//------------------------------//
// Lyras Secret 
// Story: Fair Game 
// by DEL 
//------------------------------//

Back in the triangular room, Lyra and Berry Punch decided to rest. Collapsing on the floor, it was Berry who spoke first.
“So why didn’t you just use your magic to pick up the key?” She asked innocently.
“Oh gee, why didn’t I think of that?” Lyra answered sarcastically, but quickly, her tone turned to anger. “You don't think I would have thought of that? My magic has been disabled! There’s a dampening gemstone somewhere near and it’s been absorbing all the spells I cast.”
Upon completing her rant, Lyra looked upon the saddened and offended Berry. Quickly, she took on a more soothing and comforting voice.
“Sorr. It’s just... I’m afraid... Afraid that I’ll never see the light of day... Afraid that I’ll never hear the sweet sound of my lyre … Afraid that I'll never see my Bon Bon again...”
“OH GOD RUBY” Berry Punch burst out into tears. “I’ll never see my daughter again!” She bawled.
With a painfully loud SLAP, Lyra grabbed Berry and got her into her senses.
“Listen Ber, if you keep thinking like that, you will never survive! The Hare treats this as though it was a game, so we need to play and win!”
Looking up at Lyra, Berry wiped the tears from her eyes, and smiling, she said “Thanks, i needed that.”
Pulling herself together, Berry looked at the hallway she had yet to venture down.
“If we want to progress, we  have to head down this way" She said as she started running. She wasn't very far down the hall when she hit herself on the head, causing her to fall once again.
"What's wrong? You seem to he falling a lot here. Don't tell me you're still too hungover to walk." Lyra said, helping her up.
Rubbing her head, Berry retorted, "I’m not still hangover. I was running and I hit something."
Looking up in the dim lighting, Berry saw the silhouette of a small rectangle, hanging on the ceiling by a thread. 
“It’s a cassette player... I think...” She said, reaching out her left forehoof, for the other was damaged, she grabbed the player, and pulled...
Then...
It all happened at once.
What was only a second, seemed like an eternity. Upon getting the player off the thread, a twang of vibrating wire echoed through the corridor. Out of nowhere, a jagged stick on a rope came swinging in for the kill, but Lyra acted fast. She tackled Berry to the ground as the stick impaled itself in the wall.
Feeling proud of her efforts, Lyra looked up to the stick. As the first crimson drop rippled onto the floor, Lyra was struck with the pain of guilt. Looking back down, Berry was covering her left foreleg as her tears mixed with the blood gushing out of her wound, in too much pain to utter a sound.
“It’s gonna be alright” Lyra said, trying to calm down her friend, “Let me have a look.”
As soon as Berry released the grasp on her foreleg to show Lyra, Lyra immediately regretted ever saying it. An ungodly amount of flesh was missing from Berrys foreleft.
in anger, Lyra got up. “Hang in there, Punch.” she said as a shadow passed over her eyes. her horn was glowing with a faded minty green aura.
POW!POW!POW!
One by one, the green energy burst into a magnificent explosion at the tip of her horn, causing Lyra to wince at each release. Eventually, Lyra collapsed next to Berry, her horn glowing one last time. Slowly, Berrys wound stopped bleeding and the pain lessened, but that was the calm before the healing rain. As her flesh started to grow back, the pain was a hundred times worse than she ever imagined possible. Eventually, as the spell wore off, the pain lessened until it was a fraction of what it originally was. Berry opened her eyes to look at her wound. it had healed to the point where it wasn't an immediate concern, but was still a substantial laceration.
“Ly... what did you do?” She asked as Lyra half opened one eye.
Breathing heavily, Lyra responded, “I... just bombarded... the dampening jemstone... with magical blasts... so it would weaken... so I could cast... a simple healing spell...I shouldn’t have done that... Kind of a double edged sword...”
“Where did you learn that?”
“Nowhere... important... Let’s take a break...”

Lyra was exhausted having expending a fairly large amount of magic and took a few moments to catch herself.
“In my bag, there is some cloth. You need to bandage your wound.” She said to berry.
“Ok” Berry responded, opening Lyras saddlebag. Wincing in pain from her wound, she fumbled it, thus spilling its contents. There was a large piece of cloth, one side was red, but the other side shimmered as though made of gold. There were also some candies, a thin wire of some sort and...
“A cassette tape?” Berry thought. After dressing her wound, she picked up the tape. Lyra tried to get up, but immediately fell on her face.
“Hello berry,” the cassette played that chilling warped voice, “I believe it’s safe to assume that Lyra is there, alive and well. Lyra, I bet you’re wondering just why are you here... But then again, you probably know.” At this part, Berry looked at Lyra, still laying on the ground. she was looking up away from Berry whilst biting her lower lip, then she sadly turned her gaze to the ground.
“You came remarkably close.” The tape continued. “You came so close, I might as well come clean if you make it out alive. However, if you want to do that, you must survive all the levels. The next level is up ahead and you will be challenged in every way...”  And the tape ended with static.
Shocked, Berry turned to Lyra and said, “What’d she mean?” Turning angry, she repeated herself. “What did the hare mean by that?!”
“You know how I’m from Canterlot, right?” She answered with a question.
“Yeah. Every time I go up there, everything is so expensive. I would have never paid that off had I not found you.”
“He he. Fun night. wait!” Lyra face hooved. “Life or death situation here. Bon Bon would kill me if she found out. Getting back on track here, do you know why i moved to Ponyville?”
“No. I had heard rumors ranging from you running from Celestias bananas, to you stalking that bossy purple mare from winter wrapup.”
“Celestias bananas?” Lyra wondered, “You know what, nevermind. Do you know where I work?”
“I just assumed that ponies would pay you to play your harp.”
“It’s a lyre” Lyra said obviously annoyed. “But no, that’s not my job, it’s more of a hobby. I’ve been investigating The Hare for a couple of years now. I've been right working under the captain of the guard, Shining Armor, himself, with another unicorn. We were undercover, but The hare must have found out.”
“Wow! Well... Who was the other  pony you were working with?”
“Dunno. We never met. We only spoke via dragon flame. That’s what the eternal candle in my house was for. We used code names. I was Soothing Song and she was Clockwork."
"Oh... Well... Um... What did The Hare mean by you getting too close?"
"Well I had narrowed it down to about 30 suspects, so I was really close to finding out who she was. Considering where it got me, I would say that one of those suspects has an interesting hobby.”
Lyra started to get up. Still struggling, she put her things in her bag. “We should get going.” she said as she slumped towards the end of the hallway.
Berry limped towards her as she moved towards the darkness. She finally caught up, only when Lyra stopped. At the end of the corridor, there was a metal stairwell. Painted on the walls were the wording, “LVL2.”
Berry looked at herself, then Lyra. She was badly wounded and her companion was severely exhausted.
Looking back at the stairwell, she said, “So Ly, are you ready for the second level?”


Sorry for not updating sooner and for the long read. I was busy with school and I was originally going to have this chapter be two chapters but I think it's good as one. You can see where I would have broken it off. OOH, I was re reading and looking over this series to make sure I have consistency and I realized that no one said anything about the tron reference at the beginning. Hell that's about it. Hasta le pasta!