An Un-Natural Turn of Events

by NinjaMare

Chapter 3: A Strenuous Meeting is Underway

As the morning sun shines through the bedroom window of the Golden Oaks Library, Twilight Sparkle arose from her sleep with a fairly big yawn as she sits up in her bed and stretches out her back. After rubbing the remaining sleep out of her eyes the unicorn then made her way over to her dresser, where the violet mare then started to straighten her coat, mane & tail with a brush, while using a special comb to ensure that her mane & tail are free of knots. Once she was done with her grooming, and heading to the wash room to further freshen up, the mare then checked in on Spike seeing that her number one assistant was still asleep. But considering all of the hard work he did yesterday she figured she will let him sleep-in for just a little bit longer. Leaving the bedroom the mare headed down to the rest of the living quarters and was going to head to the kitchen to make some breakfast, but before she took another step towards the desired room she decided to check in on her house guest.

“I still need to convince Barricade to meet with princess Celestia today.” Twilight muttered to herself as she approached the guest room door before quietly cracking it open, however when she looked inside…

“Where is he?” Twilight asked no one in particular as she closed the door and started to look around the living quarters for her human guest, but like in the guest room Barricade was nowhere to be found.

“Hmmm. Maybe he’s down stairs reading a book.” The unicorn suggested as she trotted down the steps, yet as she descended she couldn’t see the human in the main library lobby, nor was he found in the adjacent rooms as she reached the bottom.

“Where is he?” Twilight questioned as she became slightly worried.

“Wait a minute, did he, leave the library? But if he did, then where could he have gone.”

To answer her own question the mare left the library and started to head out into town to search for the human. Entering the town the violet mare watched as ponies go about getting ready to start their day, opening the shops or getting their stalls ready to sell their wares, while fillies & colts leave their homes to head to school. Twilight even asked other ponies if any of them have seen Barricade, unfortunately though none of them have, or most of them have said they haven’t. some ponies that were awake for most of the night, and are still awake now said that the last time they saw the human was when he was heading towards the park. So picking up her pace the unicorn trotted to the park in hopes of finding her missing guest, but again the mare was unable to spot Barricade when she started to search the park.

“Just where did he go?” the unicorn asked aloud as she was now starting to get even more worried, mostly about Barricade wondering off and getting lost.

“If he wondered outside of town, then…” the mare looked out into a random direction as a worried look comes over her face.

“Where could he have wondered off to!?”

“Hey Twilight, what’s up?” the violet mare looked up as she heard the familiar voice of Rainbow Dash, as the mare in question was hovering just above the unicorn.

“Rainbow can you help me out really quick?” the pegasus simply nodded her head.

“Sure thing Twi. What do you need?”

“Barricade wasn’t at the library when I woke up, and when I went into town some ponies said that he wandered off to the park. But he’s not here.” The unicorn explained to her feathery friend about her current predicament.

“And let me guess you want me to fly around and see if I can spot him, ya?” the mare nodded before Rainbow Dash flashed a big grin.

“Pft. Piece of cake, I’ll find him in ten seconds flat.” As the pegasus gave her bravado she quickly bolted into the air and soared off into the distance, and while the pegasus flew off Twilight decided to head to Sugarcube Corner to get something to help calm her nerves faster, while also filling her stomach.

~~Elsewhere~~

I can’t remember the last time I actually watched the sun rise, I think the last time I did this was…eight or so years ago. Before I was able to finally settle down at what was my current living situation. But then again, back then I was trying to ensure that I survived, and not get captured by the government.

Putting my reminiscing aside for the moment, what should I do now? After talking with Twilight and the other ponies that I met up last night about this world, I think I can comfortably say that I now know what to expect from this world if I leave town, mostly. And that’s a big, IF, what everyone I’ve met so far has told me, is the truth. I don’t want to say that I out right don’t believe the ponies, but I haven’t managed to survive this long without being skeptical of others for a reason. So even though I now at least I have some idea what to expect to see or encounter in this world, if I decide to strike out on my own, I don’t think I should wholeheartedly take what any of the ponies say as the gospel truth. Until proven otherwise. However I still have one other problem if I do decide to venture out, that being I still don’t know my way around this world, so I can’t just go out willy-nilly. Because I’m more likely to get myself lost, which I would rather avoid.

