//------------------------------// // Chapter 18 - Love & Learning // Story: A Pony Displaced: Homeward // by NoLongerSober //------------------------------// Young Wind Whistler looked nervously at the small building before her. In front of it was a white fence and a bunch of foals merrily playing and chatting amongst themselves before the bell rang. “There’s no need to be nervous, Wind Whistler.” The voice of her mother drew her attention away from the children and to the three adults at her side. “I’m certain you’ll be fine.” “You’re a pretty smart filly, so I don’t think your schoolwork will be too hard for you,” Barrier chipped in as he scanned the premises. “Besides, I think I see that Crispy Wings colt you play with, so you’ll have at least one friend when you get there.” “And if you ever have any trouble with your homework,” the disguised Daring said as she came up to Barrier’s side. “Just give me a shout and I’ll try to help you figure it out.” She smirked as she adjusted her glasses. “Just one of the perks of living with a professor.” Wind Whistler looked back towards the school, her gaze focused on the myriad of foals she’d soon be calling her classmates. “You’re all sure I’ll be alright?” she nervously inquired as she looked to her mother once more. “Of course, my dear.” Fleetfeather gave her filly a nuzzle before pulling back. “And remember what your father and I taught you. If somepony tries to start a fight with you…” “Always go for the jugular!” the filly happily responded, drawing a nervous chuckle from Daring. “Uh… I’m pretty sure that’s a bad idea these days. It’d probably be better to get a teacher to try to help you. You would get in a lot of trouble if you tried that on school grounds,” she said and kept her eye on the filly, who was now rather puzzled. “So…” Wind Whistler tilted her head. “If somepony tries to hurt me at school, I should try to run and get a teacher to help me?” “Yes.” Daring nodded, making the filly’s face start to light up. “And if it’s not on school grounds, then I can go for the jugular!” Wind Whistler happily added, making the professor blanch and Barrier suppress a chortle. “Um… Well… that’s a bit of a gray area… I guess…” Daring tried to answer before a voice shouted out from the yard. “Hey! Wind Whistler!” the colt known as Crispy Wings shouted out as he stood by the fence. “C’mon! School might start soon, so you should try to get what playtime you can before the bell rings!” “One second!” she called back, “I need to make sure I’m ready one last time!” “Okay!” the colt responded before heading off to chat with some of the other children. “Alright.” Wind Whistler turned back to quickly examined her saddlebags. “Pencils, paper, erasers, rulers, books, lunch,” she muttered as she quickly examined her supplies. “I put a muffin in there for you, banana and chocolate chip,” Fleetfeather added in as her daughter closed up her bags. “Thanks, Mom,” Wind Whistler gave her mother a quick nuzzle. “I hope you have a good day, dear,” Fleetfeather spoke before giving her child a gentle nudge with her nose. “Right.” Taking a brief instant to steel herself, Wind Whistler began to trot towards the school. As she reached the fence, she looked back and gave the trio of adults a wave and called out, “Bye Mom, bye Dad… I mean, bye Uncle Barrier! Bye Aunt Yearling!” The three adults happily returned the wave, though Barrier had a slight blush on his face and Daring was giving him a raised eyebrow. Once Wind Whistler was past the fence, the orange colt quickly ran up to meet her. “Alright, you’re here. C’mon, we should have just enough time for a game of tether—” Crispy was quickly cut off as the school bell rang out and the front doors opened. “Come along, children, it’s time to start class!” a mare called out from the entrance, drawing groans from nearly all the children present. “Aw shoot. Well, we’d better head inside,” Crispy said before Wind Whistler and himself headed up the steps to the door. From the top of the stairs, Wind Whistler briefly looked back at her mother and smiled before she headed into class. As the school doors closed, Fleetfeather let out a sigh. Barrier drew closer and put a foreleg around Fleet's shoulder. “Don’t worry, Fleet. I’m sure she’ll be fine,” he said before slowly pulling her away. “I know,” she said without drawing her eye away from the ground. “It still feels odd to me.” She raised her head to look Barrier in the eye. “After all we’ve been through, being by her side so much after the last two months… it’s hard to let her go…” “I know, Fleet.” Barrier gave her a nod and pulled her closer. “It’s no wonder you worry about her so much.” “Hey guys,” Daring piped up as she drew closer to the pair. “Let’s head over to the Four D’s. We’ll get some lunch and then shoot the breeze.” Before Barrier could interject, Fleetfeather’s stomach let out an audible growl that was soon joined by Barrier’s as well. “Well, I guess that settles that… Hmm… say have either of you ever tried bacon?” *** The trio had reached the restaurant and were guided to their table by a grinning Drumstick. As they took their seats and glanced at the menus placed before them, Daring coughed into her hoof. “What’s