Berry's Test

by Maple Sunrise

Missing Blueprint

Had Rainbow Dash not stopped Rarity, the two would have ended up with another dead pony in their hooves. And not just any dead pony, the only pony capable of getting everypony in the meadow out. Or they themselves would have been the dead ponies. Luckily for Berry, Dash was quick enough. Rarity had been hiding behind the steel door in office four, completely invisible from sight of anypony who set hoof into the room. That is, until she came out and attacked. And I wouldn’t want to remember how Rarity is when she’s all freaked out and ready to attack. Dash mused.

Dash had identified the set of hoof falls approaching to be those of Berry’s. However, Rarity had not and was already hiding behind the door. Dash had to lift a wing to block Rarity before Rarity knew that Dash knew who was approaching. Rarity, at ease, stepped out from behind the door as Rainbow Dash folded back her wings, and called out into the hallway.

“Berry!” A short pause, as Dash went through what to say, before continuing, “Is that you? We’re almost done looking for what you asked us to!” The words echoed around in office four, but not so much in the hallway. However, Berry had heard what Dash had said loud and clear. Berry trotted her way towards the door. Dash stuck her head out as a greeting to Berry, who nodded at Dash.

“Rarity, you can come out now.” Dash said. Rarity came from behind the steel door. Her horn glowed a bright white as she levitated the oil lantern in the middle of the room over to Berry. Berry bit the handle of the oil lantern, and the magic ceased. Berry sighed, and asked a question, one that Dash was expecting.

“Did you find anything other than Pinkie’s blueprints?”

Both Dash and Rarity cringed a bit at the name, and Rarity turned away. Dash nodded, and pointed over to the blueprints she had left on the floor. A thought crossed Dash’s mind, and she turned once more to face Berry. “Hey, how much time does Twilight have?”

Berry shrugged. She had left her watch with Twilight and the other two ponies. “I left my stuff with Twilight and the other two. Though I can make an estimate.” Berry thought back to roughly a few minutes earlier as she stuck her tongue out, supposedly to help her jog her memory. “She’s got roughly five minutes. One needle over such a dangerous place.” Berry gulped.

The other two didn’t need to ask to know what that gulp meant. Berry went on. “Find Twilight’s blueprints and teleport them to her please, Rarity.” Rarity said nothing, but simply nodded. She scanned the walls. Rainbow Dash, had another question crossing her mind. “I’ve went through the blueprints on the walls twice. I think I saw Twilight’s. However....” Dash’s voice trailed off. She motioned her forehooves in circular motion in the air, trying to look for words to describe her next question. “You remember the names of the ponies we were supposed to save right?”

Berry went through her memory to see if she could still remember. Crossing out the names of the ponies she had already saved, she sifted through which ponies left required saving. “Let’s see... There’s Fluttershy, Lyra, and Octavia...”

Dash cut her off right there. “Okay, now I’ve been through the blueprints twice, like I’ve said before, but there was one blueprint that I could not find. Lyra’s at the lake somewhere in the meadow and Fluttershy is in one of the cottages we woke up in. Their traps aren’t really clear though.”

Berry glared at Dash. “You didn’t tell me who’s blueprint did you not find.”

Dash swallowed back bitter saliva. She had the knack of skipping to other subjects when she was talking. “I couldn’t find Octavia’s blueprints. I know I could have been careless in searching for it, but I searched. Twice. Which would make me conclude that her blueprints are not here and we might not be able to look for her.”

Berry lowered her head. I have to save EVERYpony before midnight. That is one more rule I am not yet ready to break. And Midnight was not far away. It was close. We only have seven hours til midnight. It seemed like a lot of time, but they couldn’t take their chances just yet. Either of the three might have really hard traps to get out of. Or maybe not. Nevertheless they still needed to react quick just in case the tests the remaining three were going through would take a long time.

