“It’s nice to meet you.” Shining Armor said in a pleasant manner as he held out his foreleg for a hoof shake. Barricade bent over slightly before taking the stallions hoof in his hand, wrapping his fingers around the stallions hoof, and giving it a few shakes before releasing it.
“Sup.” the human said in a monotone voice as he stood up straight & showing that he stands twice as tall as the stallion.
“So what are you guys up to?” the stallion asked Twilight as she stood off to the side.
“Nothing much. We just finished having a little meeting with Celestia, and having a little lunch. Now though we were just wondering what we should do next.” Twilight rambled off the events that just occurred, though she did gloss over the fact that Blueblood tried to pull one of his little stunts. The less of that stallion that Twilight has to think about the better.
“Well in that case why not give your friend here a tour of the castle?” Shining suggested which caused the mare to perk up in excitement, while the human just quirked an eyebrow at the stallion.
“Oh that’s a great idea Shining! Why don’t you join us, we both can give him a tour, and I’m sure you’ll need to do your rounds around the castle anyway.”
“Two birds one stone. I like it Twi.” The stallion praised the mare before petting her on the head, causing Twilight to giggle cheerfully.
“What do you say Barricade, up for a little tour around the castle?” the young man thought for a moment before looking down at the smiling unicorn pair before nodding his head as he puts his hands in his coat pockets.
With that the duo began to lead Barricade through the castle, showing him various locations of the royal structure. From visiting and showing the human Twilight’s favorite place in the castle, the library, to showing him the grand hall where most court affairs take place, to even showing him the ceremonial hall where more theatrical events take place. The pair even brought Barricade to the grand ball room where they explain that this is where the majority of festive events take place. Next up on the little tour around the castle was the castle gardens, which so far got the most reaction from the human, he even commented that he was surprised that there was such a massive garden here. Especially considering that the castle is situated on a mountain.
Barricade’s surprise was increased when the siblings showed him the hedge maze, the nearby garden of virtues, and finally the part of the garden where all of the animals Celestia keeps reside. That part was particularly interesting for the ponies to watch as the animals gathered around Barricade, looking at him curiously as they circled him, though the human wasn’t as amused with the situation as he quickly left the garden and headed back to the castle. Re-entering the castle the ponies continued with their tour by showing Barricade the west wing of the castle, which acts as quarters for guest to rest & occupy when visiting the castle. Also in the west wing of the castle the ponies showed some of the private meeting rooms further down from the living rooms, this is where ponies and guest can talk amongst themselves without others accidently, or initially, overhearing. Or they just want to have personal time alone with one another.
Shining Armor even showed the human where the office quarters of all the most important ponies do most of their work, from the princesses own offices, to their secretaries. Shining Armor even showed Barricade his office that was further down the hallway that led to the east wing of the castle, which was off to the side of the training hall. Once the little party has entered the training hall, the group saw various collections of guards training and practicing their skills. From earth ponies wrestling with one another, bashing, and slamming into each other, and using staffs & shields to aide in their techniques. Pegasi were practicing aerial movements, and combat techniques not only on each other, but also against dummies for take down maneuvers. And finally the unicorns were practicing their spell crafting, from casting and countering each other’s spells and practicing their reaction times, while also using their magic to manipulate wooden weapons and shields.
“Your boys look like they’re putting in work.” Barricade remarked as he watched the various ponies go about their training exercises.
“And they make sure to always keep themselves in shape. One never knows when trouble will spring up, so the guards always have to be ready whenever trouble pops up.” Shining said with pride as he looks to his guards. While the trio watched the guards go about their training, Twilight then developed a curious expression as she then looked over to Barricade, her mind thinking back to seeing his bare body. And remembering how fit and fairly muscular he was.
“Barricade, do you train to keep yourself in shape?” she asked as she looked at Barricade directly, while he simply nodded his head.
“Back on earth most Un-Naturals try and keep themselves in shape, though its mostly out of necessity, rather than anything else than trying to stay in shape or fit.” Barricade responded with a solemn tone as he rubbed one of his shoulders.
“Because of the, state, of the world, most people will often times either run from Un-Naturals…or they try to fight them. and in the latter category sometimes we fight government goons, and their weapons specifically meant to tangle with us. so Un-Naturals always have to be in peak physical condition for such situations.” Both Shining and Twilight frowned as they heard Barricade speak about the plight of his kind back on his home world.
