Berry's Test

by Maple Sunrise

Consequences from Rule Breaking

“The buck was that?!” The sound of a boom erupting one floor above them had caught the four ponies by surprise. Just moments ago they were surprised to know that Berry’s golden key had gone missing, and now another surprise just sprang out like Pinkie, or the late Pinkie-styled jack-in-a-box. The boom was enough to shake the floor above the three, prompting fears that the floor might just come down on them.

“I think we should leave. Right now.” Berry scooped up her saddlebags and before Twilight, Applejack and Colgate knew it, Berry was out the way four had come in. The vibrations coming from the floor above had ceased when the four were out safely.

“Are we gonna leave Pinkie behind? I mean, she has....moved on so to speak, but it just doesn’t seem right just leaving her there.” Twilight said.

Applejack nodded in agreement to what Twilight said, but Berry’s facial expression didn’t change a single bit. A moment later, a grin crossed her face. “Oh sure, after all, bringing along a dead body with us would very well aid our journey, right?”

The two ponies bit their lips while Colgate looked around. “Uh...Applejack, you told Rainbow Dash to go up and get some blueprints right?”

“Uh..Yeah. Why?”

“She ain’t out yet, neither is Rarity.”

“Well whatever it was that shook the building,” Berry said, “it’s gone. At least for now. However, I am not sticking around, just in case anything else comes up. I’ll go up and check what’s taking the two so long before we run out of time.” Berry took her watch out. Without much sunlight left, the watch began to look dull in the shade of the sunset. “And judging by the time, Twilight’s last needle is gonna sink in in around 15 minutes.”

Twilight nodded, fear and concern visible in her eyes. Though it was just one needle, the spot it was above was what scared Twilight the most. The common carotid artery was the one that supplied oxygenated blood to the neck and head. Should the artery be pierced, Twilight will go through a swift, and painful death. Death is never painless. Especially when it takes you minutes to die. Twilight shuddered, knowing that this might be the end for her.

Earlier, Colgate had asked Twilight about the magic needed to resurrect a dead pony. ‘Certain’ conditions, Colgate had put it. Twilight gave a short lecture on the topic, stating that if there were no boundaries on the spell, then everypony would be immortal.

“I wouldn’t mind that.” To which Twilight facehoofed. She bailed out on the topic almost immediately, seeing as to how Colgate was so interesting to awaken the dead. Now that’s just creepy. Don’t even get me started on how the resurrected ponies would look, or feel like. She was just lucky that Applejack had a lot of strength. After resurrection, Twilight noticed a seventy percent drop rate in Applejack’s strength, which would explain the failure to break Pinkie’s door. But after a while, the strength, plus the energy, would come back. However, such a process took a long time, which neither pony had at the time.

Applejack looked over at Berry. “Rarity wouldn’t be late for anythin’. So why is she taking her time with Rainbow?” Applejack snickered. Oh my. That sounded really wrong... Luckily for her, neither of the three ponies present noticed her change in facial expression. But they did hear her question, Berry being the only one to answer.

“I’m going upstairs, and Celestia help me if the door shuts lock behind me again. But I’m taking my stuff with me should that happen.” Berry went through her saddlebags, and found something she had not expected to find. Her ballistic knife. Taking it out she showed it to everypony, raising an eyebrow to ask how the knife was in her bag.

Twilight recognized the knife and spoke. “I found the hilt near Applejack’s office. And Dash found the blade somewhere further along the hallway. That thing really did go far. Though I’m not surprised, it’s s-”

“A spring-propelled blade.” Berry cut in. “I told you I know of these things. I’m not surprised that you know it as well, considering the time you’ve spent around books.” Berry sighed. She eyed the knife, noting how accurately Twilight had inserted the blade into the hilt.

“If it were to help, I could mix some of the cyanide I got into the blade.”

Berry thought over it. Considering how she herself was rarely sober enough to trot properly, she had done considerably well during the past few hours she had been here. However, when it comes to the point that she can’t trot properly, she might topple forward and fatally injure herself. Not what I would want to. Ever.

“It’s like paint. But you’ll have to pour the cyanide onto the blade before I can fuse the two together.”

