunt, Barrier slammed Sombra into the side of one of the houses, causing a long crack to run up the side. Barrier only slightly lamented that he’d lost his sword and shield in the teleport. With a heave of effort, he hauled Sombra up in his forehooves and stood upright, leaning against Sombra and the house. With his free hoof, Barrier began to deliver a multitude of blows, near-blindly flailing on the stallion.

“Barrier stop, you’re going to kill him!” A familiar voice called out.

“That’s the fucking point!” Barrier yelled out. The brief second of downtime as he replied was all Sombra needed for his horn to flare to life and his body to coalesce into smoke, causing Barrier’s hoof to pass through the space he had previously occupied and send another impressive crack through the building. Jerking around, Barrier watched the smoke circle around him. Eyes widening, he clamped a hoof over his nostrils and clenched his jaw tightly. With a flare of his horn, a large shield surrounded both him and the smoke. Calmly levitating two more leather tubes and four pieces of flint, Barrier smiled at the glowing green eyes of the king, which when he realized what was happening, began to thrash violently at the shield. “Let’s stress-test your dark magic, Sombra,” Wrapping one tube and two flint in a bubble and throwing the other at the gaseous form of Sombra, Barrier struck the flint together, causing the space inside the bubble to fill with flame and smoke.

“Twilight, what happened?” Rainbow Dash was the first to reach the stricken mare as smoke rolled away from where the shield had been. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.

“Twi, are you okay?” Applejack was the next to reach them. “We tri-” she was cut off as another bubble flared to life and another explosion rocked the ground. The physical form of Sombra, charred and smoldering went bouncing away from the force of the explosion while Barrier, still wrapped in a thin shield flew the opposite way, impacting and entering the building he had struck moments prior; almost immediately the sound of breaking glass rang out, followed by the building collapsing.

Twilight and the girls looked up from the piles of crystals they were trying to move, desperately searching for the body of Magic Barrier when they heard the sound of a pop and the distinct smell of teleportation.

Magic Barrier, while rough, was in better shape than the badly burned and unconscious form of Sombra. Blood poured freely down a gash in his right hind-leg, and the left hind-leg was obviously broken. His saddlebags appeared to have vanished, and most of his naturally dark coat was even darker, blood oozing from a dozen smaller scratches across his body. With a grunt, he dragged his limp hind-leg behind him as he limped towards Sombra and Shining Armor.

“Shining, grab me a flat rock...crystal, whatever the tartarus that building was made out of, and a heavy one.”

Shining looked at him uncertainly before moving to obey.

“I should kill you,” Barrier muttered to himself as he took the king’s black mane in his teeth and lazily drug him towards the ruined building, where Shining was searching for suitable crystals.

Making to light up his horn, Barrier hissed in pain, having not noticed the thin crack running down its length. “One thing after a fuckin’ ‘nother…” he muttered as Shining sat both rocks down near him. With a heave, he drug Sombra to the rocks and propped the tip of his horn up on it. Carefully putting weight on his broken hoof, Barrier carefully balanced on his two-and-a-half legs as he picked the second crystal up with a hoof.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, only to close it when she remembered what had happened the last time she stopped the stallion.

Blinking back the blurry vision, he dropped the rock and let gravity do the rest. With a sickening snap and a hiss, the former king’s horn snapped in two, a thin black smoke rolling out of the severed horn. “Shining, make damn sure that horn gets to Princess Celestia and Princess Celestia only,” He turned his glance to the crystal palace. “And has anypony told Cadance what’s going on?”

“But you don’t understand, I failed!” Barrier blinked as he returned to the waking world. Glancing out of a nearby window, he’d only been asleep for a couple of hours.

“I was supposed to protect the empire, but I couldn’t do anything…Barrier had to do it…”

“I didn’t do anything of the sort.” The unicorn in question struggled upright, body protesting in pain. As was the norm, he was once more covered from hoof-to-horn in bandages. “All I did was eliminate Sombra as a threat. It’s up to you ponies to figure out how to prevent the blizzard from turning this place into a popsicle. In the meantime, I’ve got a couple more things to take care of,” Barrier limped towards the throne-room doors, dragging his splinted leg behind him.

