//------------------------------// // Chapter 69 - The Switcheroo Spell (Part 3) // Story: A Pony Displaced: Homeward // by NoLongerSober //------------------------------// Barrier yawned tiredly as he stumbled into the kitchen. He bumped into a chair before pulling it out and taking a seat at the table. “Morning, Barrier.” The charcoal unicorn was somewhat surprised by the voice that came from the stove. Rubbing the sleep from his tired eyes, he saw that the one preparing breakfast was Fleetfeather.  “Morning, Fleet,” Barrier stretched his neck to try and shake some stiffness out of it. “I’m a bit surprised to see you cooking breakfast.” “Well, since Verdant isn’t here and I didn’t want take out or pancakes, I decided to cook up some omelets stuffed with some diced peppers and bacon bits,” Fleet replied as a set of steps approached the table. Daring Do pulled up with Wind Whistler by her side.  “Fair enough,” Barrier turned his attention to the golden pegasus. “How’s progress with the spell book?” “Well, I’d say I’m about halfway through the book, so I’m bound to run across it eventually.” Daring covered her mouth to drown out a yawn. “I’m taking notes on every single one of the spells I try out so other researchers won’t have to go through the trial and error process all over again.” “You’d think whoever made this spell book would have just written this in plain Equish.” Trixie said from the living room before making her way into the kitchen. “It’s not that simple.” Daring shot the cerulean mare a glare as she took a seat at the table. “Magic Star was an earth pony who somehow managed to craft a magical wand in the days before the pony tribes were all unified.” “An earth pony who was a sorceress?” Trixie raised an eyebrow to the bespectacled pegasus. “That sounds like the tripe you’d see in those foalish Daring Do books.” Barrier had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing at the glare Trixie was getting. He was fairly certain that if Daring glared any harder, Trixie’s head would have caught fire. “At any rate,” Daring said through tightly clenched teeth. “What she wrote this in is a written language from before the tribes unified and shared their literature and writing systems. It’s literally older than Old Equish. To make things worse, the descriptions for the spells are pretty badly faded as well. I don’t really even know for sure what each spell does until I try it out.” “I’m honestly just surprised the book is as intact as it is,” Barrier spoke up as Fleet started to put some plates full of food around the table. Her timing seemed to be perfect as Hatty and Gem came in from upstairs while Swiftsword arrived from the back yard. Barrier levitated a filled pot of coffee over and filled everypony’s cups as they sat down and tucked in. “Hey Gem,” Windy said between bites of her omelet. “Could you do me a favor tonight?” “Sure. What would you like me to do?” Gem asked as she took a seat beside Hatty and Barrier, the latter slowly starting to sip his morning brew. “Could you please pipe down when you and Hatty screw?” The filly’s statement caused Barrier to chuckle while Trixie spat her coffee across the table. “I don’t wanna know what you did before to be quiet, but you woke me up last night, Miss Sixty-Second Stallion!” Winter Gem’s entire body turned crimson as she slowly dipped under the table in embarrassment. “Wind Whistler,” Swiftsword said as she tried to mask a hint of disgust in her tone. “Please don’t discuss such things while we’re trying to eat.” “But Swift, you saw how funny the looks on Trixie and Gem’s faces were,” Windy pleaded, drawing a chuckle from Fleetfeather. “While it was funny, Swift is right that you shouldn’t discuss such things while ponies are trying to have breakfast.” Fleet patted her daughter gently on the head as the sound of the front door opening and singing reached their ears, drawing everypony’s attention. “—and I’ll get there, I swear! With the wind in my hair!” Verdant elegantly sang as he approached the breakfast table. “Morning, everypony.” “You do know that your singing might bother the neighbors, right?” Barrier’s eyebrow rose as Verdant took a seat. “Especially at this early hour?” “And yet, despite all the morning sparring sessions and other such things, we have not heard a single peep from any neighbors.” Verdant grinned as he leaned against the table. “I’m