Berry shrugged, but then nodded a moment later. “Anything that helps would be good now. Thanks.” Berry handed the knife over to Twilight, laying it carefully on the ground in front of her. Twilight levitated the knife over to her. The knife continued levitating as Twilight went through her saddlebags, carefully searching for that tiny bottle she had used not too long ago. Finding it Twilight slowly moved back a few steps as she levitated the bottle out of her saddlebag. Twilight opened the lid of the bottle, and instead of pouring the cyanide onto the blade like she said she would, Twilight carefully used her magic to bring out a slow stream of cyanide, floating from the rim of the bottle all the way over to the knife. Twilight held the knife with the blade pointing skyward as she carefully used her magic to coil the cyanide around the blade. With the blade covered in cyanide, Twilight aimed her horn at the knife before a plum-pink ray fired out at the knife, and making it glow a light purple for several moments before the light dissipated.

Twilight gave the knife a test, slashing it out in front of her. Making sure nopony was in front of her, she slashed out the number 6 before setting the knife down. “That should do the trick. Even if the fusion wasn’t successful, chances are, there will at least be traces of cyanide all over the blade. So it’ll still be a deadly edge if you wield it right.”

Berry picked up the ballistic knife, and fitted it onto her hoof. The leather hilt was slightly loose, showing use by other ponies right after she had gone out like a light. The colour of the blade hadn’t changed much except for the disappearances of a couple of bloodstains. She gently pressed the blade against the ground, the blade shot back inside the hilt. She carefully loosened the hilt off her hoof, and set it back in her saddlebag.

Twilight looked at Berry. “I thought you wanted to take that with you as well? Just in case you encounter anypony that is.”

Berry shrugged. “On second thought, if anything happens to me, it’d be safer for you girls to have my stuff instead of any random pony. So I might as well go without my stuff.” Berry turned to Applejack, and then back to Twilight. “When I left the room earlier, did you give Applejack anything to help you girls out?”

Twilight nodded. The scene in which Applejack killed the stallion was still fresh in her mind, and she was sure that it’ll stay there for a long time. “I gave Applejack a knife, and she used it fairly well during our short fight with the unicorns earlier.” She paused, and levitated the knife out of Berry’s saddlebag. The blade was clean, despite being one of the messiest weapons used in the battle earlier, which surprised Twilight and Applejack. Berry and Colgate didn’t know what it was they were so surprised about, but didn’t ask. Berry took the knife by the hilt, and gave a nod.

Berry waved a hoof at the three before heading up the staircase one more time.

“Did you hear that?” Rainbow Dash whispered. The tears had stopped flowing the instant a loud boom was heard. The moment the boom happened, the floor began to shake. It took the two ponies by surprise, only being familiar with such a phenomena when Dash successfully made a Sonic Rainboom.

“Something must have happened below! We should get out of here!” Rarity exclaimed. Once again, she was panicking in an unfamiliar situation. Though she herself knew that panicking wouldn’t get her anywhere, she still panicked.

“Woah, woah. Easy there. We still haven’t gotten the blueprints and stuff that we needed. Berry won’t be pleased....”Dash’s voice trailed off. The floor stopped shaking, and Dash continued. “And we should at least make things easy for Berry, don’t you think? We all actually owe her a big favour since she saved us and all....”

Rarity stopped, and took in several breaths. Finally calmed down, Rarity nodded. “I guess so. But I was in the same situation she was in earlier, and she used me to save herself before saving me. So I guess I don’t really owe her anything.”

“Even so, at least having the blueprints would make things easier if we want to save somepony’s life. Might even free the pony before the game even begins!” With that, Dash flew off into office four, leaving Rarity to catch up with her. When Rarity had reached the room, panting like she had just run a marathon, Dash had a couple of blueprints in her mouth already. Dash had remembered the names of the ponies on the list Berry had, and luckily for her, the names of ponies were already written on the blueprints she needed. The lantern that had been brought into the room by Twilight earlier still provided the same amount of light it had earlier, as if nothing had disturbed the flame since they had left the room.

“May I ask, why there’s a dead stallion in the hallway?” Rarity inquired, to which Dash glared at Rarity. She took a step back as Rainbow Dash continued searching for the blueprints she needed. She had Lyra’s blueprints, and Pinkie’s blueprints, and was continuing to look for more. That was when she heard the sound of another set of hooves coming up the staircase below.

