“I’m not looking for a war,” Barrier punctuated the statement with a hard hoof to the cobblestone floor. “But the minotaurs are making a lot of weapons, diamond dogs are gathering in their capital, and a number of changeling hives are consorting with each other.”

“Not that we don’t trust you,” Princess Luna spoke up, “but where are you getting this information?”

Barrier bit his lip and glanced around the room. “A good friend of mine - rather attractive pegasus, that one - has contacts and resources in just about every country. Even before I asked him about it, he was already tracking the developments in question.”

“And this stallion’s name…?” An armor-clad pegasus trailed off, glancing expectantly at Barrier.

“Is not mine to give. I’ll talk to him and ask him to come forward, but until then, consider him a black asset. Anyways,” Barrier shifted subjects, “we need to reinforce the entire east-coast of Equestria. If anything does happen, it’ll start from somewhere along there.”

“The minotaurs would take that it an act of aggression if we suddenly started mobilizing our navy,” The same pegasus spoke up.

“We have every right to defend our borders Captain Star. Should they raise it as an issue, we will deal with it.” Luna stated firmly.

“Princess Celestia wouldn’t approve of this. Shouldn’t she be present at this meeting?” The pegasus yet again.

“Our sister hath given us control over the Equestrian military, so long as she is kept briefed on happenings,” Luna said hotly. “If you take issue with it, feel free to bring it up in day-court. I’m certain my sister would love for you to question her choices and mine own, Captain.”

Barrier pressed a hoof to his temple wearily as the stallion glared at the princess. The sub-captain had been a problem ever since he was reinstated. Apparently, he had been in line for the promotion after Shining Armor’s wedding to the Branch-Captain for the Equestrian Royal Army and Guard and he wasn’t terribly happy about Barrier taking what he saw as his job. Mentally, he made a note to have his friends keep close watch on the pony. He didn’t trust him as far as he could throw him.

Trying to rub the headache out of his head, Barrier gave the clock on the wall a glance. Fifteen more minutes until he got to go home. The week had been busy, having daily meetings with the advisors and Princess of the Night. Tomorrow, it all came to a head and they would decide on which measures to pass. Barrier was fairly certain he would be getting his way; he and Luna agreed way too much.

“I’ve gottit…” Barrier mumbled out as he rolled off of the bed, hitting the floor with a thunk, his ears picking up a garbled crying as his brain flared to life. Pulling himself upright with a heave, he trotted over towards the crib and leaned a single hoof in, pulling out a small bundle of blankets and fur. “Come on,” Barrier held the bundle neatly in the crook of a hoof as he limped into the kitchen, bottle floating in the dim aura of his magic. Sitting the bundle on the counter, he quickly sat about rinsing the bottle out and filling it with milk from the fridge.

The bundle of blankets contained a unicorn filly, a small horn poking out of her forehead, a dark-grey, borderline-black coat with a dark-grey mane like her mother’s, only shot through with a multitude of blue streaks. Most notable were the large beady eyes of the foal, one being a deep amethyst, like her mother’s, while the other had the icy-blue of her father. A heterochromia, the doctors called it.

“Here we are…” Barrier yawned as he lifted the filly in hoof once more and placed the bottle to her mouth which she began to drain with a vengeance.

“Come on, back to bed,” Barrier yawned and limped his way back to the bedroom, foal and bottle in hoof. Carefully laying the foal back in the crib, Barrier all but fell back into the bed, asleep again before he hit the pillow.

Barrier and Octavia both silently sipped their coffee while their foal giggled cutely in her high-chair. With a cute giggle and a flare of her horn, she disappeared in a pop of magic.

His expression unchanging, Barrier mentally followed the trail of magic from the instant it happened and held a hoof out, the foal popping into existence a split second later. Melodic Sparkle, as they had named her, was most certainly a Sparkle-family unicorn.

With a tired yawn, Barrier levitated the last of his coffee out of his cup and directly into his mouth, forgoing the cup, glancing sideways at the fourth member of their family as he did so. Much like himself and Octavia, and unlike the foal, Wind Whistler - the pink-maned, blue pegasus, with tired red eyes - was not a morning pony either, her expression dull and breakfast untouched.

“What time is the chariot due today?” Octavia asked in a sleepy voice as she also drained the last of her coffee.

Glancing briefly at the clock, Barrier yawned. “Got about three and a half hours. Any mail?” Another yawn.

“Letters from Twilight and Verdant Range,” Octavia slid a pair of envelopes across the table.

Flaring his horn, he first tore open Verdant Range’s letter, eating as he read to himself,