But as I contemplate on what I should do next, another question pops up in my head. And that question is that even if I do leave this town, see what this world has to offer to an outsider like me…what would I even do with myself?

I mean, I have nothing here in this world of talking ponies. I have no life here, I have nothing to my name here, and I have no idea what kind of life I can even make here. Back on earth I actually have some kind of life there. Was it a perfect life, I would say not by a country mile, but at least it was my life. I knew what to expect at least from my life back on earth, but here? What do I even do here, or more accurately, what should I even do?

“Ugh, and that is the crux of my dilemma isn’t it?” I sighed in annoyance as I stood up from my spot on the hill while running a hand through my hair.

“Well, I’ll figure out what to do next eventually.” Was all I could think of at the moment as I started to make my way back to town.

As I made my way down the hill and back to the town I spotted a small bunch of foals gathering at that old school, well, school house that I passed by when I left to explore the sights. Guess it was time for the kids to go to school. And just like the adults the foals were just as varied in their appearance, though as I got closer to them all I did notice one thing that was greatly different between the foals and the adults. And that was that most of them didn’t have a picture of some kind on their flanks. If I remember correctly those pictures were called cutie marks, which when I first heard it made me snicker because of how silly it was. And it still does. But what was really fascinating, and still quite funny in my opinion, about these cutie marks is the fact that they represent a ponies special talent. Basically whatever a pony figures out is their 1 and only special skill that separates them from others, pretty much determines what their occupations in life will end up, or at least that is how I understand it from what Twilight tried to explain to me. Honestly it just sounds all convoluted to me.

“Excuse me.” I was brought out of my train of thought when a voice called out to me, and when I looked to the source of the voice, I found myself actually in front of the school house with a swarm of foals around me.

“Down here!” the voice again called out and when I looked down towards my feet, I spotted a white unicorn filly with a curly light purple mane & tail, her large green eyes looking up at me.

“Uh. Hey there kiddo…what’s up?” the little filly, and all of the other foals around me, all smiled widely before they began bombarding me with a plethora of questions all at once, their voices combining into just a chorus of incoherent noise.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, one at a time kids! I can’t hear anything your saying when your all talking at once.” I chortled as I tried to calm them down, which thankfully worked as they all settled down and began asking their questions one at a time.

“What are you?” a green colt ask from behind me, and I told him that I was called a human.

“Are you a stallion?” a skinny purple pegasus filly asked as she hovered by me. I told her that I was male, and is referred to as a guy, not a stallion.

“What’s your name?” a yellow earth pony filly with a bow in her red mane asked, and I simply gave her my Un-Natural name.

“Why are you so tall?” a chubby brown colt with a dark yellow mane & tail asked me, I just told him that this is just how I grew up as.

“Can you do magic?” an orange colt with a blue mane & tail asked. I simply said no, and told them that I do have a special power. and when they ask what I can do, I created a small force field in the middle of the small hoard getting a lot of ohs & awes.

“Really? That’s all you can do?” I looked over to a small light pink earth pony filly wearing a little tiara in her mane as she looked at me with a bored, or not really interested, expression.

“All you can do is make a small shield?” Someone sure seems to be snobby, well, if the little girl wants to see something more substantial, then I’ll oblige.

From where the field was currently I expanded it till it was big enough to not only envelope me, but also all of the foals surrounding me, which obviously scared the kids, but I assured them that everything was fine. Once the fillies & colts had calmed down I then started to show them what else I can do, and the first thing I showed them was that I could use the energy of my field to levitate whatever is inside it. in this case, that was the foals. At first they all were a little scared, but once they realized what was happening they all enjoyed it, and when I started to swirl them around the field and made them bob up & down like on a merry-go-round, they all really enjoyed it even more. Even the snobby filly seemed to be enjoying the ride while I continued to twirl the foals around me, heck some of them were even doing mid-air flips, while others pretended to race each other.

