“There’s a punchline to that, right?” Night Light finally broke the silence, a frown on his face. Who the hay was this nutcase? “I think you should leave Mr. Bar-”

“Hold on dear.” Velvet cut her husband off. “You said you had evidence to back up your statement, Mr. Barrier?”

“Yes mam, but before that, I should probably explain how the situation came about. When Princess Luna became Nightmare Moon and the war started, I was one of the ponies in charge of preparing our operations, both defensive and offensive. In the final confrontation, Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon engaged each other in the throne-room of the Everfree Castle…” As he began to recall the past, he found himself reliving the memories in his mind. Though they had happened a millennium ago, it still felt like yesterday. It sort of was yesterday, he supposed.

It was pouring rain as the battle raged inside of the Thestral’s war-camp. One of the scouts had discovered the camp by chance and reported that he had seen Nightmare Moon in the camp; they had launched a surprise-attack to try and bring a rapid close to the war. So far, it had worked almost perfectly to sketch. The only problems that had arisen was that neither Nightmare Moon or Princess Celestia were anywhere to be found.

“Captain!” An orange-coated stallion rushed up to Magic Barrier, sliding to a stop in front of his captain and throwing a sharp salute.

“What’s the word, Flash? How long until we can go home?”

“The thestrals are giving us a hard time but we should have the camp mopped up by daybreak.” The lieutenant took several deep breaths before continuing his report “As the report said, there were roughly a thousand thestrals in the camp. We managed to put about half of that number down while they were still asleep before one of them called an alarm. After that, we sent up the flare and we collapsed in on them from all sides.”

“Well done, lieutenant. Keep an eye on things down there for me.”

“Sir!” The orange pegasus saluted once more before he flew back towards the now-burning camp.

Barrier couldn’t help but gaze down at the burning camp in frustration; not being able to join the battle was disheartening. Both he and the princess had agreed to meet at the top of a nearby hill and wait for Nightmare Moon to make an appearance; from there, Princess Celestia would engage while he played support.

“Where are you, Princess…”

Realizing he had drifted off into a daydream, Barrier cleared his throat and began again. “Anyways, when I got to the throne room, Nightmare Moon was lobbing rocks everywhere. The princess managed to avoid most of them, but one slipped through and she took it hard in the face.” Stopping to take a short drink of tea, “Anyways, I jumped in to buy her time to recover. After she recovered, I climbed atop Nightmare Moon and and yelled for the princess to do it. Next thing I know, something hot washed over me. Cut forward a thousand years when Nightmare Moon returned and here I am.”

Finishing his tea, he made to explain the blood-comparison he had requested the doctor to run only to stop as he realized both ponies were beet-red.

“Is everything okay? You’re both rather red…”

Coughing awkwardly, Night Light waved a hoof. “Fine. I mean, we’re fine. Just taking in the story is all. Nothing more.”

Shrugging off the awkward response, “The evidence I mentioned earlier,” Barrier fished an envelope from the saddlebags. “is this. Initially, I had asked the princess to do some research for me, to check my hunch. She informed me of an easier way, that being this blood-test.”

Levitating a pair of reading-glasses onto herself, Velvet began to peruse the test-results.

“So Barrier, I have some questions,” Night Light began. “First and foremost, and not to sound rude, but what do you hope to accomplish by telling us all of this? While I am admittedly interested and would love to discuss this all with you, I would like to know all of your reasons for seeking us out instead of discussing all of this with our daughter.”

Resting his chin on a hoof, Barrier smiled sadly at Night Light before responding, “I honestly have no clue. When I woke up I felt…broken. Everything I had bled and fought for…all of it was gone while I remained. I guess I just wanted to know that it wasn’t all in vain.”

“Well, the blood-test certainly checks out,” the mare passed the paper to her husband. “does Twilight know about this all yet?”

Shaking his head a negative, Barrier explained. “I wasn’t afraid to bring it up. I wasn’t sure if she would react positively or negatively; I decided I would talk to you two before-hoof.”

