Part 4A: The Punch Identity
Please note:
To protect the real identities of those involved in the following events, all names and places have either been changed or completely ignored. However, it should be clarified that the following events are, in fact, completely fictional, albeit not entirely original. As such, pay no attention to the original statement.
It had already been a hectic day for the human at the wheel. One of her friends had just suffered a horrendous break up, having just moved into a new house with this significant other that decided that that was a good time to bugger off and ditch her with the rent. Not only that, but the place was some secluded bungalow in the middle of nowhere. What kind of student lives somewhere so out of touch with courses to attend?
Now, adding to the problems, it’s that part of winter where everything is just wet, making the dirt road to and from the friend’s house ridiculously impossible to drive over. Mud was splattering all over her precious purple peugeot. She’d almost hit a tree at least twice, maybe three times.
Thankfully, it was almost over. Two more turns before a lovely, firm and grippy tarmac road back into town.
“Damn, this mud makes it hard to decelerate!” The woman muttered as she turned the second to last corner. “Holy crap what are people doing in the middle of the road!?”
Brakes were slammed down, but they had little effect. The peugeot slammed into the military looking man. He went sliding across the mud. There was a pause. The man didn’t move. The dazed looking woman in the grass sat up and looked for her friend. The driver, horrified with what she’s just done, stumbled out of the car and slipped over to her accidental victim. He was still breathing.
“Oh thank goodness!”
The driver dug around her pockets, searching for her mobile phone. Realising it was probably in the car, she made her way back and continued the search. Meanwhile, the man’s friend slowly walked over to him.
“Cliff?” she asked. She fell to her knees, placing her hands on the man endearingly. “Cliff… are you there? Say something… please.”
The driver found her phone and dialed 999.
“Wait, no, not in England anymore.”
She cancelled the failing call and dialed 911 instead.
“Come on, come on,” she said to the phone.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“I just hit a guy with my car! He’s breathing but it’s kind of weak and raspy.”
The woman at Cliff’s side began to weep, moaning, “I’m sorry… Please don’t leave me! You can get through this! I need you!”
Cliff managed to lift a finger to Berry’s lips.
“Sh-... Shut up… Berry… and listen…”
The woman nodded, sniffling, with tears streaming down her cheeks.
“You’re a soldier… you need to act like one… so stop crying…” She made a weak attempt at wiping the tears away for Berry. “You’re a wonderful mare, Berry… I’m sure you’ll find another pony… Just promise that you’ll finish what we started… alright?”
“I promise… cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Now, you have to promise to survive this!”
“You know I can’t… Pinkie Pie would have my head in the afterlife…”
Cliff burst into a coughing fit. There was blood.
“Please… no…”
“Before I go… need to tell you… about Fluttershy… her wings… bruised… rope…”
“What?”
“Love… you…”
“Cliff? Cliff!?”
Realising Cliff was gone, Berry lost what little control she had left. Taking Cliff’s lifeless body into a deep embrace, the woman wailed at the sky. The driver lowered the phone from her ear upon hearing this, guilt coursing through her. A pair of paramedics came around the last corner, running along the grass verge.
Berry tried to resist their taking the body, but they convinced her that they might still be able to save Cliff. They wouldn’t let her ride with Cliff because they needed room to work. The driver offered Berry a lift instead. The awkwardness of sitting in the very thing that killed her special somepony made for an almost silent journey.
As they entered the town, the driver finally spoke, “My name’s Alexus, by the way.” Silence. “What’s yours?” More silence. “Look, I’m really sorry about Cliff. I mean it. I wanted to stop, I really did… the mud was just so slippy… if there’s anything I can do, please tell me. Absolutely any-”
“My name is Berry Punch, and I’d like it if you would stop talking.”
“Oh… ok… sorry…”
Berry kept holding a hand to her head with a pained look on her face. They reached the hospital, and Alexus drove right up to the front to drop Berry off. She steered away to park the car. When she finally got around to walking into the hospital herself, a nurse caught her attention.
“Uhm, Miss?” he called over. “Were you the one who drove the muddy woman here?”
“Yes, why, what’s wrong?”
“She collapsed. They’re having a look at her now, but we think it’s a concussion.”
“Oh christ… what about Cliff? Hit by a car.”
“Cliff? Erm… the military man? He’s dead. I’m sorry.”
“It’s… it’s alright… I didn’t really know him…”
“Ok then. If you’ll take a seat in the waiting room, we’ll keep you informed on the woman’s condition.”
“Her name’s Berry, and thank you.”
Seating herself in the indicated waiting area, Alexus put her head in her hands. She couldn’t believe she’d killed someone. How could she live with herself? She’d definitely have to make it up to Berry, but the question remained: how? An hour later the same nurse returned with a smile.
“The doctors say it’s okay to visit Berry now. She’s making a very speedy recovery. I’ll take you to her.”
Alexus followed the nurse to Berry’s room, where she was found sat up in bed, staring out the window. The guilty party knocked lightly on the open door and walked in.
“Hello… again.”
“Why are you here, Alexus? I’m sure they told you about Cliff.”
“Yes. Yes they did. I came to repeat my offer to make it up to you in some way.”
Berry sighed.
“Alexus, I believe you when you say it was purely unintentional. That said, there is still a part of me that wants revenge. I ask that you leave me, and hope we never meet again, because I am still emotionally unstable. I may end up hurting you. So, for both our sakes, just go home or wherever you need to be.”
