About Barricade

When I write stories that share continuity I tend to go over older stories a lot just to make sure that I don't goof and say something in the new stories that contradicts the older ones. I've recently reread the Time Keeper and feel I need to apologize a little about my character Barricade.

Just in case you have not read the story, I'll put this under a break.

I think I made it too confusing what he was all about and as I discussed in the comments, should have split this story into two different ones, or better yet maybe just had it a little bit longer to further delve into Barricade's history with his brother and his friends and why he was making such a convoluted plan just to scare them from messing into his business.

I fault this on that I've so far only played a version of Barricade in private RPGs with few friends of mine and this was the first time I put him in a story setting, everything around him was pretty much brand new, even his name. Only his daughter Cara also hailed from the RPs.

Why I decided to have him the father of Dinky, was simply because it fit with his characterization in the RP. He's a womaniser (Mareaniser?) and has a lot of foals with various mares he's had one night stands with, he's a bit of an idiot when it comes to remembering that sex does not just carry the risk of sexual transmitted diseases but also the possibility of eleven month commitment (eleven since that's roughly how long horses and ponies carry) I wanted a jerk to be the father of Dinky and Barricade was hanging around in my head with nothing to do, so I used him.

I've said it before but I'll say it again, if I had started writing the Time Keeper now, it would have been a much different story.

So if anybody was too confused what Barricade was trying to do, I can hopefully clear it up here. But the idea was pretty much, he was being for the most part an idiot. He had finally finished establishing himself as the top dog in Hoofington Manehattan but worried that his brother Private and his roommates, Foxy and Dew would stick their muzzles into his business, (they have done it before).

So to test that theory he made the false concern about Derpy, knowing that she got visits from the social office run by one Swift Mane (someone who didn't appear in the story but someone who Barricade also had to deal with in the past) . Swift Mane knows this can't be right and figures he'll just send the two ponies who have dealt with Barricade before, Foxy and Dew to talk with Derpy. When Foxy and Dew become wise to this, they naturally contact Private, (Barricade's brother) to go to see if Barricade has finally lost all his marbles.

Barricade at this point figures some of Derpy's friends if not Derpy herself will come and is not disappointed when Turner and Caramel arrive and puts on a bit of a show for them. Then of course Private arrives which immediately tells Barricade that yes, his brother and his friends are going to be sticking their muzzles into his business the moment they think he's causing trouble. So he sets his next plan into motion, preparing to scare them off.

Of course Barricade's whole plan hinges on that all three of them, Private, Foxy and Dew come to Manehattan to confront him and he figures that is what is happening when Foxy and Derpy arrive in Manehattan, guessing mostly already that Dew and Private can't be far behind. So when the mares leave the apartment, he isn't far behind, with his henchponies , shadowing them until as he has guessed correctly they all meet and so he puts his scare plan into motion.

Of course he didn't count on Tango to come to the rescue and didn't quite expect Private to blow his lid off at him. Barricade has a bit of a warped view on how things work and actually thought his brother and roommates would just flee Manehattan with the tails between their legs.

Sounds convoluted? That's because it is, I'm already seeing I should have fine tuned Barricade plans first before putting it into action. I blame long writing time on this. But I at least hope I've somewhat managed to clear up what I was trying to do with Barricade.

I've by now just dumped him down to the local thug leader in Hoffington as seen in the story Tango and will be seen also in the actual sequel to In the Broad Daylight.

Although if you want to see him get some doze of reality how a real villain works, he'll be squirming soon in Possession in the Crystal Empire