wrong, dear?” Barrier asked as he and Fleet looked at her. “It’s not really something wrong, but something I would like to discuss, and it involves the three of us,” she said as she adjusted her glasses slightly. “What is it, Da… Miss Yearling? Whatever it is, I want to help,” Fleet replied as she placed a hoof on Daring’s, quickly followed by Barrier doing the same. “No matter what, I’m here for you.” Barrier smiled before leaning in and giving Daring a quick nuzzle. “Alright. Might as well get down to business then.” Daring took a deep breath. “Over the last little while, I’ve been noticing that the two of you have started to become… closer, possibly interested in each other.” “What are you talking about?” Barrier responded with shock decorating face his while Fleetfeather was dumbstruck. “I haven’t the foggiest idea of what you mean,” Fleet added in, not noticing how her eye was twitching ever so slightly. “Guys, c’mon,” Daring sighed and pulled her hooves back. “I’ve see how the two of you act sometimes. You’re more than just friends to each other.” The pair looked at each other, uncertain of how to respond to Daring’s revelation. “I want you two to know that I’m not mad or anything, but there is something I want to make clear.” “And… what would that be?” Barrier drew closer, nervous and uncertain. “If you two want to start herding, I’d be willing to give it a shot,” Daring casually answered. “Still, even if you don’t, I feel that since we’re all living together, we should all be honest with each other about our feelings.” “I…” Barrier was shocked by what Daring had proposed. “I… I’m not sure where you got this idea, Dari...Darling, but…” He paused. Before now, he hadn’t truly considered how he had felt about Fleetfeather. She had been someone he had known since his days as a cadet. He was present for her marriage to his best friend and the birth of her second child. He had seen her as a close friend for many a year. Looking back at some of their more recent interactions however made him realise that something had seemed to change about their connection over the time they had been living in Vanhoover. “I do admit Fleet is a kind and attractive mare, but I’m not certain about herding. It just… wasn’t really something that appealed to me. That was more of my brother’s thing.” “My feelings on the matter are somewhat similar, my friends. Both of you are friends I am rather close to. You are both rather attractive ponies, and you’ve been wonderful to Wind Whistler.” Fleetfeather ran a hoof through her mane as a small smile graced her muzzle and she turned to face Barrier. “She even referred to you as father by accident earlier today.” She turned once more to face Daring, “And she has never referred to another pony as ‘auntie’ before. Still…” Her gaze shifted downward. “It… it’s still too soon for me to consider seeking a pony to be romantically involved with. Flash has only been gone for less than a year for the two of us. While I have no objections against herding and even once considered proposing herding with Silver Rain… now’s not the right time for me… I’m sorry…” Shortly Fleet felt a comforting hoof being placed upon her shoulder, her gaze shifting up to see Daring with an understanding look on her face. “Hey, it’s no problem at all, Fleet. I just wanted to toss this out there because… well, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be here.” Daring’s words made Fleet and Barrier’s eyes shoot open, and soon the mistake dawned on Daring. “Wait, let me rephrase that. That sounded a lot more fatal than I meant it to.” “Well please tell us what you did mean.” Barrier slid out of his chair and came up to Daring’s side, concern written all over his face as he placed a hoof on her shoulder. “What I meant was after hanging out with you guys, I’ll probably have to go out on another adventure to fetch some lost treasure or lend my archaeological expertise to help out with some such stuff.” Daring looked Barrier in the eye and she rubbed a hoof along his cheek. “Plus I’ve almost finished writing my next book, and Velvet always insists I drop those off in person, so that’s at least one trip to Canterlot I’ll have to take care of.” “I see...” Barrier placed a hoof on top of hers as he stared deeply into her magenta eyes. “Didn’t I tell you that at some point, I’d tag along with you the next time you went on one of those crazy adventures of yours?” Daring looked away from Barrier and withdrew her hoof. “I know.” She then let out a sigh, “But Wind Whistler and all the others… you’re pretty much a family already and I don’t want to separate you guys.” She chuckled as she faced Barrier again. “Plus if you didn’t stay there, I’m pretty sure one of them would set the house on fire.” Her statement drew laughs from all three of them. Taking back his seat and wiping a tear from his eyes, Barrier settled down. “Well, I figure Forge built his little smithing shack far enough away from the house to not be a problem.” He brought his hoof up to his chin, “but with either him or Winter in the kitchen… yeah, you’re probably right.” The conclusion of his sentence heralded Drumstick’s return to take their orders. *** After partaking in a hearty meal and seeing