//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Corruption is Magic: Art of the Mannequin 
// by Volcash 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 3

Lyra awoke to the sound of voices.
"Bring her right hind leg back a bit," Rarity ordered. Lyra's leg felt strangely compelled to oblige, sliding backwards without her consent.
"How's that?" A second voice asked.
"Marvelous. Now point her front left hoof a little more." Lyra's ankle involuntarily flicked out, pointing straight out with her left front leg. The green unicorn tried to lower the mutinous limb, to no avail.
"Like that?" The other voice asked.
"Yes, that's fine. Now, bring out her flank." Lyra's rump lifted into the air against her will.
"Is that good?"
"That's perfect. I think we're ready."


Lyra's eyes fluttered open and surveyed her surroundings. Or at least, as much as she could without moving her head, because she seemed to be entirely paralyzed. The room was dark, the only light came from the moon shining through the translucent white curtains. Around the room were several dress mannequins, and to her left was a mirror. Lyra peered into the mirror and examined her reflection. For some reason, she was holding a flamboyant pose, and a strange black object was clipped onto her horn. Her mouth was gagged with a tight coil of ribbon, her body was glowing bright purple, and she was unable to move. The one thing that could move was her tail, which she was thrashing wildly. In the background of the mirror she saw Bonbon, gagged similarly and tied down to a chair. The lovers locked eyes, waiting in terror of their unknown fate.


"Oh, It looks like she's awake." The mysterious voice noticed.
Lyra's eyes turned toward the source of the voice, finding Twilight standing next to Rarity, horn glowing purple like Lyra.
"Just in time to watch us get to work," Rarity mused. "How nice." She walked up to Lyra and put a hoof on the immobile mare's face. “Are you comfortable darling?”
Lyra screamed into the gag, releasing a muted whine for Rarity to ignore. 
“Cheer up, Lyra,” The white fashonista cooed. “I have your fillyfriend here too, so you can spend your final moments together.”
Twilight spun Lyra around so she could look at Bonbon directly. The lovers’ eyes widened at the words ‘final moments.’ Lyra began to cry as Bonbon shut her eyes and tried to pretend this wasn’t happening, that this was all just a terrible nightmare.
Rarity’s horn twinkled to life. “Oh no you don’t, Bonbon.” A white magic aura formed around Bonbon’s eyelids, forcing them open, and a tape dispenser lifted off of a nearby desk. Several strips of tape separated from the dispenser, fastening themselves to the earth pony’s eyes. “I told you your escape attempt would not go unnoticed. You’re going to watch every second of this, whether you like it or not.”


Rarity returned her attention to the green unicorn. “I assume you’ve been wondering what’s going to happen to you.” Rarity’s face morphed into a depraved expression. “I’m going to add the two of you to my collection of mannequins.”
Lyra and Bonbon shrieked in horror. Lyra’s eyes darted around the room as she racked her brain for a spell to use. Her eyes fell upon a loaded pincushion, containing dozens of needles, and she got an idea. Normally, she wouldn’t do something like this, but in her particular situation she had no choice. Her horn began to glow, and the mysterious black object clamped to it beeped. The magic light from Lyra’s horn seemed to be sucked into the device, and a series of sparks flew from the device to Lyra’s head, causing her to shout with pain.
Rarity snickered. “I love it when they figure out what the magic inhibitor does! Well, enough dilly-dallying; let’s get down to business. First things first,” the white unicorn’s horn lit up, and an electric razor floated into view.
Lyra swallowed nervously as the razor buzzed to life. It floated upwards, out of her field of vision, and the next thing she saw was a lock of her own mane. More and more green hair fell to the floor as the razor whizzed around the incapacitated mare’s head and neck. Eventually her mane became nothing more than a pile of green hairs on the floor, leaving one large streak of exposed skin down her neck. Lyra looked down longingly at what was once her luxurious mane.