Shining glanced at Cadance uncertainly, asking a silent question to which the mare nodded. He was quick to follow Magic Barrier out of the throne room.

“Man, Octavia is going to kick your flank.”

“Better she kicks it than ride it, judging by how you were walking last Thursday,” Barrier smirked slightly as Shining’s white coat turned pink and his tail moved to cover his flank.

“So where are we going?” Shining asked as the blush faded.

“To the dungeons. I know you guys tied Sombra up and threw him in a room with Applejack, but I’ll wager you guys forgot about the ponies Sombra kept locked up.”

Shining’s eyes widened, confirming Barrier’s suspicions. “It’s a long-shot, but I wanna be certain nopony is down there a moment longer than they have to be,” As he spoke, the pair descended a long spiral staircase, Barrier stopping at the end just long enough to grab an iron key ring and pass it to Shining Armor.

“Go on, I’ll catch up,” Barrier waved the unicorn ahead, sighing and carefully sitting down on his haunches. Shining wasn’t wrong; Octavia was going to kick his ass. He hadn’t been this messed up since the Nightmare Moon fiasco.

After a moment to catch his breath, Barrier struggled upright once more and followed his grandson down the dilapidated hallway, occasionally glancing at either empty cells, or a cell with a corpse in it, and on occasion, multiple corpses. He noticed Shining stop at a cell a short distance away and give it a long hard look before levitating the key-ring in his magic.

“Hold on, I’ll find the right key…” Shining Armor was speaking to somepony in the cell as he tried individual keys. As Barrier limped into view, he glanced in the cell and smiled slightly.

“Wanna go back to your tool-shed yet, kid?”

In the cell sat a haggard green earth pony with three raindrops on his flank and tired blue eyes. “To be honest sir, I’d like to request some leave. Maybe a long vacation to Rainbow Falls,” was the weary reply, causing Magic Barrier’s smile to broaden slightly.

“I’ll see what I can do,” He couldn’t help but laugh slightly before he turned to Shining Armor, “I’ll check the rest of the cells, Shiny,” Barrier nodded briefly towards the earth pony - Verdant Range, he remembered - and limped on down the corridor, carefully eyeing each cell. “Hello? Anypony in there?” He had stopped at the final cell. He thought he saw something huddled and shivering under a bed. “Hello? My name’s Magic Barrier, Captain of the Royal Guard, is there anypony in there?” At the mention of his name, a gasp met his ears and a young filly rushed out from under the bed and towards the bars.

Barrier’s expression - previously a slight smile - blossomed into a full grin, followed by feeling like his heart had just stopped in his chest. “Shiny, I need those keys!” He turned and glanced down the hallway at Shining Armor, who had finally succeeded in freeing Verdant Range.

“I’m coming,” the stallion called out, quickly trotting down the hall, the earth-pony following behind him.

“How’re you feelin’ kiddo?” Barrier crouched down next to the cell, reaching a hoof into it, which the filly quickly grabbed and almost immediately began to sob into. Whether they were tears of joy, sadness, or both, he was uncertain.

“Right, introductions.” Barrier limped towards the throne-room with Verdant and Shining in tow, and a small blue filly asleep on his back, pink mane contrasting his white bandages. “Shining Armor, this is cadet Verdant Range.”

“Actually sir,” The weary earth-pony interrupted. “It’s private Verdant Range now. Sergeant Fleetfeather had all of us field commissioned when Sombra attacked.”

“Ah, thanks kiddo. I’ll be sure to note that. Anyway, Private Verdant, this is Prince Consort Shining Armor, my grandson.”

Verdant stared at the pair in brief bewilderment before asking, “Was your foal born pregnant or…?”

Barrier chuckle-snorted in response. “Not quite. Truth is, just over one thousand years have passed since you were captured. During the fight with Sombra, he did something that caused the Crystal Empire to vanish. What’s been a couple of weeks for you was like...two years for me and a little over a thousand years for everypony else. I don’t know right, but there are…sciences and stuff that explain it. Ask my granddaughter, she’ll know,” The stallion took several steps ahead of the pair. “Now, before we do anything else, I think we should introduce you to Shining’s wife, Princess Heartbutt,” Barrier stated with as straight a face as the tired unicorn could manage.

