Berry's Test

by Maple Sunrise

Ambush

The chief and Mayor Mare sat in their chairs in the chief’s office, discussing Caramel’s case for the best part of an hour, when news from Cloudsdale Military Reconnaissance came back. They had located a warehouse along the gravel road leading to Trottingham that had matched Caramel’s description. Well even without his description, that must have been the only warehouse to be out there along a gravel road. The chief nodded, dismissing the two CMR pegasi dispatchers. The two exited the office and flew back to base while the chief and Mayor Mare contemplated on what to do next.

“We can’t do much without a warrant. Even with a warrant, there’s no guarantee that there might be anypony there.” The mayor said, followed by a shrug.

The chief thought over the mayor’s sentence, mentally throwing it around the inside of his brain. After smashing it around several times, he spoke up. “We can’t do much without a warrant, that much is true. However, we can pick up the owner of the warehouse, maybe question him or her about the location’s current use?”

Mayor Mare shrugged again. “Maybe you can do so. Picking somepony up for questioning really won’t be a problem unless they themselves request a warrant. But I don’t think there would be a problem with that. A lot of ponies here are willing to help the PPD, considering the situation at hoof now.”

“Well then, we’ll move along with this for now.”

The chief got off his chair and exited his office, leaving Mayor Mare behind. Mayor Mare heard some mumbling outside, barely audible behind the office door. The chief reentered a couple of moments later and sat back down in his chair.

“Mayor, you deal the sales of houses and land in Ponyville right? Might you have the records of the sale of the warehouse?”

The mayor shook her head. “Not really. Since the warehouse is along the road to Trottingham, it’s counted as the outskirts of Ponyville already. I have no power over locations outside Ponyville of course.”

The chief was silent for a couple of seconds before speaking. “Then the Trottingham authorities should know what to do from here. The warehouse should be close enough to Trottingham to be counted within the boundaries of the city.”

Mayor Mare nodded. “Then I guess I should contact the head administrator of Trottingham. If it’s a mayor, it should be easy. If it’s anywhere above my rank of administering, it’s gonna get really hard to get our hooves on anything.”

The chief concluded the discussion with a nod, and the two exited the office. The chief closed the door behind them and glanced over at two of his officers, Roseluck sifting through a couple of old casefiles, and Carrot Top checking on a couple of files.

He called Carrot Top over, to which she laid the files she was checking through on a nearby desk and trotted over.

“Carrot Top, if you’re not busy, would you please contact the Trottingham Police Department and check who’s the current administrator of the city? We’ve got a lead and I would want this to be done immediately.”

She nodded and retreated to a cubicle with a couple of cabinets.

“This will probably take a few minutes.”

And a few minutes it did take. After going through a second cabinet, Carrot Top trotted over and handed the chief a thick manila file, the words ‘Trottingham’ written in black marker across the cover. The chief thanked Carrot Top and took the file over to Mayor Mare, who was sitting on one of the benches outside the chief’s office. He sat next to her and flipped the file open, skipping the minor details about the town which included districts within the town, the population, and the what the economy thrived on, and moved on to the biodata of the head administrator.

Displayed on the page was a picture of a stallion with a white mane that spotted a short, trimmed white beard and rim-wired glasses. His bright orange coat would have been the distinct characteristic of the stallion had he not have impossibly deep green eyes. He was wearing a brown vest, with the words ‘Mayor Snow’ sewn into the top right breast pocket. He had a lightning that was dark yellow on one side, and a lighter yellow on the other.

“Mayor Snow Charge has been mayor of Trottingham for the past four years, and remarkably, isn’t even 20 yet. I thought you had to be at least 18 before you entered politics?”

Mayor Mare shrugged. “You’ll need a degree in politics to actually join politics, which would require admission into a university for around three years. By the time one graduates, they’d have to be at least 21.”

The chief chuckled, “Then this guy’s gonna be one tough cookie for you to talk to. How old were you when you graduated?”

Mayor Mare frowned. “I’d rather not answer that. Anyway, can you arrange a transport for me to meet Mayor Snow by today?”

The chief shrugged. “It’s rather short notice don’t you think? Why not just send him a message? For all you know he might already be on this case considering how ponies from many different cities got abducted. We haven’t asked Trottingham if anypony’s missing.”