“Training also helps Un-Natural try and gain control over their powers, learning their limits, and see if there are any other changes to their body.” Shining Armor looked like he was about to say something, but was stopped when one of the guards shouted…
“LOOK OUT!” a mare cried out as the trio looked towards her, and saw a fairly large magical blast coming their way!
Before any of the ponies could even do anything, guards getting out of the way, to Shining Armor igniting his horn with magic, Barricade quickly swung out a hand and created a force field that surrounded the blast catching it in mid-air before it struck a group of earth ponies. As the projectile collided with the field’s interior it then exploded, causing the field to shimmer for a moment while its surface rippled, but otherwise remained intact. Once the magical blast phased out after detonation, Barricade brough his field down as he flexes his fingers.
“I am so sorry sir!” the group looked over to see the guard mare rush over to them with a stallion by her side.
“What happened?” Shining Armor asked the duo with a slightly stern & commanding tone of voice as the two ponies skid to a stop, and gave the stallion a salute as the other stallion spoke up.
“We were doing our usual magic training regimen, but I accidentally reflected the blast towards the others. I apologize for my negligence sir!”
“So long as you remember next time to be careful, I’ll let this slide.” Shining said to the pair who gave another salute while vocalizing that they would be careful from now on. After talking to the pair the stallion turned back to see his sister talking to the human, and sounds to be praising the humans skill in deploying his force field, which Barricade tried brushing off as nothing.
“I didn’t know you could use defensive magic Barricade?” the stallion remarked as he approached the pair.
“I can’t.” Barricade retorted which instantly confused the stallion, but that’s where Twilight pipped up to clarify things for her brother.
“Barricade doesn’t have magic Shining. He has a power that, kind of, acts like magic which allows him to create force fields. Kind of like you!” the stallion then wondered something as he looks up to the human.
“Mind showing me what your capable of Barricade? I’m curious to see what a human can do.” the young man thought for a moment, mulling the question over before looking down at the stallion.
“What exactly do you wanna see from my power?” the human asked.
“Twilight said that your powers is like my brand of magic. I specialize in using defensive spells, so I like to see how your power works.”
Barricade thought for some time before deciding why not, while also stating that it would be a good way to keep his own skills sharp as it has been a while since he’s practiced and trained with his power. Walking further into the training hall with Shining Armor the two made their way to the central area, where the guards all ceased their own training and moved out of the way to give them space, and simply wait to see what the two would do. even Twilight was curious as to what would happen that she joined the guards, standing off to the side and watch her brother take a stand at one end of the area, while Barricade stood on the other while he tosses his coat to the side before he starts doing some stretches. Once Barricade was done with his stretching, the ponies waited in anticipation to see what he will do, but instead of taking a battle ready stance Barricade just looked around himself for a moment, seemingly examining the combat arena before looking at Shining Armor.
“Does this training area have any safety features to ensure that no one outside of it will get harmed?”
“No unfortunately. Keeping up a protective field active around any of the fields to ensure no pony will get hurt during training, can be draining to any unicorn that casted the spell, and wouldn’t last for very long. And using spell components to do the work will be costly, both in getting the materials and charging the ponies to load them with magic and ensure the spell remains active.” The captain said to the human who just listened intently to the stallions explanation.
“In that case…” Barricade then raised his hands in front of himself for a few seconds, his palms brimming with a dull yellowish light, then he swung his arms out. At first nothing appeared to have happened, but a split second later the entire perimeter of the 25ft wide combat area was encased in a massive yellowish golden dome!
“That should do the trick.”
“What did you do?!” Shining asked the human as he looked around at the dome along with the guards outside it, who began tapping on it and seeing its surface ripple like water.
“To put it simply I created a barrier to keep them—” Barricade said as he gestures to the ponies that are outside the field. “—safe in case of something happening during our little sparring match.”
“But won’t this inhibit your ability?” the stallion asked the young man.
“Not by much. But don’t worry, I’ll have more than enough strength to give this spar my best.” With the human’s proclamation the stallion smiled before lighting his horn with magic.