“I would suggest going after Lyra first, since she’s closest to us at the moment.” Which was true. The lake was roughly a couple of minutes away, and the time taken to get back to the cottages they started off in the first place was much, much longer. Berry nodded.

A sudden flash of green snapped the two ponies out of their conversation. When the flash disappeared, Rarity walked over to the two ponies. “I found Twilight’s blueprints and I sent them directly to her.” Rarity declared. “I just hope she can get that dreadful collar off her in time.”

Berry patted Rarity on the shoulder. “Relax, she’s gone through things much worse than what she’s going through now. I’m sure she can get out of her trap.” Berry patted Rarity a couple more times, before asking, “Anyway, anything else you found?”

Rarity looked up. “Well, there’s the blueprints of the few ponies in the assembly hall earlier.” Rarity’s horn glowed a bright white, levitating over a couple of blueprints before continuing. “Apparently, everypony in the assembly hall was supposed to get out within the hour of your arrival. Which I have no idea what the blueprints mean by that.” Rarity coughed a bit, before continuing. I guess we were lucky to get out. Anypony left behind was to be gassed to death.” Rarity used her magic to highlight a few names on the blueprints, the ones being hers, Berrys’ and Rainbow Dashs’. Aside from that, an aura of magic also alighted around Colgate’s name. Rarity flipped the blueprint over and pointed out to the ponies that were in the assembly hall at the time. The photographs were in black and white, but one didn’t needed colour to identify who was in the pictures. The pictures were unmistakable, all taken when the ponies were unaware. One had Berry drowning her sorrows in a bar, and another of Rarity paying off a supplier at her store. There was a photograph of Colgate transporting a couple of gas canisters. The remaining photographs were of the ponies that were in the assembly hall, though each shot was taken from different places. One was of the unicorn that had betrayed Berry and ignored the rules. He was levitating a few metal poles down an alley in Canterlot at night.

But then something caught Berry’s attention. She looked back at the list of names on the blueprints, and saw that, indeed, Rainbow Dash’s name was there. And yet, she wasn’t with them at the assembly hall. Probably a last minute cancellation or something. Berry shrugged it off, and continued.

“I say we get this over with quick, just bring all of the blueprints and we’ll be done faster.” Dash ordered. Rarity grunted at the request, but complied anyway, carefully removing any thumbtacks holding down the left over blueprints. She then neatly alphabetized the blueprints while Rainbow Dash watched, facehoofing every time she saw Rarity doing what she was doing. Berry on the other hoof, was ready to leave. “Hey girls, I’ll be taking these few blueprints first. And stay sharp, we might have to split up later.” Rarity and Dash nodded in unison, and Berry scopped up a couple of blueprints, and left the room.

Rarity had just finished removing all the blueprints by the time Berry’s hooffalls disappeared from earshot. She sighed as she walked over to Dash. “If it comes to a point where we really do have to split up, then I know that this will not end well.”

“Anything like this doesn’t end well, Rarity. Besides, Berry’s been right so far, so maybe splitting up might actually help a bit.”

Rarity shrugged, causing some of the blueprints to elevate further before dropping to its previous height. “I-I just don’t know about this. We already lost a very good friend just now, we’re on the verge of losing Twilight as well, and if we do split up, I have no idea what else might happen. Strength in numbers would seem appropriate now, don’t you think?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Whatever Berry’s telling us now would have been planned. Elsewhere we wouldn’t reach this far if most of her orders were wrong. And we’ve already lost two ponies so far....” Dash gazed upon the ground, looking at nothing in particular, doing so to avoid eye contact with Rarity.

Rarity raised an eyebrow, trying so hard to minimize her shocked expression, but knew very well that it would show in her eyes. “Two, you say?” Rarity hadn’t known of a second death, the first being Pinkie’s.

Now it was Dash’s turn to look surprise. She looked up at Rarity, thinking for a short moment if Rarity was playing a joke or something. “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice the wall that was blasted to bits in front of this room.” Rainbow Dash hovered out and set all fours on the carpeting of the hallway, Rarity emerging out of the room behind her moments later.

