A Canterlot Ghost Tale

by volrathxp

Chapter Ten: Final Night

A Canterlot Ghost Tale

Chapter Ten: Final Night

“Archibald,” Bon Bon said. “This doesn't make any sense. Why are you...?”

“Here? It should be rather obvious,” the dragon-like unicorn replied. “I'm here because I am trapped here.”

“What do you want with us?” Lyra asked, scowling.

Archibald narrowed his eyes at the unicorn. “I want what any other sentient creature wants. I want to be free. I want life, dear Lyra, and I am willing to do whatever I can do claim it.”

“This whole thing... it was you all along,” Bon Bon said. “You were pushing me and prodding me into looking into the house's story. All so you could corner me there.”

“Yes...” Archibald replied. “I thought it was quite clever, posing as someone you thought you could trust. I had hoped to shake your senses enough that you would give in, but it seems you are stronger than I estimated.” His clawed hooves clacked on the floor.

“The other thing, that was you too, wasn't it?” Lyra said.

“Indeed,” the dragon-like creature said. “I thought maybe the traditional notion of a demon would scare you into giving up. I was wrong about that, too. It is of no matter, though. I will have my revenge on Equestria. I will be reborn. You're the first ones in a long time that have been suitable for my needs.”

“First ones?” Bon Bon said. “So the stories about the rest of the owners were true?”

“Quite,” Archibald said. “I've been here for a very, very, very long time.”

“In the house,” Bon Bon continued. “You've haunted the house, searching for a way to become... wait... what exactly are you?”

Archibald glowered. “I am in no mood for twenty questions while you search for a way out of this situation. I assure you, there isn't one. I will be free of this place.”

“I don't think so,” Lyra snapped. “You're not taking my Bonnie or my foal, so you can just back off!” She took a threatening step towards the creature.

“Hah,” Archibald tittered. “As if you can actually do anything against me.” The creature spread its wings and took a few steps forward. Almost as if by magic, he stopped within several feet of the two mares and froze in his tracks.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Archibald said, snarling loudly. He attempted to lift its claws, but could not. “Why can't I move?!”

“You have no power over them here, foul creature,” another voice answered. “This is my realm.”

Bon Bon and Lyra's eyes followed the sound of the voice. Standing tall across the room and bathed in the black of night itself was a deep navy alicorn. Her crown glinted in the darkness.

“Princess... Princess Luna?!” Lyra shouted. “What are you...? What are you doing here?”

“We answer the call of all our subjects, Miss Heartstrings of Canterlot,” the princess responded. “We are here to break you free of this creature's influence.”

“Well, well... one of Equestria's pretty little princesses,” Archibald interjected. It grinned toothily as it glared at the alicorn. “You truly think you can break my influence over these pathetic little ponies?”

“We shall not allow such a creature as you to torment ponies,” Luna replied. “You have played your hoof too far this time, and now we have you.”

“This time?” Bon Bon managed to croak out, her voice hoarse.

“Yes... this is not the first time that we have come close to catching this foul creature,” Luna said. “The last time was when it caused the fire.” She narrowed her gaze at the beast. “This time, you are ours.”

“I don't think so, Princess. I will be free of this accursed prison, and when I am I shall come for you,” Archibald replied. “I'm honestly surprised that you were able to pierce through my spell. I prepared it specially for you.”

“Lyra, Bon Bon,” Luna said. “Run. We shall deal with this beast in a manner most befitting of it.”

“But what about you?” Lyra asked curiously.

Luna grimaced. “We shall be fine, Miss Heartstrings. Now you must hurry. The doorway out of this place is hidden, but we believe you will know it when you see it. The house cannot keep you here, not with our magic straining the boundaries of its reality. Now run, little ponies. Now!” Her horn shone a bright blue, sending a wave of magic at the monster.

Lyra latched onto Bon Bon as Luna's magic took hold, pulling both of the mares towards the exit. They pushed through the door together as Luna slammed it shut behind them. They landed in a heap in a dank dusty hallway. Lyra stood immediately.

“Princess!” she shouted. She turned and started banging at the door. “Princess Luna!”

“Lyra!” Bon Bon said. “We have to get out of here! The Princess is dealing with it!”

“No... something's not right about this, Bonnie. We can't let her fight that thing alone,” Lyra replied. She banged at the door harder. “Princess!”

“You would be correct about something not being... right,” a voice said from down the hall. The soft clip clop of hooves accompanied it. Archibald came into view, his eyes gleaming red in the darkness.

“But... Luna... she's fighting you,” Lyra said.

“Evil is subtle. The Moon Princess should know that all too well, given her past,” Archibald said. “Suffice to say, what Luna thinks she is doing is fighting me, but she's really just fighting herself. She will not be bothering us.”

“You can't have her,” Bon Bon said fiercely. “I won't let you.”