Defeated, Alexus walked away, head hung low. Walking down corridors and stairs, she eventually stepped outside. Locating her car, the woman still felt the crushing guilt of her actions. It was as she inserted key in lock that the sound of smashing glass came to her attention. It didn’t take long to spot the source.
A hospital chair was falling from a window two floors up. Out the very same window leapt Berry Punch. The woman grabbed a nearby tree branch and swung down to ground level safely. Two suited men watched her from the window then disappeared from view. Spotting Alexus, Berry, wearing nothing but a hospital gown, ran between cars to get to her.
“You still want to make it up to me, right?” she shouted, getting closer.
Alexus had to think about this for a second. What would she be getting herself into? It must be dangerous if Berry just had to jump out a window from two floors up. But, then again, she was responsible for the death of this woman’s close friend; possibly her lover. The decision was made.
“Get in!” she ordered, unlocking the boot.
Without missing a beat, Berry dived into the boot. Alexus then closed the boot and returned to the driver’s door. Suits appeared at the hospital main entrance. As calmly and casually as she could, Alexus opened the door, slipped in and started the engine. Reversing out, a quick glance told her the suits suspected nothing. She and Berry left the hospital car park without a hitch.
A little over fifteen minutes later, the car was parked once more, this time outside an apartment block. Berry was let out of the boot when the coast was clear, and they went undetected all the way up to the apartment Alexus called her home away from home.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Berry?,” she asked for the umpteenth time since helping Berry out of the car.
“I heal quickly, and those doctors did a good job. See?”
To prove her point, Berry lightly tapped her head, and didn’t wince.
“I guess they did… would you like a drink or something?”
“Got any beer or whiskey?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t drink.”
“Pity. A water will do fine then.”
As Alexus poured a glass of water, it occurred to her that there was a virtually naked stranger in her apartment. Sure, she was quite possibly in too deep already, but there was still that nagging urge to drop everything and run. She ignored it.
Handing the glass over, Alexus finally got around to asking, “What happened up there?”
“Ah yes, the suited men. They’re apparently from your government, or some secretive division of it. They detected our arrival before…” The incident flashed before Berry’s eyes. “Before Cliff died… And, well, what little I know of government here is not good. So, when they reinforced my doubts with attempted violence, I fended them off long enough to get away as you saw.”
“Hang on! Detected your arrival? MY government? We’re nowhere near any borders. What are you talking about?”
“Cliff and I… we’re, for lack of a better word, aliens.”
“You mean, like… extraterrestrials?”
“Pretty much. You see…”
And so Berry told her long winded tale of adventure. Alexus was sceptical at best. An alternate reality of multicoloured, magical, talking ponies? A physics defying robot? Changelings? It all sounded like a drugged up hallucination to her. She was right about one thing though.
Lorraine Bowem Gordon was a Senior at the same college. Daughter to the college’s sporting legend ‘Flash’ Gordon, she too had a bit of a sporting reputation, nicknamed ‘Dash’ Gordon. Like father, like daughter, really.
Then there were the suits. She couldn’t deny that they were after Berry. And Berry clearly had some skills, considering the precision of her escape from window to earth. To prove it all was simple enough.
“This Cloakling Device. Can you deactivate it for me?”
“Of course.”
Where once there sat a human female there now sat brightly coloured Earth Pony mare. Alexus couldn’t help but jump at the sudden change.
“What? How?”
“Like I said, it’s mentally connected. I just told it that you knew who I was and the Auto didn’t see any need to disguise me.”
Berry Punch still wore the hospital gown, but even that had changed to fit the equine body, and underneath were the clothes Berry had donned back at the beginning of the adventure. Carefully, Alexus reached an arm over, the hand stroking the very real and soft coat on one of Berry’s hindlegs.
“I can’t believe it… You’re really a pony… And you have such advanced technology… with no digits… It doesn’t make any sense!”
“Yes, I’m a pony, and I don’t have to make sense. I’ve got a mission to complete. It would be much appreciated if you could help me, Alexus.”
“Of course I’ll help! And call me Ash.”
“But you said-”
“My full name is Alexus Ashling Lomain. Ash is what my friends call me.”
“You would call me a friend after such a short time?”
Ash leaned in close and stretched an arm over Berry’s equine shoulders.
“Friends trust one another, and you just trusted me with probably the biggest secret I’ve ever heard. And it’s like they say: ‘A friend in need's a friend indeed.’”
“Thank you, Al- Ash.”
“It’s no problem… hopefully. Now, what’s the plan?”
The unlikely duo talked into the night. Berry switched her disguise to manual, humanising herself as simply as possible. As such, her mane stayed the same. The Device gave her new clothes that Ash agreed would not look out of place. They would have to be change every day or so to avoid any suspicion. Berry’s pony clothes were put to one side to be washed.
Lorraine’s big birthday bash was in less than month’s time, and from then on they’d have to keep a vigil eye on the Beer Shop. They also had to be wary of any more interference from the government. Things could end up going pear shaped, especially during the week Rainbow Dash would be around.
Eventually, the need for sleep grew too strong and Ash set Berry up on the couch with some spare bedding. Left alone in the living room, the lonely mare looked towards the closed blinds blocking out the street lights.
“I won’t let you down Cliff…”