Returning the paper to the chair-bound unicorn, a slight smile on his features. “Well, blood doesn’t lie. You’re a Sparkle. Welcome…back to the family, I guess. As for Twilight, I honestly think she’ll be ecstatic at the prospect of having a relative from so long ago, so long as you’ll answer her questions. So, how did you come to meet our Twilight upon your…” Night Light fumbled briefly “re-entry to Equestria?”

“Well, when Nightmare Moon returned to Equestria, I was still mounted upon Nightmare Moon. My first instinct of course was to strike her as hard as I could between her wings.”

Night Light flinched at the thought; pegasus wings were extremely sensitive and a solid strike at the nerve-bundle between their wings could cost them their ability to fly.

“She didn’t take very calmly; the next thing I knew I was face-down with Nightmare Moon beating my flank like it was her job.”

Shining Armor stopped his hoof as he heard a voice he didn’t recognize. Glancing over at Cadance, he turned back to the door just in time to hear: “Face-down with Nightmare Moon beating my flank like it was her job” Shining’s face began to heat up at the mental imagery conjured up and Cadance had choked back a giggle. “when all of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in my lower back. After that, everything went black.”

Cadance couldn’t take it anymore and began to laugh.

With a sigh, Shining Armor pushed the door open.

“Shiny, Cadance!” Twilight Velvet jumped upright, galloping over to embrace the two.

The laughter stopped abruptly as the air left their lungs.

“Ah, so this is the boy I keep hearing looks like me.” Wasting no time, he climbed out of his chair with both great effort and a groan of pain, Hobbling over to Shining Armor and Cadance, circling around Shining a couple of times..

“Excuse m-” Shining's voice left him as he saw Barrier limping over to him. Much of his coat and body was hidden under his bandages, but the mane and face were like looking into a mirror.

Stopping nearly muzzle to muzzle with Shining, Barrier gazed deeply into his great grandson’s eyes. “Hm…” Taking a few steps back and limping to Shining’s side, Barrier took in every detail he could, from the cutie-mark to the condition of his fur.

“Um, and you are…?” Shining Armor shifted uncomfortably under the grey unicorn’s gaze. He couldn’t quite pinpoint why, but he felt like he was back in his first day of guard-training.

Running his gaze over Shining Barrier, he finally stopped, a wide grin on his face. “Damn we look good. If we weren’t related I’d jump right on you…then again, it’s a pretty distant relation, so maybe if your mare-friend consents…seriously, your flank looks like it was sculpted out of pure marble.”

“Uh…thanks? I think…” Shining took a back away from Barrier a bit.

“I consent-" A wide grin broke out onto Cadance's features "-as long as I get to watch it happen."

“So, you were the captain of the royal guard one-thousand years ago?” After running Shining Armor and his mare-friend through the same story he had given their parents, Shining had wasted no time in peppering him with questions, most of them pertaining to the royal guard in the Second Equestrian Era. He was definitely Twilight’s brother.

“I was a captain,” Barrier couldn’t help but smile at Shining Armor’s enthusiasm. Thus far, he had learned that the stallion was only recently promoted to the Captain of the Royal guard as the youngest in Equestrian history. “One of five or so. The guard was much bigger back then as opposed to what it is now, from what I’ve seen. As terrible as the Nightmare War was, it told the rest of the world just how capable the Princesses were. Either one of them has the capacity to end all life on our planet.”

Shining frowned at that; it wasn’t something he had ever considered, but now that he thought about it, he couldn’t refute the statement.

“Contrary to belief, our princess’s aren’t infallible. They’re ponies with emotions, same as us.”

Cadance simply nodded in reply, knowing all too well that her aunt was as much of a pony as all of her subjects.

“Hey, I meant to ask earlier.” Night Light intervened. “How did you know you were related to Twilight when you first met her?”

“What do you mean? It’s...oh right.” He realized that none of the ponies present had seen his cutie mark; he had only stood up once they had all been focused on him sexually harassing Shining Armor at the time.