“I’ll ask him about that as well.”

The chief nodded, and gestured a hoof towards one of the Police Department’s phoenixes. “Use him. The message arrives right in front of him, no matter where he is. You can expect a quick reply, unless he uses a dragon, in which case it might take up to a couple of minutes before the message arrives.”

Mayor Mare shrugged, and went over to one of the desks used for writing near the idle phoenix. The phoenix greeted the Mayor with a nod and a grin, to which the Mayor smiled and nodded back. She picked up a quill and dipped it into a little glass bottle of ink before writing on a piece of parchment.

Dear Mayor Snow,

I, as the Mayor of Ponyville, require your assistance following a string of disappearances occurring between Ponyville, Cloudsdale and Canterlot. The Ponyville Police Department is acting with the cooperating from authorities from Canterlot and Cloudsdale to solve the disappearances. So far the only leads we have are from a witness who claims that a warehouse, which is within Trottingham city’s limits, was used to torture the ponies that have gone missing, which would include himself. He managed to come back, relatively fine considering his story.

Anyway, I was wondering if you would help us out. If you would ever be so kind as to send us the details on the owner of the warehouse, we would be most grateful. However, if the warehouse is not within Trottingham city limits, then we’ll have to track down the owner of the warehouse via other means. Whatever the case, we hope to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

-Mayor Mare

With that, Mayor Mare nodded towards the phoenix, and the phoenix grabbed the rolled up parchment with its claws. It spun around in a circular motion a couple of times, emitting a bright orange light that reminded Mayor Mare of Celestia’s sun, and the rolled up parchment was on its way to the Mayor of Trottingham. Mayor Mare thanked the phoenix, to which it nodded, and returned to its post.

Mayor Mare waited with the chief for Mayor Snow’s response inside the chief’s office as the two continued going through the city of Trottingham’s details.

---

Berry glanced at her watch. Luna’s moon provided just enough light for Berry to see that it was around 8.15pm. . She counted another three and three quarter hours before it was midnight. Rainbow Dash had flown Lyra out of the dried up lake, and Berry was at the brim, looking into it. The lake was well lighted, and apart from that, the place had rather expensive equipment, including a gold lyre.

Berry had seen similar amplifiers inside some of the clubs she frequented. The beats were loud and powerful enough to, theoretically, fibrillate the heart. If Twilight were conscious at the moment, Berry could ask her if that was possible. But now wouldn’t be the appropriate time to do so, considering the time constrictions at the moment.

Berry hopped into the dried up lake, landing on top of one of the amplifiers. I wonder if Rainbow Dash took her note as well. She glanced around the place. There was a scatter of music sheets across the dirt floor, and the golden lyre. Berry knelt down and moved the mess of papers aside, and found a note. She picked it up and studied it.

Same note as most of us. She had left her saddlebags behind with Colgate, so she had to hold on to the note for the time being. Glancing around, Berry deduced that there was nothing else useful to pick up. It was then did she realize her mistake.

Berry had leapt into the hole without even considering a way to get back out. She thought of leaping onto the amplifiers, but they were too high to even get up upon. She couldn’t call out to Rainbow Dash since she had left to bring Lyra to Colgate and the others. She was on her own on this one. She glanced over at the music stand and contemplated leaning it against the amplifiers so she could jump upon then, but she knew she was heavy enough to stab the stand even by jumping on it.

Frustrated, she bucked at the dirt walls. The walls vibrated, and the amplifiers shook. Berry looked over at the amplifiers. They didn’t look secured into place. Berry grinned. There’s my ticket out. But there was a problem. Because the amplifiers were arranged in a cubic fashion, bucking one of the amplifiers so she could use it as a platform to get back up would be a near impossible thing to do. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try though.

Berry turned to the music stand. Maybe I can use that as a wedge to separate the amplifiers. She grabbed the music stand by the stem and planted the head in the gaps between the bottom amplifiers. If she put the head in the gaps of the amplifiers on top, nothing would hold it in place, and the music stand would just fall back down to the ground. She made sure the head of the music stand went deep into the gaps before turning around. She turned her head to adjust her aim and with one almighty buck, she bucked the step of the music stand.

