“I’m sorry Magic Barrier, but I couldn’t convince the council to approve your advisory role. They believe that you’ll be too aggressive and that you would abuse your relation to Captain Armor.”

Well, crap. So much for that idea.

“I understand, your highness. I’ll figure something out.” Would’ve been too easy if he had actually gotten the job.

“There is another order of business however, that I imagine will help tremendously.”

“Oh? What might that be, your highness?”

“Your backpay. You served the crown faithfully for one-thousand years, helping keep Nightmare Moon bound. You went over a thousand years without picking up a single paycheck. It adds up after awhile, you know?” She had a sly grin on her face. “The council wasn’t particularly happy when we ran the numbers. All in all, the crown owes you about one-hundred and eighty million bits.”

“...there’s a punchline, right?”

“No punchline my little pony, you were an active-duty captain until four weeks ago. I have your discharge papers right here.” A stack of papers levitated over. “I hope you’ll forgive me, but I took the liberty of creating you a bank account.”

“Uh…” Barrier was dumb-stricken. “Um, thanks. Huh, I guess this is the last bit of business we really have together…”

“I suppose so, my little pony.”

“It was an honor, Princess.” Barrier saluted sharply.

“The honor was mine, Barrier. I wish you luck in your endeavors, and should you ever need somepony to talk to, I’ll be happy to listen.” A sad smile on her face, the princess turned and departed. She had entertained the idea of maintaining contact with the grey unicorn but simply couldn’t justify it; while he had made it clear he didn’t blame her for his misfortune, she still blamed herself for both his loss, and Luna’s.

Today was the day; the bane of his existence would be removed from the world on this day. They say vengeance is bittersweet, but Barrier could taste nothing but joy.

“Ready to get that cast off?” Night Light was in the room as well.

“You have no idea.”

Magic Barrier and Night Light had hit it off relatively well after the initial meeting nearly a month prior. While they didn’t, and never would have a grandfather-grandson type relationship, they had become fast friends.

“So, what do you plan to do after you get the cast off? If you need a place to stay, we still have an empty room. You’re more than welcome to it until you can get back on your hooves.”

“Funny you should mention that, Night. A few days ago, Princess Celestia gave me some news. I didn’t get the job, as I had hoped I would, but it turns out that I was listed as KIA, or MIA. Due to a small technicality, I’ve been on active-duty until like…a month ago. Turns out I was entitled to backpay for my service to the crown.” Levitating a bank-statement to Night Light.

Night Light’s lips moved but no words came out.

“Think I’m going to head somewhere other than Canterlot.” Barrier tried to spark a conversation.

“I-huh?” Night Light snapped out of his stupor. “Well, you can certainly afford to move wherever you want.”

“Yeah, not sure when I’ll see you or Velvet again…I just need some time to get my head on straight.”

“I can understand.” Night Light’s smile faded a bit.

“Still, I’ll be able to make it to dinner tonight. Still gotta explain to Twilight that I’m her grandfather…man that sounds awkward.”

A sharp rap at the door signaled the entry of the doctor.

“Oh by Sol, about damn time. Getitoff, getitoff, getitoff!” Barrier began to flail his hooves in a foalish fashion.

“Yes, yes, I’m here to remove the cast.” the doctor was clearly exasperated at the stallion’s behavior.

Chuckling as he stood up, Night Light turned towards the door, talking as he went, “I’ll see you at dinner tonight, Barrier. Don’t forget that Twilight will be there and that you owe her an explanation.”

The removal of the cast and subsequent discharge went off without a hitch and Barrier soon found himself once again standing in front of the Sparkle’s -his family's- front door, only this time, he wasn’t wheelchair-bound. Raising a hoof, he threw his hoof forward to knock…and proceeded to punch Shining Armor in the eye as the door opened.

Shining reacted about as well as could be expected, given the circumstances.

“Gah!” Shining Armor stumbled backwards, clenching a hoof over his eye in pain. “Again with the bucking eye!” Tripping over the coffee table, Shining fell back-down on the couch..

“Don’t worry, it’ll feel better when it quits hurting.” Dick move, but it had to be said.

“Seriously though, sorry about that, Shining. Didn’t expect the door to open mid-knock.”

“Gah, I’ll live…” Shining rubbed his eyes which had begun watering. “Second time that’s happened today” Shining explained, “Flash Sentry got a cheap-shot in earlier during training.”

Barrier’s mind flashed back to the orange pegasus he had left in charge of razing the thestral camp all those years ago - one of his descendants perhaps?

“Here, lemme help you up.” Barrier trotted over to the couch.