“Of course I have, but I wouldn’t actually expect somepony to be-” Rarity stopped mid-sentence. Dash was pointing through the ruined wall, at the obvious carnage that lay there. Rarity’s jaw went slack, as she continued staring at Spitfire’s corpse, the blood starting to dry up. Rainbow Dash facehoofed before Rarity continued. “Well, that was....unexpected.”

“No shit, Rarity. I know we’re supposed to come up and get the blueprints only, but don’t tell me that on the way here you did not see Spitfire? Or the least you could do was ask what me and the others went through!”

Rarity rolled her eyes. Death was no stranger to Rarity. Great friends and clients came and went frequently. Spitfire had visited Rarity quite a few times, inquiring on how to make her own dresses. Strange as it was, Rarity gave her all the tips she could have at the time. Spitfire had even tried making a dress, just for the fun of it. But it impressed Rarity how quickly Spitfire could learn. Shaking her head, Rarity turned to Dash, the cyan-coated pegasus still glaring at her. “Ponies come and go. The ones that go cannot come back.” The two made eye contact, each giving one another glares. “However, we have those on the train to go, but the train has not left yet. Those are the ones that are still around. However, if we continue to mourn those that have already left, then prepare to mourn much more ponies.”

Much to Rarity’s surprise, Rainbow Dash didn’t flinch, but merely shrugged. “Twilight told me the same thing many months ago. Are you learning off her or something?” Before Rarity could even answer, Dash opened her mouth. “Anyway, we should probably get going. Twilight’s probably out of her trap already. I hope.” At that Dash glided down the hallway toward the staircase, Rarity following close behind. Rarity kept glancing over her shoulder, making sure that none of the blueprints might have dropped out of her magic range. The two made their ways down the staircase.

The stallion that lay in front of the door took Rainbow Dash by surprise, but to Rarity, the unicorn got what he deserved. “He’s from the assembly hall, where Berry and I were. I just knew something bad would happen with him around. I didn’t actually think something would happen to him though. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth in an attempt to speak, but closed it back, apparently answering her own question.

She said nothing and continued to glide down the set of stairs that led them out of the office floors. I don’t think we actually have time to search the other offices anyway. Rainbow Dash thought. She folded her wings and landed all four hooves on the safe ground outside the building, with Rarity panting as she chased after Rainbow Dash.

The item that appeared in front of Twilight as she was trying once again to take the last needle out of her collar caught her by surprise. At first she thought that the princess had sent her a letter, telling her that help was on its way. However, the blueprint that appeared in front of her brought her hopes down. She read the first few words of the blueprint, and in an instant, focused all of her attention on the blueprint.

Written on the top left of the blueprint, was Twilight Sparkle. But it wasn’t those words that caught Twilight by attention. What caught her attention were two things, the hoofwriting and a single paragraph beneath her name. The blueprint hadn’t arrived with a sketch, which probably meant that the solution to removing the collar wasn’t that hard. She read the paragraph., and then read it again just to be sure that what she read was right.

Weaknesses:

One of the weaknesses of this trap is not in the collar or the braces, but rather the locks. Because the straps are leather and the operating mechanism of the collar and braces are complex, only padlocks could be used in the test. Padlocks, though quite useful in some uses, are also quite useless when a unicorn is involved. One could just shape a key out of anything lying around, but would then risk jamming the padlock, making it stuck that way forever. However, if executed correctly, the key made could unlock the padlock and the pony wearing the collar and braces could escape.

Twilight’s eyes showed a distant shine as she found a way out of her traps. She could have squealed with glee had it not been for one thing. With timing running out, and the beeping of the collar accelerating, Twilight feared that she might not have enough time to shape a key. Even if she did, it would still be risky, considering that the backbraces are still on. Then an idea came to her. She turned to Colgate who was staring blindly at Applejack, who didn’t seem to notice. If Twilight could teach Colgate how to shape a key in time...

