Berry's Test

by Maple Sunrise

One key unlocks all

As Berry slowly got up, she felt a pain in her side. After she fell to the ground with Rainbow Dash when the platform retracted, Berry assumed that she was through her first test. This was true, however, if she hadn’t start a fire, she wouldn’t have enough light to see in the kitchen. She remembered the crossbow that shot the arrow that pierced the fuel chamber of the oil lamp before she dropped it.

Watch your step, Berry

Dash was unconscious from hitting the floor, as Berry could see. She made haste and carried Dash on her back just as the inferno was starting to spread to parts of the living room. She hightailed out of the room and dashed out the front door. Dash fell off her back a couple of times before Berry could get her out the door. She stepped carefully past the remains of the door and galloped out onto the dirt path in front of the cottage. She lay Dash down on the ground in front of the cottage and galloped back in to pickup the note left on the floor.

Berry looked frantically around the room, trying to see where the note could have gone. What seemed like an hour later, she saw the note where she had left it right before heading towards the kitchen. She quickly picked the note up. As she turned around, the fire had grown in intensity and had weakened part of the cottage’s infrastructure. Already the ceiling in the kitchen had started collapsing. A section of the ceiling had fallen onto one of the trap boxes and sent the needles inside spraying out in all directions. It was by luck that Berry had missed one darting right above her head. Knowing time is running out, she ran for the door.

Suddenly, part of the ceiling collapsed and sealed the front door. The now raging inferno was approaching. A bead of sweat ran down Berry’s head. The rubble sealing the front door would certainly take a long time to dig out, and by then, she’d be burnt to a crisp. Remembering the window she had broken with a candle earlier, she considered jumping out of the window. Noting her injured left fore hoof, she carefully stepped through the hole she made in the window. She barely made it when the ceiling above the window caved in.

Dusting rubble off her coat, she turned her attention to Rainbow Dash, who still lay unconscious on the ground, oblivious to the burning cottage. Berry sighed. She’s really gonna need help from Rainbow Dash if a situation needs her helping with. She hung her head and stared at the ground, thinking of what else she can do. The next thing that came to mind was to find another note related to another test, but she couldn’t just abandon Rainbow Dash here. She undid her bound hooves. She had to wait till she got up.

Or.....

Berry looked around for any source of water. Disappointed when she didn’t find any, she tried to find another way to wake up. Berry was relieved just as a storm cloud came thundering by. As the cloud shed it’s load, the blazing inferno in the cottage started shrinking, and petered out not soon after. Dash slowly regained her consciousness as Berry watched over her. The sound of thunder crackled in the sky. The dark storm clouds had cast a lower colour saturation to the land. Berry was surprised to even see rainfall. Maybe the Weather Factory had employed another manager in the rain and cloud section to try and settle the problem. No doubt they were successful, but this storm was rather heavier than the usual rainfall in Ponyville.

Berry looked back at the cottage. The straw roof had been lost in the blaze, so there really wasn’t anything stopping the rain from entering the house. Pretty much everything inside was burnt to soot, at least, that’s what Berry could see. She flicked off her wet mane to the side of her head. She hated how her mane covered her face when it got wet. She was about to venture into the charred remains of the cottage, when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Berry turned to face a remorseful Rainbow Dash.

“You know, I really can’t thank you enough for saving me from the fire just now.” Dash’s hoof was rubbing the back of her head as she spoke. “I can pretty much understand why this happened to me.” She gave a sad smile.

Berry just smiled back. She didn’t really know what to say to Dash, so she just continued advancing into the cottage.

“Hey! Take me with you!” Berry turned around as Rainbow Dash flew behind her. Berry said nothing, and continued, with Dash following behind her. Part of the walls had collapsed, enabling Berry to enter without having to go through the window again. The storm was fading slowly, fading into a drizzle. By the looks of the storm clouds, Berry and Dash could tell that it was still gonna rain heavily later, as the second storm cloud was readily rolling down toward them.