willing to bet that if we actually have neighbors, they either have some sort of sound proofing or they don’t care.” Barrier merely rolled his eyes at Verdant’s remark. It was then the charcoal pony noticed something amiss with Verdant’s appearance. “Is there something different about your muzzle?” “Oh yeah.” Verdant brought a hoof to his muzzle, giving the underside a quick tap. “I wasn’t fond of the sort of gradient transition between the green and the white my muzzle had, so I had Color Splash change it to a more solid break in the colors.” “I’d say it looks quite nice on you, my friend,” Swift said before taking another bite of her omelet. “Thanks, Swift.” The emerald green pony smiled. “By the way, Erica and I were thinking of hosting a karaoke session later tonight at this place in something called The Midnight Mall. Any of you’d like to join in?” While most of Verdant’s housemates said that they would gladly join, Barrier and Daring politely declined. “Sorry, I’m still trying to get through the pages of the book to get us back to normal,” Daring answered as she and Barrier rose from the table. “And I’m not really much of a singer.” Barrier stood up from the table. “At any rate, I’m gonna go for a nice long walk. Do we need anything while I’m out?” “Not to my knowledge,” Fleet said before rising from her seat and opening the fridge. After a moment of contemplation, she shut it. “Nope.” “Alright,” Barrier said as he placed his saddlebags on his back with a flare of his horn. “Be sure to invite Forge when one of you sees him. Take care.” *** A few hours later, Barrier’s walk was drawing to a close. He had decided to rent a couple of movies to have playing in the background for when he’d read his books. When he opened the manor door, a feminine voice reached Barrier’s ears. “Hey Barrier, perfect timing!” Daring said as she charged towards him. She was smiling from ear to ear. The onyx unicorn could tell it was because her body had been restored to her normal feminine form. “I found the counterspell less than five minutes ago! You ready to get changed back?” “For the love of Faust, yes!” Barrier said as he drew closer. “I’d like to get back to my old self A.S.A.P.” “You’ve got it.” Daring winked before pointing the wand towards him. “Uthos Corporis Invertendo Brickenblaxen!” The star of the wand began glowing a bright white. The light grew brighter and brighter until it consumed the entire room. Soon the light faded and Barrier’s eyes started adjusting to the daylight once more. “Testing, testing,” Barrier said before letting out a sigh of relief. His normal voice had been restored. Looking down between his legs, he saw another integral part of his body was also fully restored. “Oh, thank Zacherle.” “Right, now that this has been taken care of, what’s next on today’s agenda?” Daring asked as Barrier’s horn started to glow. “First off,” Barrier vanished from in front of Daring and found himself in the living room, where he found Trixie stretched out on the couch while eating some chips. He smirked as his horn lit up and picked the mare from her spot.  “Wait, what’s going on?!” Trixie exclaimed as she flailed her forelegs futilely in the air.  “We’re going to the bank right now to pay you off so your stay is over.” Barrier set her down on her hooves before placing her hat and cape on her back. “Fine,” she grumbled as she adjusted her hat. “Just let Trixie have a few minutes to gather her things.” “We leave in five minutes,” Barrier responded with a nod as Daring entered the room. “While I’m taking care of her, could you try to find the others and turn them back?” “Sure thing,” Daring replied as she slid the wand into her saddlebags. “Once everypony’s back to normal, I’ll send this right off to Canterlot to be taken care of.” “Alright,” Barrier gave her a smile as she started for the door. “You ready yet, Trixie?” *** Less than an hour later, Barrier let out a sigh of relief as he strolled out of the bank and tossed a bag of bits towards the cerulean mare. “Here you go, you insufferable mare.” Trixie managed to catch the bag of bits in her magic. She quickly opened up the small sack and counted the coins. “Very well. Your debt to The Great and Powerful Trixie has been repaid.” I’d argue with interest, considering how much food you managed to put away. Where you keep all that mass, I have no idea. Barrier rolled his eyes as Trixie slipped the bag into her cape. “With this, the Great and Powerful Trixie bids you adieu!” Trixie tossed down a smoke bomb that filled his vision. Once the smoke cleared, he spotted Trixie running down the street. She managed to get nearly five yards before she tripped and fell on her face. “Fuck!” she yelled before taking off once more.  