Dear Captain Magic Barrier,

I’ve got to admit, it’s been quite the adjustment, but I’ve got to say, I think I’m going to be alright. It was really something meeting Princess Celestia and Luna in person when they visited the empire. They were really kind when they told me about my owed back pay. Thanks to them, I’ve gone from having nothing to having nearly eighteen million bits! I’m also guessing Celestia will have plenty of food from Equestria to give to the crystal ponies, judging by how corpulent her rump has become in the past thousand plus years.
I’m forever grateful to Princess Cadance for allowing me to stay in the servants’ quarters in the palace until I got my money…as well as not throwing me back in the dungeon for that Heartbutt prank you pulled on me.
Once I got my bits, I left the empire and got myself a nice little place in Vanhoover. It’s a small little place with a yard for my new pet hen. I’ve decided to name her after what must be the greatest thing invented in the time I was gone; her name is Pizza.
I’ve met several great ponies since I’ve moved here, like my neighbours, Aqua Shine and Dapper Grey, as well as Dr. Sound Mind. She’s really helped me deal with… what I’ve seen.
I just sent a letter to Twilight with my new address. She and I became fast friends while searching through that library. She’s a fantastic and gorgeous brilliant mare. She really likes to ask me about stuff that happened back in our time instead of the library’s books, and I swear, it was next to impossible to tell what was historically accurate and what was just the result of the writer chugging witch weed with stuff like, “and thus the twinkle-eyed ponies - ponies that had blindness-curing gems jammed into their eyes - overthrew the evil penguin king, Charlatan, claiming that land as theirs and forming what we now know as the Crystal Empire.”
Anyhow, back to Twilight. She introduced me to a sci-fi series called Star Trot. It’s pretty good, even if Captain Pathway’s a complete psycho.
Anyway, I’m starting to ramble. The point is, I think the future’s looking pretty damn bright.
- Former Private, Verdant Range.

Barrier smiled between bites of breakfast and carefully folded the letter up, replacing it in its envelope. Next, he tore Twilight’s letter open, settling in to read that one as well.

Barrier had agreed to the position as Captain of the Royal Guard when Shining Armor stepped down, stating the princess would need to help him find an effective way to commute to and from Canterlot. Ultimately, she had decided on arranging chariot transport for him to and from Canterlot, so long as he paid for it out of his check. It was still a long commute, but if he kept on top of his paperwork he could get away with only a couple of trips to Canterlot per month, and do the rest of his work from the Manehattan guard barracks. In the year-and-a-half since he had proposed to Octavia and become Captain of the Guard, he had implemented dozens of reforms and begun the process of completely reworking the guard. The attack on Canterlot had been a blessing, in its own way, making it clear to Celestia that her guards - her military - was useless and that she herself had grown soft over her thousand-years peace.

“Barrier, Flash Sentry is here!”

Killing the flow of water, Barrier dried himself with a flare of magic and quickly ran a brush over his mane and tail, making himself presentable as he trotted into his bedroom, giving a picture on his nightstand a quick glance; it was a full-body picture of Octavia from their wedding day.

Octavia had an exquisite white and violet dress on. In addition, there was simple black-lace trim and elaborate white embroideries. Towards the back, a trio of flowing skirts overlapped in three separate tiers, reminiscent of flower petals. It was clearly custom tailored to accentuate the mare’s eye, mane, and coat colors immaculately. The smile on the mare’s face was something that Barrier looked forward to waking up to every morning for the rest of his life.

“Barrier, Shining Armor and Cadance are here as well, hurry up!” Octavia’s voice called out once more.

“Coming!” He yelled out in response, grabbing his armor out of the closet and trotting out into the living room, only stopping in the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

“Have you two tried anal yet?”

Those were the first words Barrier heard as he trotted into the living room, and he heard them just in time to gag and spit out a mouthful of water, drenching the poor Flash Sentry, who had been standing by the door. It was moments like this that made him glad Wind Whistler was in school.

“Shining loves it! Sure, it may be a bit sore afterwards, but it’s just so much fun!”

“Cady…” Shining shifted uncomfortably in place, his tail shifting to cover his flanks a bit more.

Barrier chuckled slightly as he recovered from his coughing fit. Octavia was an attractive shade of red on the couch and muttered something inaudible. Barrier wasn’t quite sure why, but he was really looking forward to his birthday.

“So, any ear infections lately, Captain?” Shining asked with a slight grin, turning to his grandfather.

“Careful, butt-boy,” Barrier sipped his water, “else I’ll have to give Cadance The Breaker.”

The stallion paled; Barrier grinned.

The Breaker had become a joke of sorts between the pair. Barrier had found it on display at a rather risque shop and he had purchased it. Eight inches wide, thirty-five inches long; It was the epitome of terrifying, all in the pleasant form of hard rubber.

Barrier, deciding to give the unicorn a break shifted the subject. “So, Shiny, ready for the Crystal Empire to get more guards?”

“Yeah I am. The Crystal Ponies are great but they’re still trying to recover from one-thousand years. It’ll be great to have some other capable ponies to help get them sorted out.”

“I still don’t see why we need the guards though,” Cadance pitched in, “We defeated the changelings after they ambushed and nearly overran our capital. How does that make us look weak?” Cadance asked.

“We didn’t defeat anything. We got lucky that you and Shining were able to drive them out the way you did. In the eyes of the world, we won by a stroke of dumb luck. We won because the changelings were repelled by the physical manifestation of your love, not because of our military. I doubt the minotaurs or diamond dogs will be as biologically inclined as the changelings. Plus the minotaurs aren’t going to be too happy about the Crystal Empire. To them we've gotten not only an Alicorn in the form of Princess Luna but an entirely new branch of resources in the form of the Crystal Empire. They'll feel threatened, even if they have no reason for it.”

Silence fell over the ponies, broken only by the occasional giggle from the foal. “In any case, we should probably be heading out soon. One way or another, everything changes today,” Barrier quickly pecked Octavia on the lips before the four of them departed.

Life wasn’t perfect - but it was close enough.

Author's Notes:

And so closes the first chapter of Magic Barrier. There is indeed a sequel in the works, but it's an idea at the moment and I don't know when I'll get around to actually writing it. If I do, I'll upload another bonus chapter here or something and mention the sequel in the AN.

Thank you to my editors, Izanagi, Alticron, ChasingResonance, and DerRotSpassvogel. Much <3