“Barrier…” Shining began uncertainly, only to be cut off.

“Just give me this, Shining,” Barrier whispered; the white stallion sighed.

“Princess…Heartbutt…?” The skepticism was clear in Verdant’s voice.

“Princess Glutei a Forma di Cuore,” Barrier explained with an impressive accent, “is a little difficult for some ponies to say, and the closest translation we could comfortably get was Heartbutt. So,” Barrier threw the throne-room doors open, “Verdant Range, meet Princess Heartbutt,” The last line was spoken softly, but not strangely so.

Glancing at a trio of mares - Cadance, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy - discussing something, Verdant bowed respectfully. “It’s an honor to meet you, Princess Heartbutt.”

Absolute silence engulfed the room for all of fifteen seconds until Barrier began dry-heaving with laughter; it hurt so good.

Barrier groaned out loud as he trotted through the halls; literally every part of him hurt right now. After spending a short while checking on Applejack and Sombra, as well as tracking down and forcing a magic-inhibitor on Sombra’s broken horn and only barely resisting the urge to kick him square in the jewels, Barrier found himself trotting hungrily towards the library, where Twilight and her friends had last been known to reside. He had intended to stop by the kitchen, but with Wind Whistler still asleep on his withers, he reasoned it would be more effective to wait until the filly awoke to eat. No doubt she was as starved as she was obviously sleep-deprived.

“Guess I missed them…” Barrier winced as a yawn forced its way out of him. The mares were nowhere to be found; looking out of a nearby window, he realized they were all helping to set-up and run the Crystal Faire. Limping towards the exit, Barrier began to mumble to himself, trying to figure out a contingency plan in case Twilight did fail, as well as to have a very long talk with Celestia regarding how she was treating his granddaughter; perhaps it was only him, but it felt like Twilight was being manipulated to Celestia’s whims, if the stories he’d heard from the elements were true. He couldn’t help but ask himself if it was really all that bad; it had certainly worked out in Twilight’s favor thus far, but…bah, he was too tired to contemplate it right now. As he ran over various plans in his mind, he felt a near-invisible force wash over him, filling him with joy, followed by a noticeable temperature shift. So much for the contingency, he smiled to himself and limped out, shifting his thoughts to how to safely transport King Sombra to Canterlot; ultimately, he decided a bound, gagged, and ring-horned Sombra would be fine.

“Pinkie promise you’ll write!”

Barrier lazily opened an eye and glanced at Twilight who was quickly scribbling something down on a piece of scrap paper, which she quickly shoved at Verdant Range before walking him through the motions of a pinkie-promise, ending with her jabbing herself in the eye.

“First come the letters,” Barrier commented as he limped tiredly past the pair. “and then come the bodily fluids,” He winked slyly at the pair as Twilight erupted into a full blush and made to swat at him Octavia-style before she stopped, realizing he was barely standing.

“Remember what I said, Verdant. You need anything, look me up in Manehattan,” The stallion waved a hoof casually, taking care to balance himself on two hooves before he climbed onto the train. “So, Twilight, you and Verdant…you know?” He flexed his eyebrows slightly.

“It’s not like that! He’s just a pen-pal!” Twilight blushed and stammered out an explanation. “He’ll be able to explain more about life one-thousand years ago, since he wasn’t a noble or anything!”

Barrier chuckled at the sudden near-desperate sounding explanations she rattled off. “Fine, fine. Just use protection. And uh, don’t get any ear infections,” Barrier trotted into his cabin, closing the door behind him before the mare could retort.

As he entered the cabin, his vision turned to black as a light-blue filly latched herself on to his face.

“I missed you too, Wind Whistler.”

The filly giggled and let go, flapping over to the bench. “So, where’re we going, Uncle Barrier? Can we go see daddy in Canterlot?”

Barrier frowned as he sat down on the bench; he wasn’t looking forward to this conversation. The filly had put up a strong front regarding the death of her mother, but this…it broke his heart just thinking about it.