//------------------------------//
// Twilight's Test 
// Story: Berry's Test 
// by Maple Sunrise 
//------------------------------//

Twilight Sparkle woke up in a dark room with a bruise on the back of her head. She groaned in pain as she rubbed the back of her head. Her four hooves felt heavy and so did her neck. She tried moving around the room, trying to get a hint of her location. She shined her horn around the room for a moment before she heard beeping.


Beep Beep Beep


Twilight tried to locate the source of the beeping by shining her horn around the room one more time. She was met with a sharp stabbing sensation in her left forehoof. She cringed in pain as her horn stopped shining. As soon as that happened the beeping had stopped. The beeping started once again when she shined her horn around the room again. She stopped at once, and started inspecting her left forehoof. That was when she felt something wrapped around her forehoof. She rubbed her other forehoof and found that there was another one wrapped around it. She sat up straight and felt her rearhooves. Both of them had something wrapped around it. Leather straps, with sharp needles sticking out of them.

Twilight re-lit her horn and shone the light on her left forehoof. Immediately the beeping started and Twilight could see the lights flashing on her leather straps. Before she had time to put out the light from her horn, another needle had been buried inself into Twilight’s left forehoof. Twilight bit her lip, trying to keep herself from screaming. What the hell is going on here? Blood started streaming out of the leather strap around Twilight’s left forehoof.

This is bad. Twilight had shone her horn around the room only a couple of times, but it was enough for her to see a bit of her surroundings. She tried to shine it one more time, but stopped right after the beeping started. The beeping is coming from these leather straps. The flashing lights probably reinforce the notion. She had to find out how long it would take for the beeping to continue before another needle buried itself into her. Twilight frowned. Which means I’ll have to do this one more time.

Lighting up her horn one more time, Twilight had a full view of the room she was in. The beeping intensified and the lights on her leather straps flashed. Twilight recognised the room as an office. But an office where, she had no idea. The room was one huge cube, with it’s four corners visible in Twilight’s light. There were 2 tables in the middle of the room. Both of the tables had leather seat chairs, though one of the tables had it’s chair overturned. Twilight noticed an oil lantern on one of the tables before another needle buried itself into her forehoof. This one had gone straight through a nerve, and Twilight shouted out loud as her horn dimmed out. A tear escaped her right eye as the pain got more and more unbearable. Never again.

Three seconds. Three seconds is all it takes for the beeping to make the needles sink into me. Then Twilight came to a realization. She lit her horn again. The beeping sound confirming her fears. Every time I light my horn or use magic, the beeping starts. Twilight felt useless at realizing this. Twilight lit her horn one more time, only to dim it out two seconds later. Well, at least there’s one way around this. She walked over to the office table with the oil lantern and lit it with her horn. The oil lantern lit and Twilight was able to once more have a full view of the room she was in.

Blood streamed out of Twilight’s leather strap. I can take care of that wound but.... Twilight knew that her reconstruction spell would take more than three seconds. She wasn’t sure if stopping her spells halfway and picking up where she left would help her hoof recover properly. She might even mess it up terribly and worsen her wounds. Twilight looked around the room. She could see clearly around the room now.

The room was a indeed, just a huge cube. A single metal door seemed to be the only entrance and exit into the room. Twilight took the oil lantern by the handle and walked over to the door. She tried the handle, but the door wouldn’t budge. It seems that it was locked from the outside. Twilight tried unlocking the lock outside using her horn, but the beeping started again and before another needle could bury itself into Twilight’s hoof, she stopped.

Twilight inspected her leather straps. She inspected her left forehoof. The leather strap was like a brace around her hoof. 3 of the 8 needles attached to the leather brace had already been embedded into her hoof. At the front of a brace, a single metal padlock seemed to be the only thing keeping the brace from opening. The leather brace on her right forehoof, however, still had all 8 needles sticking out. She sat upright against a wall and saw that her rearhooves were in a similar situation. But as she looked down at her rearhooves, she saw what seemed to be a collar around her neck.

Panicked, she felt the collar around her neck. The collar was similar to the leather braces around her hooves, except this one had 12 needles sticking out the front, in a semicircular fashion. Now frantic, Twilight tried removing the needles on the collar, completely forgetting about the risk she was taking by using magic. In 6 seconds, Twilight had pulled out 3 of the needles on the collar before noticing that another 2 needles had gone into her left forehoof. She collapsed in the pain and tried to slow her bleeding.

Luckily for her, none of the needles had managed to pierce an artery. Yet. The bleeding slowed, but a section of the carpet and the wall Twilight was leaning against was already stained with blood. Twilight sighed. Tears were rolling down the sides of her cheeks as she contemplated about her fate. She lifted her left forehoof and started waving it back and forth in front of her, as if to put herself into a trance, saying that her hoof is fine. Her tears stopped flowing, and she started getting up.

She wiped the tears from her face, and carefully walked over to the table with the overturned chair, trying not to set her injured hoof down. The table top was a mess of papers and ink blotches, as if a filly had somehow gotten hold of a bottle of ink and decided to have some fun. Amidst the mess of papers on the table, Twilight saw a square yellow note with her name written on top of it. She set the lantern on the table and read the note.

Hello Twilight, I want to play a game. How are your studies going? Especially since you’ve found a book during your visit to the Royal Library in Canterlot. Does the princess know of the book’s disappearance? I’m sure she would be aware, since it’s in a hard to reach place. Has witchcraft turned out well for you Twilight? Oh yes, I know all about the witchcraft and what not you’ve learned from the forbidden book. That tornado outbreak in Appleloosa had cost the little town thousands and thousands of bits. There was money left yes, but after repairs and what not, there was hardly any money left in the city fund. This led to the increase in taxes. Several of the residents have already been thrown in jail for tax evasion.