the various sights Vanhoover had to offer, the trio eventually returned to the front of the school. A few minutes had passed before the bell rang and a collection of foals started to flood out of the school. Fleetfeather smiled widely as she spotted her daughter chatting happily amongst several foals. The blue filly soon separated from her new friends and gave them a wave. “Bye Melony, bye Shutterbug, bye Crispy!” she called out as she was breaking off from the gaggle of foals by her side, “I’ll see you tomorrow!” She happily dashed off towards her mother and gave her a cheerful nuzzle. “Well my dear,” Fleetfeather said as the four of them set off for their home, with Wind Whistler hopping and fluttering with every step, “I assume you had a good first day at your new school?” “Aye, Mother!” Wind Whistler happily called out. “Ms. Schoolbag was a very nice teacher, and Crispy introduced me to some other ponies he knew at recess.” She wistfully sighed. “I can’t wait to see them again.” “Well you can look forward to seeing them every Monday through Friday, Wind Whistler,” Daring spoke up as they approached the front gate of their home. “Plus you’ll probably able to spend some time with them on the weekends.” She nudged the gate open, a slight creak screeching out as it swung open. “At any rate,” Barrier said as he looked upon the smiling filly, “I’m glad you had such a great time and—” He found himself cut off as shouting and screams came from the back yard. “I need covering fire!” Hat Trick’s voice echoed out. “I’ve you cov-ARGH!” Winter Gem screamed. Reacting quickly, Barrier grabbed Wind Whistler with his magic and placed her on Daring’s back. “Keep her safe. If Fleet and I aren’t back in two minutes, run.” Without another word, he turned and took off like a shot, Fleetfeather flying by his side. When they reached the house’s western back corner, Barrier stood by its edge, hearing more shouts coming from his young charges. Quickly looking around the corner, he was unable to spot anypony, save the yard’s small collection of trees, Verdant’s hobby garden, the garden house and Forge’s smithing shed. “Fleet, try to get a bird’s eye view from the roof. I’ll try to find out what’s going on from the ground level,” he whispered without giving her a glance. “Faust have mercy on whoever’s out there, they’re going to regret hurting my kids.” “Good luck, Barrier,” she wished before flying upwards. Taking a steady breath, Barrier charged out into the yard. “Incoming!” Verdant’s voice shouted out just Barrier spotted a trio of projectiles quickly entering his periphery. Quickly igniting his horn, a wall of magical energy rose up to shield Barrier from the incoming shots. The shots struck the mystical field, exploding against it in a large cascade of water. “Time out! Time out!” He heard Winter Gem’s voice cry out as he slowly opened his eyes. Looking around, he saw a quartet of damp ponies consisting of two unicorns and two earth ponies, each carrying saddlebags filled to the brim with bright and colorful balloons that were full of water, as well as several scraps of rubber by his hooves in front of the shield. “Privates,” Barrier said, trying to keep his tone calm and hide his anger. “What in the name of Zacherle is going on here?” “Well,” Verdant nervously scratched his chin and looked away from Barrier. “You’ve said for a while that we should probably try to live a little and enjoy the peaceful times we have?” “Aye,” he replied, trying to look as serious as he looked at the damp former cadets. “And I seem to recall you once speaking of how we did not have much of what modern ponies would consider a childhood?” Swiftsword added. “Yeah…” Barrier said as he spotted Fleetfeather, Wind Whistler and a now disguiseless Daring coming from around the far corner of the house. “So, I talked to the others and we decided that we’d try having a water-balloon fight.” Winter Gem concluded, her eyes focused on the ground. “Alright,” Barrier said with as he took a calming breath. “But where’s Hat Tr-” he was silenced when a water balloon from above came crashing onto his head, leaving him soaked. While all the ponies on the ground gave either muffled or unmuffled chortles, Barrier glared upwards, spotting a purple pegasus with a large grin on his face. “Death from above, sir!” Hat Trick said as held his sides and laughed aloud. “Forge,” Barrier growled, “do you have any more bags of balloons?” “Yes sir. They’d need to be filled, but there’s plenty by the hose.” Forge gulped, “Might I ask why you wished to know?” “Simple.” Barrier stepped towards the hose, “We’re gonna have another game with all of us.” He then looked back all at the present ponies with a grin, “and by the time I’m through with all of you, you’ll think you’re at the bottom of the Luna Ocean!” he said coyly as he spotted the bag of balloons and reached for one, only to feel another balloon strike the back of his head. Swiftly turning around, he spotted Fleetfeather sporting a wicked grin as she pulled a balloon from Winter Gem’s bag. Barrier laughed as his horn lit up, turning on the water and pulling a balloon from the bag, his gaze narrowing as he flashed a wicked grin of his own back at her. “Game on!”