“Won't let me? Please, Bon Bon. If it came down to that, would you even be here in the first place? You're right where I want you to be,” Archibald said, taking a step forward. The hallway rotted around his very presence. The smell of death hung in the air.

“Bonnie... you need to run. Get out of here,” Lyra said. “I'll... I'll hold him off.”

“What? What about you? I'm not leaving you here,” Bon Bon replied.

“This isn't the time to argue about this! Get running!” Lyra shouted. She turned to the cream-colored mare and kissed her full on the lips. She pulled away, smiling. “I love you. Just remember that. But if you don't get a move on, he's going to get what he wants. Find the exit, find the Princess. I'll be alright.”

Bon Bon grimaced. “I... I love you too.” She turned and started running down the hall.

Lyra turned back to where Archibald stood, calmly watching as Bon Bon retreated.

“You believe that I will not find her?” the dragon-like creature said. “I can see everything in this place.”

“She'll get out of here, and you'll be sorry when she does,” Lyra spat. Her horn shone brightly.

“And how do you propose that you will make it out of this alive?” Archibald said. He took a step forward, baring his teeth.

“I don't know, really,” Lyra replied. She grimaced. “But as long as Bonnie gets out of here alive, I don't care.”

“I see. Ponies... how interesting you are, I think I shall enjoy ruling your kind,” Archibald said. His mouth opened and a massive forked tongue rolled out of it.

Lyra responded with a blast of light from her horn. The light burst into the dark room, blinding the seagreen mare. She staggered backwards, her vision dazed from the magic. Lyra coughed. Did I get him too? She thought.

“Afraid not,” a voice said from behind her.

Lyra felt a set of fangs clamp into the side of her neck and she began to scream until she screamed no more.

**********************************

The sound of Lyra's screams echoed down the hallway until they reached Bon Bon. The cream-colored mare stopped cold in her tracks.

“Lyra... Lyra!” she shouted, tears streaming from her face. No, I have to get out of here. This is all just a dream world. If I can get out of here then I can stop this. I can save Lyra! She thought.

Bon Bon gulped back her tears. She had to be strong, for Lyra's sake. For Princess Luna's sake. For her own sake. She called out to the hall around her. “Hello? I know you're there. I need your help. Please...”

“I can't really help you get out of here,” a voice said from behind her.

Bon Bon yelped and turned about, seeing the filly from before standing there. “But you know where the exit is, right?”

“I... I do,” the filly said. She cocked her head. “It's worse now. I can't feel Momma Lyra. What happened?”

“Archibald... he... he attacked us. Princess Luna came, but he claims he's locked her up as well,” Bon Bon said. “Lyra... sacrificed herself for us to get to safety.”

“This is no good... no good at all,” the filly replied, grimacing.

“What? What do you mean?” Bon Bon said, cocking her ears in confusion.

“You were supposed to both escape!” the filly cried out in frustration. “The only way out was together. Only both of you could have opened the door!”

“The door? There is a door?” Bon Bon asked. The filly only nodded in response. “Show me where it is.”

“It doesn't matter now, not with Mommy Lyra... gone...” the filly protested.

“Maybe not, but we won't know until I see it. I'm not giving up. Not on you, not on Lyra. Not ever,” Bon Bon said forcefully.

The filly, appearing defeated by Bon Bon's answer, nodded again. She motioned for Bon Bon to follow. Together they strode through the never ending halls, seeing the same featureless gray walls that adorned every inch of the place. Occasionally, the older mare would hear screaming coming from somewhere inside the labyrinth. The very thought of something happening to somepony made her think of Lyra, and of the scream she had heard. It made her shudder with dread.

Eventually the hallway dead-ended into a large open room. Standing in the middle of the room was a door. It had no wall to speak of. It was simply a freely standing door inside an iron frame. Bon Bon trotted up to it and pulled it open. All she saw was the other side. She pushed it closed, sighing.

“See, I told you. There's no way out. You needed Momma Lyra to get out of here,” the filly said.

Bon Bon grimaced. Why was it so important to have both of them there? Was there something about the two of them that was special?

“Why? Why does it need both of us?” she asked.

“Because it requires you to admit to a fault of yours to each other. It wants payment to open. A payment that only comes with the price of pain,” the filly said.

Bon Bon thought of her connection to the wonderful mare that she'd had the pleasure of calling her wife for so many years. She sighed. Lyra and her had shared so much over the years. There was one tiny piece of their relationship that had while the two had made peace with, the very presence of it had hung over their lives. She knew that in her heart, that Lyra was hers. And to accept that fully, she had to do something she never thought she could do. Perhaps that one big fault would be enough for the both of them.

“I have... I have a confession to make then,” Bon Bon said softly.

“A what?” the filly asked.

“A confession. Everypony always asks how we were able to afford it, the whole magical spell to get you a foal thing,” the older mare said. “But we didn't. We couldn't have afforded it. Ever.”