Barrier let out a small chuckle and started to walk away when a small unicorn filly came from around a corner with a sandwich in her magical aura. When she spotted the stallion, she quickly charged towards him with a smile on her face.  “Hi, Mr. Barrier!” The familiar filly that was High Stakes skidded to a halt in front of him. “It’s nice to see you’re back to normal.” “And it’s a bit surprising to see you out of school when it’s about a quarter to one.” Barrier noted after a quick glance to a nearby clock.  “My Mom-Two’s visiting, so she took me out to lunch.” Stakes then took another bite of her sandwich.  “Mom-Two?” Barrier was utterly perplexed by what she said. “What’s a—” “High Stakes, where’d you go?” A familiar voice reached Barrier’s ears. A moment later, he was rather surprised by the sight that came from around the corner.  It was Starshine, but she wasn’t carrying her mane in her usual ponytail. Instead she had let her hair loosely flow down along her right shoulder. In her magic was a sub sandwich and a small juice box. “Over here, Mom-Two!” Stakes excitedly waved the unicorn mare over. “I was talking to my best friend’s uncle!” When Starshine spotted Barrier beside the filly, she seemed to tense a little before trotting over. “High Stakes, I told you not to run off like this before.” She sternly said to the smaller unicorn. “You’re lucky that Barrier’s a decent pony.” Decent pony? Barrier was taken aback by her backhoofed compliment which was oddly the nicest thing she ever said about him. “Sorry, Mom-Two.” Stakes scuffed the ground with her hoof as she found herself unable to face the golden grown-up. “I just heard Mr. Barrier talking and I wanted you to meet my friend’s uncle.” “Yes, well, we’ve already met.” Starshine let out a sigh as she floated the drink over to Stakes. “Here’s your strawberry juice, dear. Would you mind giving Barrier and I a moment to talk to each other?” “Okay!” Stakes cheerfully said before she started to drink down the juice. Starshine led Barrier a little bit away, but still made sure that High Stakes was still in her line of sight.  “Look, Barrier,” Starshine said with a sigh before looking him pleadingly in the eye. “Could we please not have our usual arguments in front of my daughter? I only get to see her on my days off and I don’t want to have her see me argue with somepony, especially a relative of her friend.” “I… see…” Barrier was rather surprised by what Starshine said. He’d never seen her act in a way towards him that he wouldn’t describe as antagonistic. “Of course. I’ve no doubt we’ll be able to get along for her sake.” “Thank you,” Starshine gave him a small smile before trotting back towards Stakes. “Come along, Stakes. We’ve got to get you back to school.” “Okay, Mom-Two!” Stakes replied before tossing the now empty box into a nearby recycling bin. “Say, can Mr. Barrier join us? I’ll bet he’ll wanna see if Windy’s back to normal.” “I’d say that sounds alright.” Starshine looked back over her shoulder to the charcoal stallion. Barrier made a slight nod and fell in line beside Starshine. Soon the trio of unicorns were walking away while Stakes continued to munch on her sandwich. “So,” Barrier decided to disrupt the silence that was previously only interrupted by a suppressed belch from the little filly. “Why does she call you Mom-Two?” “Because my other Mom got really mad that I used to call her, ‘Cool Mom’,” Stakes merrily replied as she hugged Starshine’s leg. “So I call them Mom-One and Mom-Two now.” “Yes, well, I’m an ovum donor,” Starshine said before patting the filly on her head with a smile. “I started doing it after high school to make some extra money for college and other expenses. Game O’Chance and Lucky Streak asked if I’d like to be in contact with them after High Stakes was born and I’ve been seeing her ever since.” “Hey, High Stakes!” A voice called out from a bit away. Looking to the source, the three spotted Wind Whistler, now restored to her normal self and standing on the school’s fence. “My uncle’s