The base of the music stand went back, and the head snapped forward, shoving the amplifier forward. The amplifier moving forward had provided more than enough room for Berry to move it further. She reached her forehooves into the widened gap and pushed the amplifier out further. She suddenly stopped and took her hands out. If I pull the amplifier any further, the one on top will fall on my forehooves. Cursing herself for not knowing this earlier, she turned to the other side of the amplifier, and tugged on it. It shifted a little in place, but other than that, it didn’t really move that much. She tugged on it further, and estimated that it would take another few inches of tugging for the amplifier on top to fall down.

Berry thought about how weird it was that the one on top did not move with the bottom amplifier as one, but she was vaguely aware of something called inertia. She shook her head of those thoughts and continued tugging on the amplifier. The amplifier moved a few centimeters, and then stopped. Berry could feel sweat running down the side of her forehead as she gave the amplifier another tug. The amplifier slid forward easily as the one on top fell down, filling in the position of the previous amplifier.

Berry gave herself a nod of triumph, and jumped atop the newly felled amplifier and jumped upon the pair of amplifiers still stacked on top of one another. She glanced out of the brim of the hole at her surroundings. In the distance to her right, she could see a group of ponies, a familiar rainbow-maned Pegasus flying above the ground. But it was in the distance to her left did Berry grow surprised.

A group consisting of four pegasi was flying about, most likely looking for Berry and her key of freedom. Berry tried her luck and leapt out of the hole and made a mad dash back to the rest of her group. She had the Lyra’s note in her mouth. The sound of approaching hooves prompted Rainbow Dash to look up.

“Hey, Berry’s back!” She alerted the rest of the group.

Berry stopped short of crashing into Rarity, and gestured a hoof over her mouth, signaling the mares to keep quiet. They didn’t quite understand since Lyra’s note was still in Berry’s mouth, so she took it out before repeating the same gesture to them.

“We might have some company on their way here. Look sharp.” Berry glanced over at the still unconscious Twilight, Applejack and Lyra and looked over to Rarity. “Rarity, bring a harpoon gun and follow me. Rainbow Dash, you too, but take a screwdriver.” Rainbow Dash and Rarity complied. Berry took a harpoon gun and disembarked towards the group, Rainbow Dash and Rarity following close behind her.

The group stood out, with two of its members having a coat of bright red and a mane of snow-white flying idly in the same spot. As Berry and the two behind her got closer, Berry saw that the group had been reduced to three members. She turned around to warn the two others, but she didn’t have time to do so. A Pegasus was speeding towards Rainbow Dash, albeit silently considering how Rainbow Dash hadn’t noticed the speeding Pegasus.

She spun around and shouted, “Hit the ground!” Rarity dove out of the way while Rainbow Dash merely flattened herself against the ground as Berry fired her harpoon. With a bright flash, the harpoon ejected from the gun and sailed through the air. Berry was either lucky or had timed her shot well, because the harpoon skewered through the head of the Pegasus, and it dropped dead mid-flight, a couple of feet shy of the crawling Rainbow Dash.

The dead Pegasus landed face first, making the end of the harpoon penetrate further before the rest of the body smacked against the dirt.

Berry glanced back to the group, only to notice that they have disappeared. Berry turned around and warned the two girls to watch each other’s backs. Rarity dusted herself off and carefully aimed her harpoon gun around as Rainbow Dash took to the skies, screwdriver in hoof. She quickly disappeared among the stars, and it was just Rarity and Berry left. Berry held onto her harpoon gun like a club and watched her surroundings as Rarity continued levitating her harpoon gun.

The night was still, not a single sound heard as the two glanced around. They were vulnerable from all sides, and considering how the Pegasus earlier had tried to sneak up on them, he was silent, albeit unsuccessful. There’s no saying that the other three won’t be that silent.

High above, Rainbow Dash watched as the two ponies stood back-to-back in the patch of field below her. The lights coming out of the dried up lake were enough for Rainbow Dash to see the area surrounding the two. Had the group been earth ponies or unicorns, Rainbow Dash could let Berry know in an instant where the group was, but they were up against pegasi.