“What do you mean?” the filly said.

“I mean... you weren't conceived by means of magic. I... I cheated. I found a stallion, we had a little too much to drink... and there you have it,” Bon Bon said, hanging her head. “I never even found out his name.”

“And... Momma Lyra knew about this?” the filly asked.

Bon Bon nodded. “Lyra knew. We were on the outs at the time. We'd had a huge fight over money. When we found out about the pregnancy... we decided to play it off as a magical birth. Nopony would be none the wiser, but we knew. We both knew.”

Something reacted with the door as Bon Bon finished speaking. Crimson smoke billowed out from under the door jam. The cream-colored mare blinked as red light arced across the wooden surface.

“What...?” she said. She took a step forward, reaching out her hoof to open the door. A loud *splat* stopped her cold as the lifeless body of Lyra landed next to her. She turned in horror to see Archibald standing at the other end of the hall.

“Well, well... I finally meet the little filly who's been causing all my troubles,” he said, his eyes gleaming as he looked the younger pony up and down. “And you lead me right to the exit out of my prison. You even opened it for me. How quaint.”

“Lyra!” Bon Bon shouted, looking down at her wife's body. Lyra had been broken in several places, including her horn. The rest of her injuries were too horrifying for the cream-colored to even being to process. “Lyra... no... no... you monster! You killed her!”

“Yes... do you want to know how much she screamed for you when she died?” Archibald said. He grinned widely. “She thought she could stop me from getting to you. It looks like she was wrong, because here we are again.”

Bon Bon looked down at Lyra. She closed her eyes and sighed. “I'm so sorry, Lyra...”

“Are you ready to give up now, Bon Bon? Are you ready to give yourself over to me?” Archibald said.

“Never,” Bon Bon said, returning her gaze to the dragon-like creature before her. She grunted and kicked backwards, slamming her rear hooves into the door.

The door buckled under the blow and opened inwards, revealing a glowing red portal on the other side. Bon Bon grimaced.

“I'm sorry, Lyra... I can't take you with me,” she said quietly.

Archibald growled, leaping forward at the cream-colored mare. Bon Bon yelped as bared fangs tried to sink themselves into the side of her neck. She jumped to the side, landing on the ground away from the doorway. Archibald stood triumphantly over her.

“That was easy,” he said, stepping towards her. “Now then, where were we?”

“Right about here,” Bon Bon said, kicking out with her back hooves. She connected with Archibald's chest, sending him flying against the wall.

“Momma!” the filly shouted. “You have to hurry! The portal is closing!”

Bon Bon glanced at the doorway. The portal had indeed gotten smaller! She clamored to her hooves and started running towards the door. She had touched about three feet away when Archibald slammed into her side. She hit the ground hard and felt pain shoot up through her legs. She struggled to stand, but found that her right back leg was broken. She grunted, crawling towards the doorway.

Archibald growled and appeared over her. He grinned widely. “That door is not for you. It will only bring more pain to you if you go through it. Give in, and your foal will be heralded as the darkest of dark, the bringer of the purest pain!”

Bon Bon grimaced, trying to move from underneath the dragon beast. A set of claws descended, clamping her forelegs to the ground, pinning her.

“Let me... let me go...” Bon Bon said, squirming and struggling from the creature's grip.

“Oh, we can't, dearest Bon Bon. It's very nearly time. Time for you to give up, time for me to ascend to the greatest power in all of --” Archibald started to croon before he was hit in the face by a blast of golden magic. He went rocketing back into the wall.

“Get away from my wife,” Lyra said, standing shakily. She appeared perfectly fine, a sharp grin on her face.

Bon Bon blinked. “L-L-Lyra? I thought... thought you were...”

“Thought I was dead?” the seagreen mare said. “I probably could have been, but I had an idea. Luna said this was her realm, right? The realm of dreams? Well... I'm a unicorn and all. I can modify the parameters of this world with magic.”

“Since when did you learn to do that?” Bon Bon said.

“Beats me,” Lyra said. “We don't really have much time. We've got to get out of here. The portal won't stay open for much longer.”

Bon Bon tried to stand, aided by the other mare. They marched past the filly towards the doorway and stopped.

“Momma, Momma,” the filly said. “You won't remember me here. But we'll be seeing each other pretty soon.”

“Good, I can't wait,” Bon Bon said, chuckling. She took a step towards the door before a cruel laughter pierced the room.

“You think you've won, because you're escaping?!” Archibald said. “I will be there, around every corner... waiting for you Bon Bon. You think you're safe out there? Do you?! Well, you're not! You're not safe! I will find you!”

Bon Bon grimaced and said nothing. She limped along with Lyra right into the portal.

Everything... went black.

Comments

[Brody Deitrick]

nice move little sis nice move