“What is going on here!?” I heard a mature mare’s voice call out from the direction of the school building.

“Hi Miss. Cheerilee, lookie, Barricade is giving us a ride in his shield.” The white unicorn filly said as she rounded the inside of my field. I turned to look towards the school house and that’s where I saw a dark pink earth pony mare, with a brighter pink mane & tail trotting towards all of us, while looking a little panicky.

“Alright kids funs over. I don’t wanna scare your teacher too much.” I quickly stated as I gently let them all down, which they all moaned about as their fun ride was over as I then took down my field.

“Sorry for scaring you Miss, I didn’t mean any harm to the kids.”

“It’s alright I was just startled to see all of them in the air, and surrounded by a magical dome.” The teacher said with relief in her voice. She then looked towards me where she looked a little startled, but quickly reeled it in as she started looking me over with curiosity clear in her eyes.

“Your that creature that showed up in town yesterday right?” I nodded my head as I turned to face her fully.

“Yup. The name is Barricade.”

“It’s nice to meet you Barricade, my name is Cheerilee.” The mare says in a cheerful tone before stretching out a foreleg for a handshake, and I returned it in kind by wrapping my hand around her hoof after leaning down slightly, and then shaking it.

Once our little meet and greet was over Cheerilee announced that it was time for class, and as the foals left they all thanked me for a fun time before they all entered the building. After bidding the kids and the teach farewell, I continued to make my way back to town. It didn’t take long for me to make it back to Ponyville proper, although the moment that I stepped foot back in the town I was nearly assaulted by a pink blur that almost tackled me. mostly on instinct I brought up my field to block the tackle, and what I found was Pinkie Pie plastered to the dome with a big smile on her face.

“Found you!” the bubbly pony said in excitement as she peeled herself off my field while I looked at her confusedly.

“Found me for what?” I asked as I brought my field down.

“Twilight said you were missing, and that made her worried that you might have gotten lost, so I’m helping her out in looking for you. And bam, I found you!” the mare said rather fast that I thought for sure she would run out of breath, though given how energetic she appears to be, she might be one of those types of people who don’t get winded from fast talking that easily.

“Oh yeah, I guess I didn’t exactly leave a note about what I was doing, or if I was going to head out into town last night.” I said in response to Pinkie’s words as she tilted her head at me.

“What did you do all night?” she asked.

“Mostly just exploring the town, meeting some of the locals, and enjoying a little meal that they offered. By the way, you ponies seem to REALLY love your sweets huh?” the little mare nodded her head so fast, that I swore I heard what sounded like bolts or something being rattled in a container.

“We sure do, helps keeps us energized for the entire day. Mostly, though that could just be most ponies that I know, and trust me I know everypony in town, personally or come by the shop often. Or because of all the parties I throw.” Wow, she really is a fast talker! Seriously I think this time she didn’t even attempt to breathe as she blathered on.

“So where is Twilight now?”

“She’s still at Sugarcube Corner, come on I’ll take you to her.”

The pink mare then bounced off while humming a little tune to herself as I followed behind her. While following the bubbly mare to this, Sugarcube Corner, which sounded like what a little girl would name a bakery, more ponies greeted me as I walked past them. but as we walked Pinkie & I came to what looked like a farmers market, with tons of ponies trotting around and scoping out what the various stalls and carts had for sale, from various fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other products. Before exiting the shopping district I also spotted retro arcade machines. I was honestly surprised to see these ponies have technology for video games, actually I’m more surprised that they even have that kind of tech. Even old school arcade machines has some intricate circuitry, and other such internal mechanisms that I think would be to, delicate for them to handle. Then again these ponies do have magic that can handle such tasks, but it still begs the question on just how did a fantasy species come about acquire their tech.

“Here we are!” my thoughts were interrupted when Pinkie Pie spoke up and I found myself standing in front of a…wow. Was all I could say upon my initial sighting of the building in front of me.

“That has to be the pinkest building I’ve ever seen.” I stated aloud as I gestured to the large pink building that looked like it wanted to be a birthday cake.

