The stone melted away to the metal as the duo ascended up the stairwell, hooves clanging on the cold steel steps.
“So Berr, what do you think the next challenge will be?” The mint musician mustered the might to ask her frail, fuchsia friend.
“I honestly don’t know. I just hope that we come out of it okay...” The berry colored mare responded.
“Well... When we get out of this Luna forsaken hell hole, what will you do?” Lyra asked.
“Hmm...Well first I’ll give up the happy juice for good, then I will pay more attention to Ruby... I’ve been thinking, and I don’t know very much about what’s going on in her life...” Turning to her friend, Berry asked, “You?”
“Well I’ve seen her hanging around that one grey colt...” Lyra started, but saw the look in Berry’s eyes. “Oh! You mean what am I gonna do after getting out of here don’t you? Well, first I’m gonna march up to Celestia herself and force her to meet accept my demands for a Cantorlot wedding IN the castle. Then I’m gonna disown my parents by leaving them off the guest list so they can’t mooch off of my success, and then I will finally marry Bon Bon.” she finished her answer on a whimsical note.
“I’m invited I hope.” Berry responded, trying to ease the tension.
“But of course! We need a designated driver to take us to the hotel.” Lyra’s humorous retort was successful in breaking the dark feeling looming in the air, but her victory was short lived as they ran out of stairs, almost falling over the ghost step. Looking forward, the duo saw a wooden door. Lyra examined it, tapping it with her hooves and even going as far as licking it.
“She’s a clever mare.” the unicorn said. “The Hare stuffed the door with egg cartons, probably stuffed the walls with something more effective, to mute the sound so the challenge stays a surprise until we reach it. - ugh...” she was about to fall over, but was caught by her friend.
“Thanks, but look ahead.” Lyra said.
Berry looked down the hallway, expecting it to be long, dark and ominous, however, it was short with fluorescent lights, beaming down on the steel grate floor with the bulkhead door only about 10 meters away.
Berry looked at Lyra, to see her struggling to take an item out of her saddlebag, still obviously exhausted. “Whatcha doin’?” Berry asked.
Pulling out a hard candy, Lyra responded, “These are a special hard candy that Bon Bon was working on. They will give whomever eats it a short burst of energy, like drinking coffee or eating sugar, but accelerated. However, it is a double edged sword. It gives you large amounts of energy for a short period of time, yet when it wears off, you will feel worse than before.”
“Wait, why are you using it then?” Berry wanted to know.
“Well you’re too hurt to dodge the traps, and I’m too worn out to dodge the first one.” Lyra answered.
“What makes you think that there are traps?” Berry asked.
“Think about it,” Lyra explained, “We’re dealing with The Hare and this seems way too easy...” looking down at the floor below she said, “Probably...” and pressing down on the floor grate, a whirring noise was heard and buzz saws came out of the walls, floors and ceiling, so fast that if you blinked, you would miss it.
Berry fell back out of surprise and stared up to the ceiling as Lyra looked at the hallway. “Hmm... There must be a pattern to it...” Lyra muttered.
“Umm... Ly?” Berry said looking up.
“It was too fast to get a good look... I might need to activate it again...” Lyra continued to think.
“Hey Lyra.” Berry continued to try to get her friends attention as she grabbed the candy.
“I have the feeling that I've seen this before...” Lyra still pondered.
“LYRA!!” Berry shouted after breaking the candy in half.
“Hold on Berr.” Lyra responded, “I’m trying to figure this out.”
Rolling her eyes, Berry Punch popped the half piece of candy into her mouth and charged in. time seemed to slow down as Lyra watched on. Berry ducked as the first saw went over her head, then she somersaulted forward to avoid the saw that came from the floor. Hugging the wall, she had a good inch of air cushioning between her and the third saw. she moved with remarkable agility and prowess that no one would expect from the town drunk, as though she knew exactly where the buzz saws would come from.
Reaching the door, she looked at an awestruck Lyra, mouth gaping and jaw to the floor.
“How did you...” Lyra started to question, but Berry gestured up towards the ceiling.
Looking up, Lyra saw written on it, “You enjoy movies, no? Do you recall the third Darring Doo film?”
“Oh, now I understand.” Lyra said, taking the other half of the candy. Popping it in her mouth, she emulated Berry Punch’s every move, albeit slower, but making it across the room after losing only a tuft of mane hair from the last saw.
“So you remember how she got to the Lunar Chalice?” Berry asked Lyra as the effects of the candy wore off.
“Duh! Darring Doo and the Final Crusade was my favorite one of the Darring Doo films.” Lyra answered, opening the bulkhead door while she could. Taking a few steps into the new room, the duo collapsed into exhaustion...
Looking around, they saw that they were in a simple circular room with a dome roof. Hanging from the dome was a large box with screens like the kind one would see in hockey games. The floor they walked on was a narrow scaffold lined with railing along it except for where a ladder led into the pit filled with gleaming objects below them. In the very center of the room was a circular platform riddled with holes and a figures silhouette being held up by chains. From what they could tell, the chained up figure seemed to be a mare with a mane and tail the consistency of cotton candy.
“Hello Lyra!” A warped voice boomed. Looking up towards the box, Lyra and Berry saw The Hare on the big screens, her pink mask splattered in blood as it grinned in a menacing way. She was in some sort of shack or shed in the edge of the Everfree Forest in the hours of twilight, judging by the overgrowth and sky outside the window behind her. “I’m glad to see that you’re alive... Now as you two may have noticed, there is somepony chained up in the center of this room. You may ask me three questions, and I will answer them. Then you will be presented with a choice to make. Now go on and ask.”