Once charged Shining armor fired a quick blast of magic at Barricade, who instead of raising a field to block the attack as he thought the human would do, Barricade just simply leaned to the side and then let the blast pass by him, before it struck the field behind him rippling the dome on the point of impact. The guards & Twilight then watched as the energy of Shining’s attack dispersed into the field, as if the field was absorbing the attack into itself. As for the captain he was surprised that Barricade was able to dodge the attack, as the blast itself was traveling quite fast through the air. So the stallion fired another blast at the human, and again the human just side stepped and let the blast brush past him, but for a mix up Shining fired another blast when the first one was halfway towards Barricade. Thinking that Shining has the human where he wants to make him use his power, the captain was given a surprise as he watched the second blast closed in on Barricade that it looked like it was going to strike him, but then simply watch the young man then twist his body that he spun low to the ground, letting the blast rocket above him before he spun back up. all of the ponies were astonished not just by Barricade’s reflexes, but also his degree of flexibility to lower himself to the ground quickly, then spring back up in nearly one fluid motion.
“My turn.”
Was all Barricade said as he stood up before spinning in place, before he swung back around and lashed his right arm out as if he was swinging a weapon. Though the weapon in this case was a yellowish gold field no bigger than an apple, before it was flatten into a disk shape a few seconds after it was slung out. As the disk swiftly crossed the area towards Shining, matching the speed of his own attacks, and growing brighter as it spun in the air as it raced towards the captain, the stallion decided to guard against the attack rather than evade it. Rasing a shield spell in front of himself to block the disk, Shining thought that he was prepared to tank the hit, but the moment that it clashed with his spell the stallion actually recoiled at the feed back as the disk, literally, shattered against his spell. And nearly broke it as it caused a massive spider-web crack to appear on his shield! However the damaged shield was quickly shattered to pieces as another disk collided with it!
From the guards and Twilight’s perspective, after Barricade launched his own attack he didn’t stop. No, the human spun around fully in a full circle, before he launched another attack when the humans initial attack was halfway towards Shining!
When Shining’s shield spell was shattered, and the captain was recoiling from the full feedback of the ethereal backlash, the ponies outside the dome then watched as Barricade created another dome around his lower half, before he was rocketed ten feet forward! Just as Shining Armor watched as Barricade makes his way towards him, the stallion readied to cast another spell. But just as he did Barricade created another small field to catch him and then further rocketing him towards the stallion, though at a much faster pace! So much so that the moment that Barricade was shout out of the second field, he was directly in front of the stallion, covering the last fifteen feet in nearly a few seconds. Startling the stallion so much that he lost his concentration of his spell for a moment, and in that instant, the human had his left arm cocked back and had his hand covered in a small field. Like a make-shift boxing glove, ready to strike the stallion in the face! Yet the moment that the young man shot his arm forward, the stallion used his magic to instead create a forceful shockwave to send both combatants backwards five feet away from each other. However, even as he was pushed back Barricade didn’t stop his attack, he managed to power through the shockwave and kept his attack going.
Only this time, Barricade’s fist rushed through the field that encased it before it was stopped, and connecting to the field’s interior, causing the field in its entirely to ripple…but also glow with energy. Once the human skidded to a stop he pulled his arm fully out of the small field, left suspended in the air, before striking it on the outside with seemingly all his strength. And with that punch the ponies outside the area watched as it pulsed with light and energy, before watching a bolt of energy being shot out on the other side of the small field! and now racing towards Shining Armor who was still regaining his balance from his own shockwave. Unfortunately due to the short gap between the two, the human’s projectile reach the captain of the guard before he could react in time to counter it, or simply try and dodge out of the way. Getting struck right in the center of his chest!
“Shining!” Twilight cried out as she watches her brother be knocked back another five feet, though this time rolling on along the ground as he was knocked down.
“That was crazy!” a female guard said with shock. “He closed the distance on the captain, and even though he got pushed back, he managed to continue with his attack and still got a hit in!”
“All in the span of half a minute!” another guard said as he watches Barricade straighten himself up while Shining Armor took a moment to recollect himself, and then stand back up.
“By Celestia…your good.” Shining wheezed as he rubbed his chest, but his face quickly took on a baffled expression as he looked over to Barricade.
“But, Twilight said your power was putting up barriers. So how could you do all that?”
“The base line aspect of my power is creating barriers.” Barricade replied as he holds one of his hands up, and created a small force field ball in his palm.
“But my power has other aspects. Such as the energy that my fields are created from are manifested kinetic energy, which means the more movement, impact, force, and motion that is applied to it…the stronger my field becomes.”