“Nothing can be to pink.” I think the mare might be a bit biased since she is pink herself. Following the mare into the birthday cake building I spotted a few more ponies lounging about, eating whatever kinds of baked goods they have on plates. And at the other side of the lobby I spotted Twilight as she finished a red & brown cake.

“Barricade! There you are, where have you been?” the unicorn asked in a worried tone as she trotted over to me.

“Mostly just wandering around town, you know, taking in the sights. I even met up with a few of the locals.”

“But why didn’t you stay in the library, you could’ve read the books there.” Twilight asked.

“Well for one thing I can’t read pony, or whatever your language is.” I retorted to the little mare, who had this look of understanding spring to her face as she realized that we had different languages…which was weird since she, and all ponies I’ve met up so far, spoke English.

“I’m sorry Baricade I didn’t think we had different languages since your speaking Equish.” Equish? Really, that’s what their language is called? That sounds more like a weird or silly horse-pun.

“Well in any case there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Talk to me about what?” I asked apprehensively and I noticed her tone of voice has shifted to sounding more serious, almost business like.

“You see I wrote to my mentor about your arrival in Ponyville, and she says she would like to meet you.” mentor? So she’s a student of somebody…a mentor who she wrote about me to. and now wants to meet me.

“…so you wrote to your teacher about me?” I asked the little mare, sounding a little skeptical towards her as I just eyed her up. The mare nodded her head as she continued talking.

“After I brought you to the library yesterday when you needed a place to sleep, I wrote to her a small report about our meeting, and what my initial observation you was like.”

Report. Initial observation. Sounds like I’m being viewed as a prized specimen for study, than an actual person. I mean I am a being that—if what Twilight says is true—that has never been seen in this world. But I still don’t like the sound of this, it just seems a little too sketchy for my liking.

“And she asked me to bring you to our capital city as soon as possible, so that she can meet you personally. So I was wondering if you’d like to go today?” the little pony finished off as looked up at me with a hopeful look in her that I would comply with her wishes.

Honestly I’m not sure what I should do right now. On one hand meeting Twilight’s teacher might be a good thing, as she might have more information about this world, which in turn can help me figure out what I should do since I’m basically stuck here and all. Although, on the other hand, this does seem a bit sketchy to me. mostly due to the fact that I don’t know anything about this pony, and the fact Twilight wrote to her teacher about me, like she was setting up this meet and greet to get more information out of me. maybe its just my ingrained sense of paranoia that’s making me feel nervous, if not outright anxious and hesitant to agree to this meeting.

“Barricade?” I looked back down to Twilight who was looking back up at me with a puzzled look.

“Are you okay? You went quiet all of a sudden.” I didn’t respond right away, I was to busy weighing my options. I kept quiet for a few moments before finally deciding on a course of action.

“Where does your teacher want to meet?” I finally asked which Twilight smiled widely at.

“She lives up in Canterlot, it’s our nation’s capital city and its just one train ride away.” Wow, this teacher sounds like she either has lots of money, or is a pretty well-known pony to live in a capital city. Now I’m starting to get curious about this pony as well.

“Alright then, do you know when we will be leaving?”

Twilight nodded her head and ushered me out the door before we headed back to the library, where Twilight gathered a few things, and explained to Spike about what was going on. Once all that was settled, Twilight led me to the other side of town, where a train that looked like it should be party of a kindergartens toys set, was sitting as passengers got off and got on. This is going to be one interesting trip. Hopefully it goes well.

Comments

[Haver]

Love it nice😀😃

[Anomimo]

Thanks for the chapter!
Now Barricade's powers proved to be very good, controlling the synthetic force and gravity within the barrier is very powerful and has multiple applications: it could fire a stone with the power of a bullet. It surprised me positively.
I'm already looking forward to this meeting with Celestia, I think Barricade's reaction will be either very funny or very explosive in a negative way.

[NinjaMare]

11763726
i'm happy your enjoying the story so far. and trust me, Barricade still has more tricks up his sleeve with his power.