The sound of leaves rustling to her right made Rarity turn and spot the approaching target. She aimed the harpoon rifle as the charging Pegasus as he got closer. The Pegasus was one of the two red-coated pegasi that Berry had seen earlier. The Pegasus was just within ten feet of Rarity, a blade shining in the moonlight as he neared, when Rarity made her move.

Both Berry and the Pegasus were caught off guard when Rarity didn’t fire her harpoon, but rather just shot out the entire gun in the Pegasus’ direction. He tried too late to bank, and the harpoon collided with his face. He crashed backwards as the velocity of the harpoon gun firing out was faster than the Pegasus’ speed. He thudded against the ground as Rarity levitated her harpoon gun back to herself.

Berry went back to her vigilant stance and listened around. Other than Rarity’s heavy breathing, there was not a single sound again that stirred the air. Or so they thought.

A hundred feet away, Colgate was defending her three patients as the second red-coated Pegasus lashed out at her with his axe. Colgate was trying her best to adjust her aim on the stallion as he swung around madly. I’ve got to get this madpony away from the others. She rolled out of the way, narrowly escaping as the blade of the stallion’s axe cut into the ground where Colgate stood mere moments ago.

Colgate decided to stop with the aiming and started to swing the harpoon gun at the madpony, who was swinging back at her with similar ferocity. The blade of the axe clashed with the hard steel of the harpoon gun as the two weapons collided with each other. Colgate tried her best not to fire the harpoon, realizing that at this position, a misfire could impale either of her three patients. The axe was denting her harpoon gun, much to the delight of the stallion, and to the surprise of Colgate.

The stallion had a helmet on, with several dry cells protruding from the top. Colgate had seen such batteries in industrial sectors, though they were on a much larger scale. Colgate hoped that the current those batteries would give would be enough to kill the stallion, but for the time being, she had no idea when the stallion’s trap would go off.

The axe dug into Colgate’s harpoon gun, the cut almost deep enough to break the harpoon gun. It was then did Colgate get an idea that would change the course of this battle completely. She used her magic to disassemble the harpoon gun as she dived out of the axe’s way. The harpoon gun split up into more than a dozen pieces that spun around Colgate and the stallion as the two continued their fight.

Colgate’s gaze met the stallion’s eyes and she grinned. He stopped swinging the axe for a brief moment, wondering what she was grinning about, before once more swinging the axe. Colgate made sure that the swing would bury the blade of the axe into the ground again before jumping out of range of the spinning harpoon pieces. She shouted back at the stallion, “So long, asshole!”

The stallion looked up from trying to pull the axe out. Colgate contracted the pieces of the harpoon gun into the stallion. All of the harpoon pieces seemed to implode into the stallion as he let out a blood-churning scream. The pieces pierced him as one, going through his head, abdomen, flank and wings in an attempt to reform into a harpoon gun. When unsuccessful, the harpoon gun pieces spread out again, which meant exiting the wounds of the stallion to circle around him. He collapsed into the ground as Colgate once more used her magic to implode the harpoon pieces into the Pegasus.

The last dying breath of the Pegasus was exhaled when the pieces were once more imploded into him. Colgate took the pieces out of him with her magic, and reformed her harpoon gun again, this one being bloodier than before. She pulled the axe out of the ground and lay it down next to the dead stallion.

Berry had been taken by surprise when the final of the four pegasi collided with her, knocking her off her hooves and causing her to drop her harpoon gun. The Pegasus forced her onto her rearhooves as he turned her around to show Rarity that any move she attempts would put her friend in a very tight situation. The Pegasus had a machete in his right hoof as he used his left to keep Berry in a headlock.

Rarity adjusted her aim, and the Pegasus shouted, “If you so much as aim that thing another inch upwards, I will end your friend’s life right fucking now!” Rarity dropped her aim, and glared at the Pegasus, whose head had a similar helmet worn by the Pegasus that attacked Colgate. There were two glowing red lights, and two glowing green ones on the side.

The Pegasus turned shifted his gaze down to the mare he was holding hostage and whispered, “Now listen here, I don’t want to do any harm, even though you’ve put me in quite a pickle by taking out the three of my comrades. Give me the key to this device on my head, and I’ll let you live.”

“I don’t have the fucking key! You’ve got the wrong pony!” Berry choked as the Pegasus brought the machete closer to her neck.