Rarity grinned sadistically. “Next, the tail.”
The hairs on Lyra’s rear stood on end as she pondered their unknown fate. Then she laid eyes on one of the mannequins, and it dawned on her. None of the mannequins had tails.
Rarity’s horn and Lyra’s tail shimmered white, and Lyra’s tail rose higher into the air. Lyra winced as several long tufts of green hair separated themselves from her hindquarters, some of them bringing pieces of skin with them. Eventually, Lyra’s long, luscious tail was reduced to a short, bloody stump, just a layer of pale, patchy skin covering her tailbones.
Rarity dropped the clump of hair, and reached for a hacksaw. What was left of Lyra’s tail squirmed pathetically as the glinting silver saw drew in close. Rarity’s magic aura immobilized Lyra’s tail stub and moved the saw blade back and forth across it, cutting through skin, nerve, muscle, and bone. The unrecognizable former part of Lyra’s body fell to the ground, and secreted its last few drops of blood into a puddle around it.
Lyra screamed in agony as she lost more and more blood running down her flanks. She received a small amount of relief when Rarity applied a gauze pad to the gaping wound, and fastened it with medical tape. “We don’t want you bleeding out, now do we?” Bonbon writhed around in her chair, breaking down at the gruesome sight in front of her.
Twilight sighed, and then turned to Rarity. “Can we just put them under please?”
“Now where’s the fun in that?” The white unicorn inquired. “Besides, this will only take a minute. Look, I’m going to start the spell right now.” Rarity’s horn lit up white, and three beams of white light swirled around the three of Lyra’s hooves that were on the ground. Her hooves turned from green to white as her skin turned into plaster.
The white light crept up Lyra’s legs like a trio of venomous serpents, bringing with it the horrible transformation. The light trails circling her hind legs merged into one as the plaster crept up to her flanks, erasing the golden lyres; her cutie marks, her identity. Rarity tore off the once sterile gauze pad, and the mannequin skin closed over the clotting wound.
Lyra stared deeply into Rarity’s eyes, as if looking for any sign of sympathy. She found none. The half green unicorn hyperventilated, partly because of her crippling fear, and partly because the spell had spread to her torso, making it difficult for her lungs to move.
The white light orbiting Lyra’s front right leg reached the top, and slithered up her left leg, the one raised into the air. Meanwhile, the light around her torso reached the base of her neck, and rounded it like an angry Boa Constrictor. All the while, Lyra yelled her desperate muffled protests into deaf ears.


The door creaked open, and the spell’s progress halted, drawing a sigh of relief from the mostly plastered pony.
“Rarity? Are you in here?” Sweetie Belle called out, poking her head into the room. She saw Lyra and Bonbon, and the three of them were scared out of their minds. “What are you doing?”
Rarity was thoroughly shocked by her little sister’s arrival. “Sweetie Belle! What are you doing up this late?”
“I couldn’t sleep. I th-th-thought I heard… screaming.”
Bonbon looked at Sweetie Belle and grunted insistently. Bonbon flicked her hoof several times, as if trying to shoo Rarity's sister away. Sweetie Belle ran out of the room and slammed the door behind her.
“Dammit!” Rarity exclaimed. “Give me a minute.” Rarity trotted towards the door, but stopped short and turned to Twilight. “You may as well save your magic.” Twilight stopped the holding spell on Lyra, and Rarity ran out the door.


Sweetie Belle ran out into the main room of Carousel Boutique, moonlight flooding in through the windows. 	Rarity approached Sweetie Belle urgently, turning on the lights with her magic. “Sweetie Belle, that wasn’t what it looked like!”
“Then by all means, explain yourself,” the unicorn filly pleaded. “If there’s a reasonable explanation for all this, I’d love to hear it.”
Rarity paused for a moment. “Umm…” Her eyes darted anxiously around the room
“Oh my Celestia…” Sweetie Belle cried. “You don’t have a reasonable explanation. You foalnapped them!”
“Of course not! Lyra was…” Rarity began, trying to come up with something. “Just… modeling a white jumpsuit for me. I was going to experiment with colors and patterns, but I just wanted to make sure that it was comfortable first.” While she was delivering her blatant lie, her horn began to glow dimly. The doors of the cabinet on the other side of the room swung open quietly, and a syringe lifted off of a shelf inside it, slowly floating in Sweetie Belle’s direction.
“Then why was she gagged?” Sweetie probed. “And why was Bonbon tied to a chair?”
“I assure you, I can explain.”
“Well then quit stalling and start talking!”
Just then, the syringe snuck up behind Sweetie Belle, sticking itself into her flank, and injecting a generous amount of tranquilizer into her system.
Sweetie Belle quickly turned around and inspected the area behind her. “What was that?” She turned back to her sister. “What did you do to me?”
“You woke up in the middle of the night,” Rarity explained. “I’m just helping you get back to sleep.”
“Oh, Celestia! You’re a monster!” Sweetie turned and ran for the front door. She had to go get the police. She had to find somepony who would help.
Her heart was racing, speeding her blood through her body, and taking the tranquilizer with it. Her gallop turned to a shaky trot, and then she collapsed on the floor mid-stride. Rarity’s horn sparked, and Sweetie Belle lifted into the air, following behind Rarity as she returned to the back room.