With a pained grunt, he climbed upright and exposed his non-bandaged flank to the family.

His cutie mark was similar to Shinings -it seemed to be a pattern at this point- in that it was a simple heater shield with the six-point arcane star in the center. Mounted behind the shield was a plain broadsword. It was a very generic guard cutie-mark. As he fell back into the chair, he didn’t wait for any further questions. “I suppose I should be heading out soon.” The sun was rapidly descending beyond the horizon.

“Where are you staying at while in Canterlot?” Night Light asked. “We have a guest room if you’d like to stay.”

“Thanks, but I have a room waiting for me at Canterlot Memorial. I may or may not have snuck out of the hospital in Ponyville two weeks before I should have. I’ll probably be in town for another week or two, so I’ll stop by if circumstances permit.” Waving a hoof behind him, Barrier wheeled himself out of the door.

“Barrier, wait up!” Cadance was trotting up behind him. “I thought I would walk with you part-way, since I have to see my aunt.”

“Of course, princess.” Barrier tilted his head slightly, much to Cadance’s annoyance.

They walked in silence for several long minutes before Cadance asked a question that Barrier had been waiting for all evening.

“What was my aunt like one-thousand years ago?”

“Ah I wondered when you’d ask that, princess.” Barrier chewed on his lower lip for a moment before continuing “Are you sure you want to know this, Cadance? The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” he dropped the formality, his tone becoming more serious.

Cadance, slightly taken aback by the sudden shift in tone, nodded at him, donning a determined expression. “When I was younger, she was always sad. Not many ponies noticed, but I could tell she was upset. She always told me it was because she missed her sister, but that never felt like the whole truth.

“If you insist, princess,” lowering his voice as they made their way to the castle, he began, “As I mentioned earlier to Shining Armor, Equestria was a very different country back then and Princess Celestia was very different than she is now. Her and Princess Luna both did whatever it took to protect us- to protect their little ponies. Unfortunately, one of the most effective ways to do that was to eliminate problems before they could become a threat. If I had to wager a guess, I’d say she regretted far more than just the banishment of her sister.”

“I don’t quite understand what you mean, Barrier.” she didn’t seem to grasp the concept.

“An example that comes to mind was about seven years before Princess Luna was corrupted. I was a lieutenant at the time. The griffins had been getting aggressive; the king of Griffonia was old at the time and needed to announce his successor. Now, the old king didn’t want war with Equestria, but his brat of a son did. He was convinced that the land we lived in belonged to the griffins and the griffins were the superior race. Despite his young age, he was very vocal about his beliefs. When the old king announced that his son would succeed him, Princess Celestia ordered five ponies, plus myself to sneak into Griffonia and…deal with the problem before it became a threat. By whatever means necessary.”

Cadance had all but stopped when Barrier finished that statement. The idea of her aunt - the benevolent Princess Celestia, beloved by all - ordering such a thing. “And...how did you deal with the situation?” she was fairly certain that she already knew the answer, but she needed to hear it.

“We killed both the old king, his son, as well as several members of his immediate family. By the time we left Griffonia, we had made certain that a more desirable griffin would take the throne.”

Cadance stopped walking, trying to process Barrier’s response and emotionless delivery; the unicorn kept wheeling along casually.

“Just remember, Cadance. If your aunt hadn’t ordered us to do that, we would’ve lost thousands of ponies in a war with the griffins.”

A twinge of guilt sparked through Barrier’s stomach as he dug the transfer papers from his bag and left the princess in silence.

No doubt this would strain the relationship between Cadance and Celestia when Cadance confronted her aunt.

“Just a little longer and it won’t matter.” Barrier commented, biting back the guilt as he rolled into the hospital lobby.

Author's Notes:

As always, I've nothing productive to put her. Updates will be every 2-3 days hopefully. Got a pair of editors, so hopefully there should be a bit of a quality jump soon.

Thanks To:
Izanagi for editing again. S'a man after my own heart.

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