“Now now, there’s no use lying to me. I saw that unicorn enter the building with that gold key, and I can assume that you took it back. So here I am, asking you nicely one more time, where is the fucking key?” He relaxed his grip on the machete, moving it slightly away for Berry to talk.

That’s where he made his mistake. Berry drove a forehoof upward into the jaw of the Pegasus, stunning him as she dove to the ground. Before the stallion could recover, a blur of Rainbow and Cyan crashed into him, knocking him off his hooves in the similar way he had done to Berry moments earlier. He tried to bring the machete down on Rainbow Dash, but she was many steps ahead of him. A huge distance was not the only thing that Rainbow Dash drove into him as she drove her screwdriver into his torso and abdomen repeatedly as a mach cone formed around the two as they travelled half a mile before she came to a stop.

Rainbow Dash screeched to a halt, flinging the bleeding stallion forward some thirty feet as the inertia carried him further than the intended stop point. He collided with the rough ground and coughed out blood several times as he struggled to regain his footing. He flapped his rapidly declining wings as he quickly lost a large supply of his blood through all the stab wounds inflicted upon him. He flat-lined a few seconds later, a full ten seconds after having the situation under control in his hooves before the tables turned on him.

Rainbow Dash flew back, panting as she carried her bloodied knife with her through the night air, and returned to a recovering Berry and a relatively unscathed Rarity. Rarity was trotting over to the Pegasus whose face she had smashed her harpoon gun into. His breathing was labored, as he struggled to breathe through his mouth since his blood was pooling out of his muzzle. He had a helmet on, similar to two of his friends, except the lights on the helmet were three red and one green.

He coughed a few times as Rarity stood over him. The Pegasus held his hooves out, not in a threatening way, but rather pleading her to not inflict any more pain on him as he shivered. Rarity nodded, and knelt down in front of him.

“What was the lot of you thinking, attacking us like that?”

The Pegasus spoke in a strained voice, but the Canterlotian accent was very apparent in his voice. “We meant no harm initially. I had suggested that we worked together instead of attacking, you know, safety in numbers. Earth had sternly said that the bigger our numbers, the slower our progress would be.” He coughed and mumbled a few inaudible things.

“We’re gathering as many ponies as we can save here, and you have no idea how many of them have a very different way of thinking compared to you. Brute force brings nopony anywhere, even though so far it’s what’s kept most of us safe for the time being.”

“Most of you?”

Berry and Rainbow Dash walked over, the former nodding. “A unicorn we let join the group went rogue and took the key your leader mentioned. He went AWOL and I found him dead upstairs with the key.”

The Pegasus tried to nod, but winced. “Celestia, my neck hurts.” A section of his neck had gone dark, which would suggest either a bruise or internal bleeding. With the Pegasus’ eyes darting back and forth, Berry concluded that it was the latter. He coughed further, this time blood exiting his lips.

“Well, if I have to say something, your shot earlier was impeccable.” He grinned, eyes slowly closing.

Rarity’s eyes welled up in tears as she smiled, “Thank you. I guess I should really apologize for my actions. But please believe me, I had to do so.” The Pegasus nodded, his grin becoming a smile as he spoke his last few words.

“I guess I should be the one apologizing. I’m sorry for the trouble, but I guess it’s supposed to end this way.” His eyes closed, and his final breath left his lips. Rarity cried, albeit softly for the stallion that she could have talked out of attacking instead of killing him. Berry and Rainbow Dash hung their heads, waiting for Rarity to finish. Berry glanced at her watch. It was 8.53pm.

Comments

[Chill Mists(Chilly)]

Oooh. 8:53pm. This story is very exciting. Also, yay! Update!

[Maple Sunrise]

802626
Sorry took me so long to update
Had the time to write, didn't have that much time to check through my errors
Nevertheless it's good to see you're enjoying yourself

[thepinkparty]

i still recon granny smith and fluttershy are behind all of it

[canius]

oh mo why cant they ask nicely

[Shardikku]

Y U KEEP ME WAITING?!
This is a brilliant Fic, I won't ever give up on it.
You had better not give it a short ending, I must know what happened after 8:53!
You're driving me insane with this, I check most days for any updates, only found dis one today.
Anyway, KUTGW