Apparently, Barrier hadn't regained full coordination and fell forwards onto the coffee table as he moved to help Shining Armor up; this, of course, resulted in him falling forward, collapsing on top of Shining Armor.

"Mom, Dad, I'm home!" The front door opened to reveal a lavender unicorn.

"Are you home?" She yelled out before her eyes slowly gazed to the couch, her eyes widening and jaw dropping.

"Twily, this isn't what it looks like!" Shining called out; he and Barrier were pressed barrel-to-barrel, with Magic Barrier on top.

The opportunity was too great.

“Oh, who are we fooling Shiny, darling.” Barrier turned to Twilight with a perfectly straight expression. “This is exactly what it looks like, Twilight. Your brother and I have fallen madly in love and are gay together.” Even after the delivery, Barrier maintained a serious expression.

“It’s true.” A melodic voice chimed in. “As the princess of love, I can promise that what they have is truly special.” Cadance sounded downcast as she spoke, only briefly throwing a glance at Barrier.

“It means the world to me that you’d say that Ca-”

“Oh get off me!” Shining grunted and rolled Barrier off of the couch.

“Oh Shiny, I didn’t know you wanted to be the dominant one…all you had to do was ask darling, I don’t mind taking turns…” Barrier spoke shyly and put on what could only be described as a ‘come hither’ face.

Cadance couldn’t take it; she collapsed in laughter pounding a hoof on the floor.

Twilight couldn’t speak; her eyes seemed to have rolled back into her head as if she had passed out standing up; seeing this only made Cadance laugh harder.

With a loud sigh, Shining pressed a hoof to his face. “I hope you get hit by a chariot.” He made his way over to his little sister. “Twily, wake up!” Shining shook her slightly, getting no response. “Twily!” Shining raised his voice this time and began to shake his sister like it was his job.

“I promise I won’t tell mom and dad I caught you having intercourse on their couch!” Twilight suddenly blurted out, causing Shining to flush red and face-hoof again, this time with both hooves.

Barrier, while not doing so loudly like Cadance, was tearing up inside; he was doubled over, practically dry-heaving as he tried to control himself.

“Shining did what on our couch?!” Twilight Velvet’s voice came from the kitchen.

As Velvet’s voice rang out, Night Light came downstairs, raising an eyebrow as he took in scene.

Shining had both hooves pressed firmly against his face, Twilight was as red as a tomato, Cadance…he wasn’t actually sure if she was breathing or not, and Magic Barrier appeared to be dry-heaving like a cat with a hairball caught in its throat. Just a typical day in the Sparkle household.

After things had calmed down and Cadance was breathing again, her and Twilight both ran up, commencing an adorable little dance. It brought a slight smile to Barrier’s face. With a careful smile, he turned to Shining Armor.

“Shining…”

“No.”

“Oh come on! We could make that look badass!”

“No.”

“I’ll tell your mom you broke up with Cadance to pursue a relationship with me.”

Shining’s frown deepened and with a resigned sigh, nodded. “Fine, but this never leaves this room!”

Dinner had turned out excellent; it was an Artichoke and Mushroom Lasagna and easily the best thing that Barrier had eaten since his return. He couldn’t help but groan slightly for the first few bites, much to the amusement of the other ponies at the table.

“So, Twilight.” Barrier began, setting his fork down “I have to apologize.”

Twilight swallowed the food in her mouth and turned to Barrier, the question clearly written across her face.

“I had your blood-sample ran without asking you beforehand. When I saw your cutie-mark, I asked the princess to do some research for me, to see if we were related. She commented that it’d be much easier to simply run a blood-test. After figuring out what a blood-test was, I convinced her to convince Doctor Horse to run the test without consent, and for that, I apologize.”

None of the other ponies at the table seemed particularly bothered; they all knew how Twilight would react.

“That’s all?” Twilight didn’t seem particularly perturbed. “I’m not happy that you went behind my back to do it, but I understand why you did it.” she explained. “and besides that, I kind of thought we might be related already.” she pointed at his exposed flank. “When you looked at my cutie-mark, I decided to check the copy of your cutie-mark they had filed at the hospital.” she admitted. “It seemed like too much of a coincidence that you, Shining, and myself would all have an arcane star prominently featured in our cutie-marks.”

“Well, alrighty then. In that case, I’m your great-great--great-great-great-” he stopped and inhaled, “great-great grandfather. Give or take a few greats” Taking another bite of food, he groaned softly and dinner proceeded normally.