“So the spinning…it wasn’t just to evade my attacks…you were also building up momentum to power up your own attacks!” Shining summarized as he, and by extension the ponies watching the sparring match, looked to Barricade who nodded his head.
“And that last attack I did, I just used the kinetic energy I generated by striking it to build up power, then on my second strike I manipulated the barriers energy flow to gather the stored up energy—” Barricade then outstretched his right arm and held two fingers out, pointing directly at Shining Armor.
“And lunched it right at you.” the ponies were dumbstruck by what the human had just said as he explained what his power is capable of.
“And that’s only a small portion of what I can do with my power.”
‘What else could he do with his power?!’ Shining thought to himself as he stood ready to continue the sparring match, and Barricade looked happy to continue as well as he took a more traditional looking battle stance. But before the pair could continue with their match, another guard came galloping into the hall.
“Captain!” the guard cried out before skidding to a stop.
“Fleet Feather what’s wrong?” the captain asked as he approaches the edge of the area, while Barricade dropped the field surrounding them.
“We got an incident brewing in the residential area, some pony is stirring up some kind of ruckus.” The guard, Fleet Feather, reported which caused the captain to look back at the rest of the guard.
“Suit up ponies, we got work to do!”
“Sir!” the guards said back before scrambling to leave the training hall, while dawning their armors and taking their weapons from the side walls. Meanwhile Shining Armor looked over to Barricade as he reached down to grab his coat.
“Sorry Barricade but we’ll have to put our sparring match on hold.”
“No prob.” The young man said as he ties his coat around his waist by the sleeves. Soon the hall was empty of its former occupants, leaving Twilight and Barricade standing at the entrance watching the small horde of guards gallop down the corridor.
“You think your brother will be alright? I did hit him pretty hard, despite him wearing armor.”
“I think he will. His armor has a basic defensive enchantment on it, so it lessens blows it receives.” Twilight said with confidence in her brothers endurance, and his armor to keep him moderately safe. with the guards now out of sight, the pair left the training hall and decided to find some place to relax. And the little mare knew just the place to unwind and relax.
~~Elsewhere~~
Out in the country side, about a good ten or so miles from both Canterlot Mountain & Ponyville, a bright purple flash appeared in the skies above the country side. But just as quickly as it appeared in the world, that purple flash disappeared in the same brilliant shade of color. Though it would seem that whatever that purple flash was, it left something behind in its wake, as something struck the ground with such force that it cause quite the miniature earthquake. Causing the nearby trees, bushes, and rock formation around the impact sight to shake and tremble. Even the animals in the area were startled by the sudden force and quickly scurried off. meanwhile in the newly formed crater, a plume of dust and smoke wafted from its center while the shadowy image of a figure started to move. And this figure was huge! Slowing standing to a stunning fifteen ft. tall figure, as a pair of slitted blue eyes glowed in the dust cloud. A moment later the massive figure made its way to the edge of its crater, its form being reveled as dust and smoke finally wafted away from it, revealing an entity wholly unknow to this world! A towering robotic figure made its way out of the crater, its small head imbedded within its body scanning its surroundings, as it hefts its massive weapon in both its hands.
“Preliminary scans inconclusive. No data available of current position.” The robotic giant said aloud in a deep monotone voice.
“Connecting to HQ.” a small antenna emerged from behind its head as its eyes rapidly blinked.
“Unable to connect with HQ mainframe. Unable to establish wireless connection to network.” The robot stood in silence for a moment before it spoke up.
“Directive: seek out and contain any and all Un-Naturals.” The weapon in its hands thrummed with energy as parts of it glowed with a brilliant blue light, before it snapped to look off to the right of its position, where it found a large manticore emerging from a tree line. Snarling and growling as it flared its wings, and flexing its scorpion tail.
“Scanning.” A flourish of blue light was projected from the robots eyes, scanning over the monstrous creatures body as it lashed out at the light.
“Corrupted biological scan detected. Multiple animal DNA mixed together, and unknown energy signature radiating from individual.” The machines eyes then shifted to a deep red color as it turned to face the manticore fully, weapon trained at it as the beast roared before lunging at the robot.
“Un-Natural detected, threat level, A.” was all the robot said as the barrel of its weapon shimmered with blue energy as steam began radiating from them
“Commence with extermination.”