I’m sure you are aware of the leather braces around your hooves and your neck. It’s probably the first thing you’ll notice when you use your magic for longer than 3 seconds. That would mean that without using your magic, you’re safe. However....  the collar you have on is on a timer. The moment you walk out of this room, you’ll have 3 hours to look for the key to unlock your collar. For if you don’t, the needles sticking out of the collar will all penetrate your neck at the same time, severing all arteries and nerves, leaving you paralyzed and bleeding to death.The key will also unlock the leather braces around your hooves, but if the needles are already in, then they will stay there. There are also certain tools in this room and along the way that you can use to your advantage. But once your collar and the leather braces are off, do not think that everything is over. Your friends will need your help as well.

That last sentence made Twilight’s blood freeze. The others are here as well? Twilight understood why she was here, but why the others? She left the note and went to the table drawers. The first drawer on the left had nothing, but the second one had a key. Twilight took it out eagerly and tried it on her left hoof’s leather strap. It didn’t fit, so she tried the rest, with the same results. She laid the key down on the table. Her blood had smudged the key a bit, so she wiped it off with one of the papers on the table.

One single word on the paper caught her attention. The word “Lyra” was scrawled in the top left corner. Twilight’s bloody hoof print in the centre of the paper had, fortunately stained nothing else, not that there WAS anything else on the paper. Twilight focused on the word. Lyra..... The word seemed familiar to her, but she wasn’t sure where she’d heard of it from. Twilight went through another paper on the table. Immediately, Twilight remembered that Lyra wasn’t something, but somepony. The paper she was staring at had a black and white photograph taped to it.

The unmistakable pose the unicorn did on a bench that no other ponies did was what Twilight caught first. Normally ponies would sit on all fours whilst on a bench. But this unicorn had her 2 rearhooves stretched out in front of her, sitting in a similar fashion as a bear, only bears don’t sit on benches. Though the photograph was in black and white, Twilight could remember what colour Lyra’s coat was. Seafoam green... The photograph was taken in a way that the unicorn didn’t even know she was having her picture taken. But what stood out most was the unicorn’s cutie mark. After Twilight had seen it, she remembered Lyra very clearly. The unicorn with the Lyre cutie mark had been Twilight’s only friend while she was still studying in Canterlot many many months ago. Lyra had since then visited Ponyville a few times, but has never stopped by the library to talk to Twilight. The last time Twilight had heard from Lyra was when Lyra wrote a letter to Twilight telling her how much she missed her and that she finally got a job as a musician at Princess Celestia’s castle during The Great Harvest Moon celebration.

Sweet, sweet memories came back to Twilight as she once again broke down in tears right there on the floor. The times that she had spent with Lyra was just too much for Twilight to bear. While she was in Canterlot, Twilight had done nothing but study and read up on new things. Lyra would drop by Twilight’s place very, very often to help her out with things that she wasn’t clear with. Especially music related topics. Twilight remembered the first time Lyra had helped her out with the violin Princess Celestia had given her. She had played it beautifully under the guidance of Lyra. Twilight still kept the violin in a case in her room, with Lyra’s message engraved into the violin’s underside.


I heard you’re moving to Ponyville. Sad I have to stay here. Just remember that I’ll always be with you Twilight, forever in your heart, as you are in mine.



-Lyra   


Twilight had to press on, she got up once more and wiped her eyes. She searched through the another paper, which revealed a location and a message.


Lake. She doesn’t have much time.


Twilight went through all the other papers, but they were all blank. Twilight took the note, and the 3 papers on the table and the key, and laid in on the table with the upright chair. She turned and went back to the table with the overturned chair and started opening the drawers on the right. The first drawer yielded another key and a small bottle of a chemical Twilight knew very well. Cyanide. She had tested out the effects of cyanide on rats before. Immediately after ingestion of cyanide, the rats would go into convulsions before dying. There was something else in the drawer. What the?

Twilight lifted out a small tube that resembled the chocolate sticks dipped in even more chocolate down at Sugarcube Corner. She set it down on the table and took out a small box from the drawer. Inside the box, were darts that could be used to fire at people using the small tube. Twilight had read about this somewhere, but she wasn’t sure where. I think this is called a blowtube. She set the stuff down on the mess of papers before opening the second drawer.

Inside the second drawer, Twilight could see a blank piece of paper inside, and thought nothing of it until the oil lantern suddenly went out. Twilight was still looking into the drawer when that happened, but when it did happen she saw something that she would have missed if the lantern was still on. On the blank paper, written in glow in the dark ink, which was really hard to make due to the rarity of the items needed, was the names of her friends, with descriptions of the devices and traps that they were going through. She re-lit the oil lantern and took the paper out of the drawer. Putting it with the rest of the stuff, she looked around the room for something to bring the stuff with. Noting a saddlebag in the corner, Twilight took it, and put her items inside.

 4 pieces of paper, blowtube with cyanide, and 2 keys. And that’s just from one table. She went over to the other one, only to find it without any drawers. Twilight tried using the key that she found in the right drawer on her left forehoof’s leather brace. The key fitted the hole, and the leather brace came off. She then tried it on the rest, but they didn’t seem to come off. So now I’m walking around with a vulnerable hoof. Brilliant. Just Brilliant. She kept the other brace in her bag just in case, and used the key she just used to open the door. It didn’t budge. She took out the bloodstained key from her saddlebag and unlocked the door. Looking back to see that nothing was left behind, she quickly left the room, only to have fear crawling back into her blood stream.

The moment she left the room, the beeping started, along with the flashing lights, and the 3 hour timer started counting down.