While all of this was going on in the front, Lyra and Bonbon were freaking out in the back. Lyra was finally able to move, but since the majority of her skin had been turned into plaster, and could only move her neck and her front left leg. She shook her head violently, causing her entire body to wobble.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Twilight advised.
Lyra’s body tipped over, and she fell to the floor. She swung her head up, and banged her horn against the floor in an attempt to break the inhibitor. The object stayed attached fast to her horn, so she tried again. And again. And again.
“Seriously, Lyra,” Twilight warned. “For you own good, I highly recommend that you stop moving so much.
Lyra reeled her head back, stretching the skin on her neck too far this time. Her skin separated itself from the plaster creating a gaping tear in her body. Blood trickled down to the floor as she tried several more times to break the inhibitor. Bonbon saw Lyra’s skin inching further and further from her chest, and retched in disgust. Her cheeks inflated as vomit leaked out from behind her gag, spilling into her lap.
“Oh no. Now you’ve done it,” Twilight sighed. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”


Rarity reentered the room, her comatose sister closely behind. Rarity dropped Sweetie Belle’s limp body on the floor. “It looks like we’ve got another one.”
“Are you serious?!?” Twilight shouted. “That’s your sister! Have you no heart?”
“She saw us turning Lyra into a mannequin! What am I supposed to do?”
“Take her up to her bed, and tuck her in,” The purple unicorn suggested. “She’ll come to in her bed, and she’ll think that she had a terrible nightmare. Then she’ll forget this ever happened.”
“I suppose that could work.” Rarity carried Sweetie Belle upstairs.


Rarity entered Sweetie Belle’s room, and placed her unconscious sister onto her bed. Sweetie’s sheets shimmered as Rarity pulled them over Sweetie Belle, tucking them perfectly around her, as is her nature.
“Sweet dreams, sister,” Rarity cooed, returning downstairs.


The white mare strolled into the back room once more, much to the chagrin of her two captives. “Well, that’s taken care of. Now, where were we?”
“Bad news, Rarity, Lyra wouldn’t stop struggling, and she tore her skin.”
“How bad is it?”
“See for yourself.” Twilight’s horn sparked to life, lifting Lyra off of the ground and back to her hooves. Rarity inspected Lyra’s neck to survey the damage. The tear in her skin almost stretched across the entire circumference of her neck, exposing a bloody wall of muscle tissue.
“That’s a shame, I can’t finish the spell with this bad of a break in her skin.”
Lyra let out an extremely relieved sigh.
“I guess there’s only one thing to do…” Rarity kicked Lyra in the side of the ribcage, knocking her to the ground, and her horn glowed white.
Across the room, another white glow lit up the darkness. A shimmering white sledgehammer lifted off of the table, and floated over towards the petrified pony on the floor.
Lyra clawed at the floor with her one good hoof, vainly inching her body away from the incoming hammer. Rarity placed a hoof on Lyra’s flank, bringing the lyrist’s already miniscule progress to a standstill. Lyra pitifully looked up at her captor, and a single teardrop slipped from her eye as she let out a lingering, pathetic whimper. She stole one last glance at her fillyfriend, and then shut her eyes, finally accepting her fate.


The hammer came down full force on Lyra’s chest, and there was a cracking sound as the plaster shattered, followed immediately by the crunch of her breaking ribs, and the squishing sound of her splattering vital organs.
Bonbon shrieked as the love of her life was reduced to a bloody heap of white, plaster-coated flesh, a green disembodied head, and a red stain on the floor. Normally, red, green, and white were such a cheerful trio of colors, but in this situation, that couldn’t have been farther from the case for the bound and gagged mare. The immense amount of tears that burst from her eyes loosened the tape, allowing her to shut her eyelids as she softly cried to herself.


“Now, Bonbon,” Rarity advised. “Unless you want to end up like that, I suggest that you cooperate."
Twilight’s horn shimmered; creating a magic aura around the depressed earth pony, and Rarity’s did the same, untying Bonbon’s bonds. Bonbon flew out of the chair and onto the ground, and the two unicorns discussed what pose to put her in. Bonbon remained completely silent as various parts of her body moved themselves into various positions, for she knew that nothing she could do would mean anything anymore.