The beeping on Twilight’s collar started to accelerate faster than before, and Twilight panicked. It’s almost time. “Colgate!” The unicorn looked up at the panic-stricken Twilight, and raised an eyebrow. “I need you to help shape a key for me!”

Colgate stared, confused. “And how would I be able to do that?”

Twilight would have facehoofed had she not been panicking. “Just follow my instructions and just do it!” Before Colgate could utter another word, Twilight used her magic to lift a huge rock, and sent it crashing through the steel doors of the cafeteria. This took Applejack and Colgate by surprise, and the two hadn’t managed to recover from the shock by the time Twilight landed a bunch of scrap metal in between herself and Colgate.

Twilight broke off the scrap metal into much smaller pieces, the beeping on her backhooves mixing in with the beeping of her collar. “Now listen here, I want you to to make the blade for the key. You know how right?”

Colgate shook her head vigorously. The beeping on her backbraces had ceased, but the ones on her collar were already beeping like crazy. Twilight knew she had no time to teach Colgate, so she used another method. She would transfer the key making knowledge to Colgate and hope for the best. Without Colgate’s consent, Twilight shot out a gold ray at Colgate and the spell stopped a moment later.

As if under a trance, Colgate started moving automatically. Her horn glowed a light blue as the scrap metal in front started to glow. With the spell keeping the scrap metal still, Colgate then fired a beam of bright red, out from the tip of her horn above a flat spot on the scrap metal. The beam cut through the scrap metal easily, but Colgate wasn’t working fast enough. The beeping on Twilight’s collar started beeping in an unusual pace. At first slow beeps, roughly once every three seconds. But then the number of beeps started increasing as the time got shorter. Colgate doubled her pace, and the beam intensified on the scrap metal. Twilight wiped sweat trickling down her neck as the blade needed to open her trap was almost complete.

Twilight didn’t wait. She fired a beam of her own at the scrap metal, and the beam traced the blade Colgate had been cutting out. Within a couple of seconds the blade was done. The beeping on Twilight’s collar had reached its maximum as Twilight stopped her magic for a second before picking the blade up again. Twilight panicked a bit at first, missing every time she tried to fit the blade into the keyhole. Finally fitting it in, Twilight feared the worst. The beeping had stopped, which was a bad sign. Her hooves slipped upon contact with the padlock a couple of times before Twilight stopped caring. She lit her horn, and undid the padlock. The padlock dropped to the ground and Twilight started to get the collar off quickly.

However, she wasn’t quick enough. As the last collar came off, Twilight had spun it subconsciously upward. The needle, now aimed at the neck, discharged, firing straight into Twilight’s neck. At first Twilight felt nothing, Applejack rushing over to Berry’s saddlebags was all she heard as Twilight’s mouth hung open, not sure what should be happening now. Then she let out a cry of both pain and fury. Pain because of the needle, fury because of the fact she hadn’t thought of making a key earlier.

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Author’s note : A big apology for the holdup on this chapter. As an another apology the next one will be released tomorrow. It’s around midnight around here now, so I’ll be done in another... say 16 hours? I have school >.> No excuses though.

A thousand apologies, and pardon my mistakes should there be any in this chapter.

Comments

[Chill Mists(Chilly)]

Twilight. NO! Very good. Keep it up.

[thepinkparty]

so twlights dead shit son D:

[Goldenfalcon101]

Nuuuu Twi! D: And hm, about that Rainbow Dash thing....I think she has SOMETHING to do with it, but I don't think it's her. She's the Loyalty thing, and she definitely wouldn't kill Pinkie Pie. Although she does seem rather unfazed about the deaths.

[Festus]

Twilight... WHY?! Gah, why is this getting so serious?! Seriously, make sure the other three are saved or else...