Berry had come back to the living room to look for anything that she might provide her with any leads to the next test. Rainbow Dash flew above, giving her an aerial view of the cottage. The roof wasn’t blocking the view, not that there was any part of it left, so she could see through to the other rooms as well. Berry had found nothing, except for the candles that were still lit in the middle of the living room. Unicorn magic.

Berry walked over to the first bedroom to the west of the kitchen’s entrance. The door was burnt, but still standing. She doubted the door was locked, but she bucked the door anyway. She expected the worse, but there were no traps laid out for her this time. Inside the bedroom was a bed, a bedside table with 2 drawers, a wardrobe, a couple of unharmed chairs and an obviously useless clock, seemingly melted onto the wall. The wardrobe was the back part of the room, facing the door while the bed filled the middle part of the room. She headed over to the bedside table.

She pulled open the bedside table drawer with her right hoof and was happy to see bandages. At last she could bandage her injury. She sat on the burnt bed and wrapped her hoof with bandages. She took extra bandages just in case. Pushing through the other stuff inside the and found a mini kit, with a bottle of morphine and syringe inside. Seeing nothing much she could take, she went ahead to the second drawer. Opening it up, she found something that could really help her out if she were in trouble.

It seemed to be knife of some sort. It was kind of weird, as it was designed to be worn on the hoof. It could have been a switchblade. It had a leather sole, making it wearable like one of those leather shoes that designer ponies make. One could just extend their forehoof out and the blade would deploy. There was also a trigger inside the shoe, which can be set of by moving the hoof in circular motion, kind of like waving a magic wand. What the trigger did, Berry was eager to find out. She fitted it on and waved her hoof in a circular motion.

The blade shot out of its hilt and safely embedded itself into the clay wall. Berry was dumbfounded. She can use this for later. She carefully picked the blade out of the wall, and refitted it into the hilt. Taking off the leather shoe, she kept it in her saddlebag. Looking through the drawer again, she found another note.

Dear Berry/Rainbow Dash,

If either of you have found this note along with this fine weapon in the drawer, then I am sure that you might be aware of the stakes involved in my tests. You see, some of the ….wrongdoers are actually quite dangerous, and might require certain measures to be subdued. Most of the ponies here are undergoing their own tests. Should they be successful, and should you be lucky, you might have an extra ally alongside. But can you differentiate friend from foe?

Berry blinked. She read the note one more time.

Dear Berry/Rainbow Dash

So this madpony actually though Rainbow Dash would make it through. No surprise if she did though, her hands weren’t tied and she could easily have slid the noose off.

Berry shook her head. But then why didn’t she...? Rainbow Dash had been conscious when Berry came back. How could she not notice the noose around her neck even after waking up? Berry was starting to ponder what was wrong with Rainbow Dash. She’ll have to ask her later. Certainly a pegasus of her physique could undue her bonds without trouble, right?

Berry was just about to open the wardrobe when Rainbow Dash’s shout of warning trailed her off. Berry looked up at Dash. Dash fluttered her wings and flew down to warn Berry.

“Lucky you didn’t open the wardrobe” Dash gave a sigh of relief.

“What?”

“You know what, just keep down and I’ll show you. Move to the side of the wardrobe.” With that Dash took one of the chairs and placed it in front of her. Berry barely had enough time to dive to the side when Dash bucked the chair into the wardrobe. Before the chair struck the wardrobe, Dash had already flown to a nearby cloud. When the chair hit the wardrobe, the doors of the wardrobe had sprung open and two arrows had been fired out.

Berry leapt to the side just as one of the arrows ricocheted in her direction. The other arrow had embedded itself into the charred clay wall, while the one that almost killed Berry struck the bed.

Berry’s heart was pounding as she slowly got up. If Rainbow Dash hadn’t seen that coming, Berry would have been dead by now. And so will the other ponies.... She certainly had to be more careful next time. Peeping into the wardrobe, she eyed the mechanism which fired the arrows. The doors of the wardrobe had been rigged to spring open, apparently due to the pressure sensitive hinges of the door. Or maybe the perpetrator modified it to be that way. But then again, wardrobes aren’t supposed to just spring open. Except....