Dinner proceeded without incident, Twilight asking questions about the different styles of magic used back then. Barrier had expected her to be curious -Night Light had said she was “studious”, which he had suspected from the few times he met her in the hospital. but this was something else; the way she devoured anything he told her was mildly frightening. Eventually, she brought up the topic of combat-magic, which caused Barrier to fall silent.

“What do you mean you won’t tell me?” Twilight pestered; she had asked about what kind of combat-based spells they used one-thousand years ago and he had suddenly clammed up. Even her brother had turned away uncomfortably.

“Some things are better left forgotten Twilight. Combat-magic served a whole different purpose one-thousand years ago, and that’s all I’ll say on it.”

“Just let it go Twily, trust me…it’s not something we need to know.

Shining had given Barrier a rough idea of the guards’ training regimen. These days, the extent of combat-magic was a variety of stun-spells and non-lethal methods to subdue their target. In his days, it was a few methods to subdue various creatures and a whole host of how to effectively kill the creatures in question. A handful of unicorns had excelled at those techniques; it was rare to have powerful unicorns, but even rarer to have powerful unicorns with surgical-precision control over their magic. Barrier and a few others could go so far as to snip arteries without ever laying a hoof on their opponent. Such abilities had no place in current-day Equestria.

“While I can’t tell you about our combat-magic, I can tell you about this.”

With a flash of his horn, Barrier was holding a silver chain in his hoof, an arcane star--similar to their cutie marks- from the center.

“This, is a family heirloom. As far back as I can remember, we’ve always had a presence in the guard. My grandfather was a guard, my father was a guard, and I was a guard. This was given to me the day I passed the entrance exam.” Barrier floated the necklace above the table, in plain sight.

“And it absorbs and retains magic.”

“That’s not possible.” Twilight argued almost instantly. “Researchers have tried to store magic in all kinds of metals and gems for hundreds of year. The energy ALWAYS dissipates in an hour or so.”

“Afraid I don’t know anything about that, but I know for a fact that this trinket retains magic. I used it first-hand during the Nightmare Wars.” What he didn’t say was that he had used to kill the supporters of Nightmare Moon by the dozens, stopping hearts and scrambling brains equally.

“It also, rightfully belongs to you.” Barrier levitated it over to Shining Armor.

“I can’t take this.” Shining began as the necklace hung itself snugly around his neck. “Twily could make much better use of this than I can.”

“Perhaps,” a slight smile “but Twilight already has a powerful artifact in the forms of the Elements. Take the necklace, Shining, and trust me when I say, one day you will need it. Until then, store every spare ounce of energy you can into it. I did the same once, and if I hadn’t, we very well may not be here today. Only because of that little trinket was I able to stand up to Nightmare Moon and help the princess banish her. And,” Barrier turned to Twilight “both princesses already tried to replicate the metal and understand how it works to no avail, so it’d only be a waste of your time.” Twilight visibly deflated.

“I uh…thanks, I guess.” Shining wasn’t really sure what to say. All he could was hold the little star in his hoof and trace the patterns etched into it with his eyes.

“Well, mares and gentlecolts.” Barrier climbed off of the couch. “It’s been wonderful, but I have a train to catch.”

“A train? You’re leaving Canterlot?” Shining stood up as well.

“Are you coming back to Ponyville?” Twilight asked, crestfallen when he shook his head. “I got a decent sum of money from the princess for service to the crown. I’m going to move to Manehattan for the time being. I need to go somewhere that I can be left alone. I’ve still got a lot to think about.”

“Why don’t you stay in Canterlot? All you have to do is ask and we’d all give you your space.” Twilight offered.

“Honestly, it’s because of the princess. Luna, mind you, not Celestia. While I know she wasn’t entirely responsible for Nightmare Moon, I’m having a hard time telling my heart that…I just don’t think I could be comfortable in the same city as her. I lost everything because of Nightmare Moon, and while I don’t regret what I did, it still, and probably always will, hurt.”

Standing in the doorway, he turned to face his family one final time, “See you when I see you.” and walked away to the train-station and Manehattan.

Author's Notes:

Here we are. Next chapter. Please don't beat me.

So, my tags are all fuxed up at this point. This story didn't go the direction I had planned and I'm not entirely sure what direction I want to take this train-wreck. Til then, I'll leave them as-is, but know they may change. Hell if I know; my brain is full of [insert vulgar word here].

Thanks To:
Jack For again pushing me [not at gunpoint, honest] to do this story.
Havokwithak for keeping me company [again at a stupid early hour] while I drudged through this.
Izanagi for the editing. Also for not reporting me to my parole for sexual harassment.