//------------------------------//
// An Interesting Evening 
// Story: Berry's Burns 
// by ThatGirl2147 
//------------------------------//

     It was a cold, Winter morning in London Town. It was when all Hell broke loose. Ultranationalist Russians attacked every major European nation, Great Britain Included. Many elite SAS teams were sent in to fight back the terrorists. I was in one of those teams.

I couldn’t remember much, but my team and I had thinned down to just myself and our squad leader, Sergeant Wallcroft, and I was wounded, with a bullet in my right thigh. We still managed to meet up with more SAS as we investigated a lorry we suspected to be used by the Ultranationalists.

I wish our suspicions were wrong.

Without warning, the lorry, and many others like it, exploded into a mighty fireballs that engulfed most of the area about it. I heard Wallcroft scream my name as I felt myself fall to the ground. I didn’t feel the ground, though; I felt nothing. I saw nothing.

But I heard something. It was the most unusual sound I’ve ever heard. It sounded as though everything on the planet simultaneously shattered.

Then, more nothing, followed by a faint tree line.

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It was a nice day in Ponyville; the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and everything was well. A light mulberry Earth Mare was walking around the Everfree Forest to forget about things for a while. She had a puffy, cerise mane with a matching tail and eyes, and a bunch of grapes and a strawberry adorned her flank.

She was listening to the sounds of nature when lightning could be heard, lightning so powerful that it made the mare’s mane stand on end. She looked up and saw a clear, blue sky. She looked around her to locate the source of the disturbance, and saw a faint glint in the darkness of the forest.

“I really shouldn’t go in there,” said she to herself in a light, feminine voice. “I mean, I’ve been told since I was a filly to not even come this close.” She then took a gulp of air and said, “but somepony could be hurt, and I should help.” After that, she slowly trotted through the brush.

“Hello,” called she, “is anypony there? Hello?” After a few minutes of searching, she noticed a scorched piece of earth in a small clearing. Upon closer inspection, she saw a black crater, and a big pile of blackness slumped in the crater. “Hello?” said she again, with no answer. The black thing then began to move, startling the mulberry mare. She jumped back and hid behind a shrub, and waited.

The mare peered out of her hiding place to see what was going on, and almost had a heart attack at what she saw. She saw a big, ape-like bipedal thing with what appeared to be an all-black hide. The thing had a head, but it was covered by what the mare could only think to be a mask. The thing walked, but it appeared to be limping on its right leg. It also released a grunt with each step.

The thing turned, and the mare saw what she guessed were eyes: cold, black pieces of glass that showed no emotion whatsoever. She then fell back, making a rustling noise.

“What?” asked the thing to nopony in particular, “Wallcroft? Is that you?” The mare looked out again, and saw that the ape thing was closer to the shrub, looking about it. “Wallcroft? Are you there? I’m hit. I’m hit.” The thing’s voice then trailed off and it fell to the ground, motionless.

This hit the mare in the right place, because she then hopped out of her hiding spot and looked over the bipedal stranger. It had pockets all about its black hide, and was gripping a very strange-looking device in its fingers. “This thing looks like a monkey,” remarked the mare at the thing’s hands and feet. “Anyway, I should help it.”

At a loss as to what to do, the mulberry mare looked over the monkey again, and saw that it had a small fabric piece on the back of its hide. “Peculiar,” thought the mare, “but good enough for me.” She grabbed the fabric in her teeth and tried to pull, to no avail. “Hmm, big monkey,” thought she to herself.

“Come on, Berry Punch,” said she to herself frustratedly, “you can do this; you’re a strong mare.” She tried again, and made little progress in pulling the big creature, which was almost twice her size.

It took her many hours, but the mare, whose name is Berry Punch, managed to pull the unconscious thing out of the forest and to her home in Ponyville. Luckily for her, she was unnoticed.

The inside of the mare’s house was modest: a few chairs, a coffee table, and a kitchen nearby, as well as a staircase to the second floor. “Oh, Celestia,” thought she to herself at the prospect of carrying this big thing up all those stairs, which she eventually did. Up the stairs was a hallway with a few doors on each side. She entered the third door on the right side to an empty bedroom, her guest’s bedroom. “This is a guest, right?” She snickered at her own joke and dragged the monkey into the room.

The room had a basic carpet floor, bland walls, and a few paintings on the walls, and was furnished by a chair, bed, and vanity. The creature was too large for the bed, so Berry just left it on the soft carpet. After a few seconds, she saw that her carpet under the creature’s leg had taken a crimson tint to it. Worried, the mare looked to see that the creature’s leg was indeed bleeding, and badly.

Berry jumped up and ran to another room to fetch a first-aid kit, and the creature began to stir again.

“Ugh,” said the creature in an accented male voice, “what happened, Wallcroft?” After a look around, he repeated, “Wallcroft? Where are you?” He heard a door creak, and readied his weapon, aiming straight at the door. When it opened, the monkey almost fainted from shock, as did the mare who was standing at the door, first-aid kit in her mouth.

“Don’t move you... horse?” said the creature in utter confusion. He tried to stand, but shouted in pain as he put weight on his wounded leg.

Berry Punch rushed by the creature’s side and held his head in her hooves, setting the medical bag on the floor. “Shh, shh,” said she comfortingly, “calm down; I want to help you.”

The creature shook his head in confusion. “No,” said he, “how can a talking horse help a bullet wound?” He then grabbed the medical bag and said as he struggled with it, “I can do this myself, now how do you open this thing?”

“No, let me help you,” said the mare as she reached her hoof towards the bag.

“I said I can do it myself!” barked the creature, looking at Berry through his blank glass eyes.

At that point, tears welled up in the mare’s eyes. “Okay, okay!” said she frantically as she smacked her hoof on the bag, casting it open.

“Oi,” said the creature, “now don’t cry, Little Pony.” He put the medical equipment down and pulled Berry close to him. “I’m sorry, but I do need your help.” He calmly picked up a pair of forceps from the medical bag and said, “I need you to hold my legs down.”

The mare sniffled. “Okay,” said she, wiping tears away, “why do you need me to hold your legs?”

“Because this is going to hurt,” replied he simply. The mare nodded and obeyed, holding her hooves on his lower legs with all her strength. The creature ripped a hole in what appeared until now to be his hide, revealing a pale tan leg, covered in blood and bearing a small hole. Taking a deep breath, the monkey drove the forceps into the wound and tried to jerk his legs from the pain. Berry’s strength held, and he didn’t move. He grunted and breathed heavily as he closed the forceps around the foreign object. He pulled out the forceps to reveal a bloody ball of crushed up lead and copper. He then set the forceps aside and took a small metal tongue depressor from the bag and gave it to Berry Punch. “Heat this,” ordered he, “hold it over an open flame for a few seconds, and bring it back here.”

Without thinking twice, Berry nodded and left the room with the metal piece, soon returning with it and being extra careful.

“Thank you,” said he gratefully, “now press the hot end on that wound, if you will.”

“Excuse me?” asked the mare, muffled by the piece.

The creature explained, “to cauterise the wound and stop the bleeding, press the hot end against my leg.”

“Okay,” said Berry simply. The creature gritted his teeth and she followed his order. The sound of slight sizzling and the smell of burning flesh made the small mare cringe, and the creature grunted from the pain. After a few grueling seconds, the mare took the hot piece off, revealing a sloppily sealed wound, covered in burned flesh and blood.

Berry was feeling woozy, and looked to the creature, who was barely moving. The mare managed to hear the words, “Thank you,” being spoken before the pair fainted.