Berry had remembered that a store in Ponyville had sold wardrobes that could open just by pressing one of the doors. Magnets, Berry guessed, had helped well for those who could pull the handle. The handles don’t even make sense anyway. One can just push the door inward slowly, and the door would spring open. This had resulted in the occasional muzzlebleed, and was thus regarded as an inconvenience to many. Sales went sour and the store had discontinued the sales of such wardrobes. Berry wondered, if this might be one of them.

But then again, those ones aren’t supposed to fire arrows.... Upon closer inspection of the firing mechanisms, Berry saw that strings attached to the triggers would be pulled when the doors of the wardrobes sprung open, thus firing the arrow. However, this wardrobe had 2 arrows fired, which probably meant this was meant to kill, or there was something inside there that could be useful to Berry.

The wardrobe had 4 inner drawers. Berry went through all of them. 3 of them were empty, however, the fourth one had a note and a little box. Berry read through the note. It appeared to be a list of some sort.

Office
#3
#4 Basement
Lake

1 Key unlocks all.

Berry was confused, but she kept the note for later. Maybe I should check the office later. Berry eyed the little wooden box in the corner of the drawer. She took it out and put it on the bed. A little red ribbon had been tied into a cute little butterfly knot. Berry pulled the ribbon, and the knot was undone. She kept the ribbon, just in case, and turned her attention back to the box.

Berry slowly lifted the lid, and found a gold key, surrounded by little round pearls. She gazed in awe at the beauty. Berry shook her head a few times, and kept the box in her saddlebag. She wondered if the key mentioned in the note was the key that would unlock all. Whatever all meant. With nothing else Berry could use, she left the room and prepared to enter the second bedroom.

Berry stepped into the hallway, and saw the second bedroom door open. Rainbow Dash called out to Berry.

“Hey Berry!” Dash shouted. “This room is empty!”

Berry walked through the door and saw that, indeed, the room was empty. Dash was looking around the room, trying to at least find something. The walls of the second bedroom had completely collapsed, so any hope of finding anything in the room was slim.

“Hey Dash, I don’t think we’ll find anything in here. I mean look at this place, it’s a mess.”

“Well who knows, we might actually miss something important if we don’t go through everything thoroughly”

Berry couldn’t argue with that, but she knew that time was something she could note was. Berry took the watch out of her saddlebag, and laid it in front of her. 11.43 am. Well, I guess I can spare some time searching this room. She kept the watch, and joined Dash in digging out the rubble. They dug for what seemed like half an hour, before coming to the conclusion that, indeed, there was nothing in the room but just rubble.

“Let’s go. We don’t have much time” Berry could already feel the rain pour again.

Just then Dash exclaimed in surprise, “Hey wait! I think I found something!” She carefully dragged out a chest with her teeth and brought it out into the hall. Good eyes, Dash. Berry thought to herself.

The box was locked. Berry took out one of the screwdrivers from her saddlebag and used it to take out the screws in the hinges. After all the screws were taken off, Berry and Dash lifted the lid in unison. What they found next, could potentially change their journey throughout the meadow in hope of rescuing others.

Comments

[Festus]

Heh, impressive.

There are just too many mysteries left unsolved, too many questions unanswered! Where are the rest of the Mane Six? What have they done (especially Fluttershy) to be caught in this predicament? Are they even here? Agh, so many things to know!

Can't wait for the next installment, see ya!

[Maple Sunrise]

Alright guys. I'd like to thank all of you for your positive feedback and encouragement Chapter 4 and 5 are under way, but for now I'm gonna take a 3 day break from writing. Because....my mom enrolled me into a camp for 3 days. School holidays just got 20% worse But I'll be back soon.

In the meantime, would you like to play a game?

[Goldenfalcon101]

How did Dash know about the wardrobe and the chest? o.o If Berry hadn't rescued her, would she just have undid the knots herself? Hmm...e3e