The three ponies got up, dusting themselves off as they checked each other for any injuries. Apart from a few scratches, the three were untouched. At least this isn’t as bad as to being hit by a cannonball. Or landing on the leather brace I left on the floor... In fact, Twilight was even luckier that the impact against the wall didn’t bury any of the needles in her braces into her. She coughed and looked at the wall that just got busted through. The top half of the wall had already been broken clean off, and whatever was left of it was spread out all over the floors, both in the office and in the hallway.
Applejack pushed through part of the rubble. Pushing it aside, Applejack picked up her hat with one hoof and threw it upwards. The hat landed squarely on her head. Neither Rainbow Dash or Twilight knew how Applejack did it, but it does happen everytime she does that. Not that Applejack could tell the two how anyway. It had taken her years to learn such a thing, just to impress others. And she succeeded. Every single time she did the trick.
Rainbow Dash looked over at the ruined wall. It hadn’t gone through the office completely, only stopping after crashing through the wall. The damage was enough to reveal the carnage in Spitfire’s room. Through the gaping holes in the wall, one would see the bloody wings spread out against the wall. Dash shuddered. She didn’t want to remember Spitfire as a criminal that deserved death. Death would eventually come to everypony, but when somepony ends it for you, when you are in your prime, that terrible, gut-wrenching feeling would be enough to set off a flurry of emotions for others.
Twilight’s mane was a mess, like the time she was late in sending in a friendship report to Princess Celestia. Many times since has her mane been so messy, like it is now. She was curious as to what could be in office number four. What had made the room so off-limits that there was a cannon to keep others away? The last thing Twilight wanted was for the cannon to be the start of a trap inside the room.
“Berry had said that there were traps laid out for everypony, including herself. I’m guessing that that’s one of them.” Dash said. The two ponies nodded at her in agreement. We’re all gonna have to go through all the places carefully, and that would be VERY time consuming. Not to mention the fact that the timer on Twilight’s collar was still counting down. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed since she left her office.
“Hey Applejack, can you come over here for a sec?” Twilight called out to Applejack, even though she was merely five feet away. Applejack trotted over to Twilight, not wanting to ask much. Twilight went through Berry’s saddlebag, and after several moments, pulled out what she was looking for. She laid the watch down on the carpeting and looked at the time. 4.15pm. Twilight took a sharp breathe in, and exhaled. That doesn’t leave me with much time. Like Berry, Twilight was given the task to go and rescue Lyra, thought she might have to sacrifice herself in the process. However, when Applejack showed Twilight the list and photographs of the ponies Berry was supposed to save, Twilight went quiet.
Twilight had seen the consequences of a pony going against the rules that this madpony had set, by sending two or more ponies to get Berry. They no doubt succeeded, but they lost a pony. The three were unsure of Berry’s condition. For all we know, Berry could already be dead, setup in another messed up trap set by the madpony. But then again, she’s probably out and about with a new ally. Or with enemies after her. Twilight had to worry about Berry now.
“I wonder what’s inside this office?” Rainbow Dash had no problem flying past the top of the cannon, but the other two had to move the cannon out of the way in order to get in. The room was rather dark, like Twilight’s office. The room had nothing that could be used to light and illuminate the room. The room smelled musky. The three fumbled about the room, trying to find a light source. Twilight could light her horn, but she can’t keep it alight for a long time. And they might just be in the room for a while. Somewhere inside, the sound of running liquid could be heard.
“Twi’, ya’ mind lightin’ this room for a bit? It’s gosh darned dark in here!”
“Wait,let me go get the lantern from your office.” Twilight disappeared out the door. Rainbow Dash was fluttering her wings around. She could hear the sound of water running through the pipes nearby her head. I wonder what’s going on here. Applejack was wondering around the dark, the only source of illumination being the light pouring in from the hallway. Any further than a few feet from the door would prove hard seeing as how the light didn’t stretch far.
The sound of galloping in the hallway caught the attention of the two mares. Twilight came in with a brightly lit oil lantern, no doubt the same bright one as many others in Applejack’s office. The moment Twilight had set hoof inside the room, the three ponies saw everything as clear as day. The room had no windows, which would explain the darkness. The three ponies looked around the room in confusion. All around, transparent pipes were redirecting water a small section of the floorbeneath them from two large plastic tanks from the wall on the left. The sound of the water pumping through the pipes was muffled out by the sound of the storm outside the building.
Aside from that, on the right side of the room, several blueprints and sketches were posted up on the walls. The sketches and blueprints showed a variety of things, from the pony anatomy, to modified helmets meant to fit on a pony’s head, to gas chambers with no way out. The three ponies went through every blueprint, before starting on the sketches. Twilight let out a gasp as she saw a sketch with the blueprints about her leather braces. The same went for both Applejack and Rainbow Dash when they found their respective traps.
“Hey, I think I found Spitfire’s trap design.” Rainbow Dash ripped the blueprint off the wall, and laid it down in front of her. She knew that reading the blueprints would bring much now that Spitfire is dead, but at least they’ll be able to learn something from the traps.
“We better get outta here before the spell wears off.” Rarity told the two. Berry picked up another harpoon gun, just in case anything else were to happen along the way. She had lost her ballistic knife back in the hallway, but at least now she has something more accurate, and powerful. Berry looked over at Colgate, who was also arming herself with a harpoon gun. She levitated it with her magic and carried an extra. At least she isn’t as shaky as she was in her trap just now. Berry envied how unicorns could do extra work without exerting much effort using their magic.
Berry was, however, blessed with wits. Though not expected from a drinker like her, Berry often fought back brilliantly. The advantages I get from having a teacher as a sister. Berry had wanted to check the time, but she had left her saddlebags with Twilight and the others when she had stepped into the hallway. A thought flashed through her mind. Did I collect the notes from our trap just now? Apparently she had not. Even if she did, she would have no place to put the notes.