“Rarity, get ready. There’s going to be somepony coming up, and I don’t want you to be panicking your flank off when that pony finds us.”

Mayor Mare went through her announcement mentally as she silently trotted through the busy Ponyville market. She had come up with several worst case scenarios should her announcement turn sour. She was shaking her head with every disapproval her brain made to errors in her announcement. Errors that would, in fact, screw up Ponyville very badly. Everything from the meeting was recycled through her mind over and over as she slowly made her way to the stage in the middle of the little town.

Every time Mayor Mare wanted to announce something or made a quick speech, she would trot over to the podium on the stage. Ponies would already be around the stage before Mayor Mare even got near the podium, feeling the tense air surrounding the mayor. As she stood at the podium, she eyed the few ponies already in front of her. This won’t do. Eyeing the crowd, she saw a single person that could help out in gathering ponies.

The cross-eyed pegasus stood among the few ponies, eagerly waiting for the mayor’s announcement. Mayor Mare went off the stage and trotted over to the mailmare of Ponyville. Derpy Hooves looked over at Mayor Mare, who whispered in her ear. “I need you to gather up everypony in Ponyville. I have something important to tell everypony, and make it quick. There is no time to waste here.”

Derpy gave a quick nodded, and flew off in the direction of the Everfree Forest, to which Mayor Mare facehoofed. The pegasus stopped mid-flight, looked around for a spell, and then turned around and headed through Ponyville. Mayor Mare sighed. I feel really bad for her.

Berry went up the stairs, similar to the way she had with Dash earlier. Stepped on the sides to avoid creaking noises in the centre of each wooden step. Berry stepped in front of the door frame and eyed the metal door. Berry took her chances and leaped through the door frame, expecting the door to close behind her. Much to her surprise, that didn’t happen. Instead she was met with the smell of blood filling her nose. She looked around, and found the source. Not only that, she had found her missing golden key.

Down the hallway, was a mess of blood splattered against the floor,walls and ceiling. The figure of a pony could be made out, but the face could not. Next to the mess was the golden key Berry was looking for, which led Berry to think that this was the unicorn she had teamed up with at the assembly hall earlier. Mother of Celestia... Berry hadn’t really expected the unicorn to go far with her key, knowing that he’d probably try the key on everything he found. And that was what he had apparently done, however, he picked the wrong door.

But Berry knew better. The perpetrator had wanted everypony to survive, and for that the pony had set rules. What happened to the unicorn was probably the result of breaking a rule that the perpetrator had set. Another rule breaker. Berry was lucky to have gotten away with her life when she had broken the rules, but the unicorn was not that lucky. Berry sighed. She bent down to pick the key up, and was surprised to hear the unicorn breathing.

The injuries sustained by the unicorn was severe. Tears all over the unicorn’s body, horn blown off by the shot from the gun, face ruined by pellets fired from the gun. It wasn’t a pretty sight, Berry had to admit. But this is what happens when someponies don’t follow the rules. Ironically Berry herself hadn’t followed the rules, and was now leaving the stallion to die. Berry looked over to the door that was open. The shotgun in place was still in place, which made Berry cautious. If the gun were set the reload and fire again, then it’d be safer for me to just be on my way. Glancing at the unicorn, barely alive, one more time, Berry took the key and proceeded to make her way up the next flight of stairs.

Comments

[Goldenfalcon101]

Well, not much happened this chapter, but oh well ^^

[Festus]

Pretty gruesome death, don'tcha think? Ugh, I'm worried about the remaining victims and would-be killer. Who is it? So many mysteries...

[Maple Sunrise]

155967
EPIC
BRAIN DERP
I apologize for this.
Now chapters keep coming at a 5day1chapter sequence
must. try. harder

[Dark Lightning]

Not a lot happened but alright.

[Goldenfalcon101]

156010 Um...sorry if I offended you...I didn't mean to sound impatient.

[Maple Sunrise]

167003
Oh no you didn't offend me XD. I just believe I keep slacking off. Starting up on <Spoiler> Lyra's test now and it should be posted quite soon. Patience is a virtue

[Chill Mists(Chilly)]

Man, I wonder who the killer is.