girlfriend swung by and broke the spell! Now I can pee normally again!” “Great to hear, Windy!” Stakes started to pull hard on Starshine’s leg as the school drew closer. “C’mon, Mom-Two! I want you to meet my best friend before recess is over!” “No problem, dear.” The golden mare picked up her pace a bit while Barrier teleported over to Wind Whistler’s side. “Hey, Kiddo. Glad to see this is taken care of.” Barrier gave the pegasus filly a quick hug. “Think we should get something special for dinner to celebrate this?” “Oh! Yes!” Windy bounced from her spot on the brick fence. “How about that Mexicolt pizza thing they’ve got at the Four D’s?” “Sure thing, Windy. Just hope you can handle that spice.” Barrier chuckled and lightly ruffled her mane. “See you after school, kiddo.” “Bye, Uncle!” Wind Whistler waved to him before he started to pull away, just as Starshine and High Stakes arrived at the school. *** A few hours later, after reading some of his recently borrowed books, Barrier decided to head out once more. Wind Whistler’s choice of dinner would be a nice change of pace and a good way for the household to celebrate things starting to get back on track. The walk through Vanhoover was rather pleasant, despite the temperature starting to drop as the leaves started to change color. Barrier took a deep breath to savor the crisp, autumn air that mixed with the smell of sea water. It was rather pleasant and allowed the dark unicorn to feel more at ease than he’d been in a while. However, the relaxed stallion was snapped from his state when he spotted something soaring through the sky that made his blood turn to ice. Leaping off the roof of a building was an all-too-familiar large griffin hen with a midnight black coat and wings. There was no mistaking the image of the griffin that had nearly devoured him for anything else. “Grimhilde…” Barrier hissed to himself as she flew into an alleyway. Stealing himself, he lit his horn and teleported to the alley’s entryway. To his shock, there were only two things in the alleyway. One was a scraggly looking stallion that was cradling a nearly empty bottle of whiskey while he slept, and a dumpster with its lid down. Carefully stepping past the slumbering earth pony with his horn remaining ever ready, Barrier came to a halt in front of the metal receptacle. With only one moment to take a breath, Barrier’s aura engulfed the dumpster. Straining heavily, the dumpster rose into the air and tilted. He quickly lifted the lid off to see inside. To Barrier’s shock, the dumpster was empty, save for a few scraps of wet paper that were sitting at the bottom. “What the… how?” Barrier wondered before tilting the dumpster back and letting his aura dissipate. The heavy metal container landed with a hard thunk that roused the sleeping pony.  “Eh, what the hay’s going on?!” he said as he cradled the whiskey bottle close to his chest. “Have you…” Barrier huffed. Lifting the dumpster took more out of him than he’d expected. “Seen a black griffin recently?” “Black griffin?” the earth pony echoed as he scratched his ear. “Ain’t seen a black griffin since the last time I saved up enough to pay the porno theater a visit.” “Alright,” Barrier said as he started to exit the alley. Looking up, he couldn’t see any ladders, landings or anything in the alley that could have landed on that would have allowed Grimhilde to hide. There’s no way she could have flown back up. I got here too quickly and the angle she entered the alley from was too low. When Barrier emerged from the alley and started on his way back towards the Four D’s, a thought occurred to him. This is the fourth time I’ve thought I’d seen Grimhilde… He began to think to himself, eyes scanning his surroundings with a newfound alertness. They’ve nearly all been in a city Starshine was also in. A frown crossed his muzzle. She was in Ponyville when I spotted her on Nightmare Night. She’s in town the day I spot Grimhilde again. And when I spotted Grimhilde after the Discord incident, she was most likely on guard duty in Canterlot. The only exception was that rainy night… but what if... Barrier let out of a harsh sigh as he continued to walk through the city streets.  “Calm down, Barrier. You’re starting to sound paranoid,” he said to himself with a sense of exasperation as he continued onward.  Still, it is something to note. I won’t be caught off guard again.