The ponies wondering around in the assembly hall still had their eyes blinded from the flash bang spell earlier, but if they didn’t get out in time, there’ll have more ponies to go against than they can handle. These ponies might just try to kill me like that blacksmith had tried earlier. If everypony in this place still believed that I had the key, which I don’t, then I might have to go pop a few more heads before it’s all over. Berry turned to Rarity, who was casting another spell. Colgate had lifted another harpoon gun, adding it to the two she already had.
At least Colgate had the advantage of not having to reload the harpoons after firing. Berry galloped over to one harpoon gun and took out its harpoon by the head. She just barely took it in her mouth before the three teleported to the front of the assembly hall doors. That took Berry by surprise. Colgate seemed more surprised that the harpoon guns she had levitated had been teleported along as well.
“I already said to get going.” Rarity blushed. The two ponies couldn’t blame her. The harpoon guns were just taking too much time. The doors leading out to the Assembly hall were boarded up, making the three think over their escape route. Bucking the doors open seemed plausible at the moment, but Berry didn’t want to end up with sore hooves like Rainbow Dash had.
“We’ll have to find another way out. Rarity would you mind shining your horn one more time around this place?”
“If I must shine my horn every few minutes then I might as well fire something that’ll light this awful place for a while.” Rarity then shone her horn once more, turning the space around them a dark purple. The aura of magic surrounding the harpoon guns Colgate was levitating was providing ample light to see around them for anypony who might want to try a move. But then again, lighting up like a flare in the dark really isn’t that good either, right?
Rarity fired an energy orb, that travelled through the dark around the room at speeds even Rainbow Dash couldn’t beat. Slowly, the dark room was illuminated as bright as it would be had there been fluorescent lights installed in the assembly hall. Maybe they had been installed, but were broken since nopony would maintain the place. After the illumination was completed, the three could still see the blinded ponies wondering around the hall. A pegasus was flying blindly into the walls, trying to find her way out like a fly in a jar. The other ponies were walking around aimlessly, but Rarity and the two knew that once the spell was over they might be hostile.
There were four other ponies inside the cavernous room. A pegasus, a unicorn and two earth ponies. Rarity didn’t understand how she could have blinded a pegasus seeing as to how she was flying around the room like a lost filly. The two earth ponies, though very far apart, were in one section of the assembly hall near the one way windows, which seemed to be the only way out. The unicorn was stumbling around, no doubt frustrated of his inability to coordinate his steps properly. He had a vest on that seemed to stretch all the way to his tail. The four looked relatively harmless, except for the fact that they might not.
“Looks like our only way out might be through the windows.” The windows were near Colgate’s trap, which made Rarity teleporting to the doors useless. On the plus side, with the spell already wearing off, and the room already illuminated, it wouldn’t take a while before the two earth ponies were able to attack the three. Though the three outnumbered the two, the earth ponies had the upper hand, being so close to the harpoon guns left behind. Colgate had three, and Berry had one with an extra harpoon. So that left another three harpoon guns behind. Which would give the unicorn an advantage if the spell wears off. He’d be able to levitate the harpoon guns over to himself. But if the three stayed quiet for a while, the four might go against each other before one of them finds out about the three.
But the three had already made their presence clear, thanks to Rarity’s flashbang spell. The four would most likely look for the source of the bang.
“Well then let’s make it quick.” Rarity once more shone her horn, and the three teleported all the way to the other side of the hall, back to where Colgate’s trap had been. Somehow, the two earth ponies must have sensed their presence, because when they had teleported near the windows, one of the earth ponies, a mare with a helmet on, made her move. Leaping forward like a kangaroo, the mare leapt for one of the discarded harpoon guns near Colgate’s trap. It seems that Rarity’s spell had worn off. The yellow-green-coated pony barely made it to a harpoon gun before being smashed in the face mid-flight with Berry’s harpoon gun. At such close proximity, I wouldn’t want blood all over my coat.
The beat to the face dazed the mare, stunning her for a short moment before she recovered. The helmet she wore had apparently cushioned the blow from the harpoon gun. Still believing she could reach the gun in time, she swung her hoof up in an uppercut, knocking Berry’s face upward before once more leaping for the gun. The other two must have assumed that the mare had other intentions, because they had done nothing to stop the mare until it was too late.
The mare shouldered the harpoon gun, and stood on her rearhooves before taking aim. It was then that Colgate, who also felt that firing at such close range would be a waste of a good clean coat, flung one of the harpoon guns, at the mare, hitting the side of her head.
The mare was unfazed, and readjusted her aim, to which Rarity set up a barrier just in time to block the harpoon. The harpoon fired out of the gun, sailing its way toward Colgate, when it hit the barrier, and the harpoon rebounded off the surface of the barrier, now aimed at the mare. Before the mare could get out of the way, the harpoon pierced her abdomen, throwing her backward onto the concrete floor.
Rarity removed the barrier and rushed over to the mare’s side. She was bleeding profusely. She was screaming in pain, trying to pull the harpoon out of her. Realizing that her efforts would bear no fruit, she gave up and said one last sentence.
“Tell Berry I said sorry.”
Moments later the helmet let out a loud crackling sound as amps of electricity travelled from the helmet of the mare through the rest of her body. The pain of the harpoon in her abdomen was numbed, and the mare coughed out some blood before remaining still.
The two remained silent as a wave of realization came upon Berry.
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Author's note: A quick post before short starts. And I thought of posting this before midnight (It's 12.01am right now) before my little brother, Purple The Times, had to go to bed since he's going to boarding school and might miss a lot of chapters. Next chapter due either today(4th of january) or maybe tomorrow. Another death is coming up among the mane six