“Who are you!?” Berry was the first to ask.
“Wow! Cutting right to the chase now aren’t we miss Punch? I assure you, I will meet you at the end to tell you” The Hare said in such a way that her pink mask, covered in blood and grinning with such ferocity, stared into the soul with those beaming red eyes.
“Hmm...” The pony on the platform stirred in her slumber.
“Why are we here?” Lyra was the next to ask.
“Well everypony is here for a reason...” The insane murderer answered, looking ‘down’ to the platform before continuing. “Some ponies have dark, dark secrets that they don’t want anypony to know... Now, you have one more question.
“Well, I’ve been wondering…” Berry Punch started. “Where in Equestria did you get the bits for all of this? I mean this can’t be cheap.”
This question had caught The Hare off guard. She put a dark grey gloved hoof up to her chin in though before finally saying, “You would be surprised at how much money you can earn by doing practically nothing. Now for your choice. In a moment, I will send a jolt of electricity through the chains, to wake up sleeping ugly here. You can just walk to the exit, there are no traps that will hinder or stop you from leaving her to her fate, the scaffolding acts as a safe zone. The second choice is, you can help her. Sure she can free herself from her binds and leap off the platform to make her way to the safe zone, but she will be unable to climb up to the ladder.”
“How can we trust you?” Lyra said, trying to buy more time.
“I am a mare of my word. What I say is the honest truth. Speaking of truth, you two can go ahead and drop your charade now, you can’t fool me.” Berry Punch and Lyra hadn’t even noticed that they were standing in the traditional ‘tough pony’ stance, trying not to seem on the verge of passing out. “Now you two should make your decision quickly, for I shall grow bored soon.” And with that, the big box’s screen went black.
Large lights that seemed better fit to be in a theatre turned on, pointing to the figure that was chained up on the hole ridden island in the sea of gleaming objects, now revealed to be shards of broken glass and syringes. The identity of the silhouette was that of a white Pegasus, chained via bloody hooks through her wings. Her mane and tail were gold as Celestias sun and three violet balloons were emblazoned upon her flank. Her head hung low as her deep purple eyes were half opened as though she was half asleep and her mouth was covered by silver duct tape.
With a sudden jerk, the pegasus’s body seized up, causing her eyes to open wide. Falling onto the ground below, she looked around in fear. She tried to gasp when she saw where she was, but was unable to.
Just then, a spike shot out of one of the holes, narrowly missing the white mare and sending her to the edge of her little isle. She tried to go further, but was racked with pain as the hooks pulled on her wings.
“We have to help her!” Berry said to Lyra. They both took a step toward the entrance to the pit before falling down. They were too exhausted to move, but that didn’t stop Berry. As she crawled towards the pit, she saw the spikes coming up from the platform, moving in a wave, but separating when they would have met the mare. “The Hare is playing with her.” Berry thought. She could almost hear the maniacal cackle of the insane murderer.
“Listen!” Berry shouted. “You need to break free from those chains! We can help you it if you make it over here!”
The Pegasus watched as the spikes came toward her. She didn’t know how much time she had left before the spikes got bored and actually hit her, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. In one swift motion, she ripped her wings free from the hooks, trying to scream louder than anyone could think if not for the tape over her mouth, and jumped into the sea of sharp objects.
As soon as the glass dug into her legs, she instinctively jumped up and flapped her wings to fly, however it only achieved more pain and the spray of blood in many directions. Catching herself as she landed as to not go any deeper into the points, she looked at Berry on the edge of the scaffold over the ladder, gesturing for the Pegasus to go towards her and mouthing the words, “We can help you.”
Wading knee deep in sharp objects, tears started to roll out from her eyes. After what seemed like an eternity, the white mare finally made it to the ladder, but it didn’t go down far enough grab on to. The tears rolled even more as a fuchsia hoof extended down. As Berry grabbed the pegasus’s hoof with the least amount of glass embedded, the crying mares eyes filled with hope. In one fell motion, Berry pulled up and the newest member of her party landed on the scaffold, and was finally able to scream in pain once Berry removed the tape.
“Hold on,” berry said to the white pegasus in a soothing voice, before looking at Lyra. “It’s going to be okay. Once we get the shards out, we can fix it up.”
One by one, the glass and syringes were pulled out, relieving the pain. They weren’t in too deep, but it was still a good idea to bandage the wounds. The bigger worry was the wings, but they seemed to have stopped bleeding. Getting the red and gold cloth from Lyra, Berry saw a greenish glow coming from the third member of their group. Running over to her, Berry saw the wounds were glowing a deep green and for a moment, they seemed to have caught fire as they closed, leaving just small scars where the cuts were.
Berry saw the look of deep focus draining from the blond mare, and had just one question.
“Surprise, what’s your reason for being here?...”
Is it me, or are my chapters getting longer. So la st week was finals week and that's why I have a late post, but on the up side, I passed with A's and B's.
Here is a link the the picture for the last chapter (http://deeell.deviantart.com/art/Fair-Game-Lyras-Secret-304005809) and here is the picture for the chapter you just read (http://deeell.deviantart.com/art/Surprise-Surprise-306287309)
Don't forget to watch me on deviant art and tell your friends about this story. Oh and if you are having trouble picturing The Hares voice, it sounds sort of like L when he disguised his voice.
So that's it... Bye