Operation Exquisite Corpse

by The Red Parade

Chapter Eleven (Schattendrache)

Coming through the treeline, a near perfect recreation of Lyra strode forth. The only aspect of her that gave away that it wasn’t the real thing was the wisps of black smoke where the left side of Lyra’s face could be, as well as her mane. But this visual tell was quickly benign, rectified with each passing second. By the time the false Lyra was fully visible and under the light seeping through the forest’s canopy, it was indistinguishable from the real mare.

“Run! Now!”

Bon-Bon grabbed onto Lyra and began to pull her through the woods. Lyra did her best to keep up, primarily due to the fear brought on by seeing a clone of herself that seemed to be made of darkness.

The shadow Lyra chased after them as the two mares tried their best to lose her, but no matter how the two bobbed and weaved through the trees, the monster was just a few paces behind them. In a desperate attempt to put more distance between them and the monster, Bon Bon pointed the weapon back at the thing and began pulling the trigger.

Every blast went wide, striking trees or disappearing into the forest, none even coming close to the beast. Unfortunately, all of these rapid-fire blasts caused a gem embedded in the weapon to begin glowing as several jets of what looked like steam began to bellow out of the sides of it near her hoof, and every subsequent pull of the trigger resulted in nary even a response from it.

Buck! Right when I need it the most, the damn thing stops working! Some weapon you built, Turner.

Bon-Bon turned back around to face where she and the real Lyra were headed and slung the useless weapon onto her back so it wouldn’t slow her running down. However, as the two mares were picking up speed and putting more distance between themselves and a monster, a loud, unmistakable shriek could be heard off to both mare’s left and deeper in the forest.

It sounded like Derpy, and the tone of the voice was anything but promising.

And what made it worse, the fake Lyra almost immediately broke off its pursuit of them and looked to be making its way towards where the shriek had come from.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Bon Bon said nearly under her breath before coming to a dead stop. Lyra kept running for a second, but when she noticed Bon Bon wasn’t running with her, she immediately slid to a stop and turned back towards her friend. But before she could even utter a word, Bon Bon beat her to it. “You stay there, I need to go save Derpy. Actually, keep going, I’ll catch up with you. And don’t trust anyone until I get back.” And with that, she began sprinting off.

This, however, was exactly the wrong move to make. Less than ten seconds later, Bon Bon heard the sound of Lyra screaming as well as what could only be described as wrestling from behind her. Bon Bon double timed it back to where she had left Lyra only to see two of her locked in an intense tussle on the ground.

Once Lyra was eventually able to ignite her horn and blast the other version of herself away from her, as the Lyra who had been blasted away got back onto her hooves shakily, the other Lyra turned to Bon Bon and got to her hooves as fast as possible.

“Bon-Bon, sweet Celestia, blast that… thing before it attacks me again. Quick!”

Bon Bon pulled the weapon off of her back and leveled it at the second Lyra, before pointing it at the first after a few seconds. “How do I know you aren’t that monster trying to convince me to hurt the real Lyra?”

The Lyra having the weapon pointed at her took on a shocked face at hearing this, retreating slightly as well. “Bon Bon, are you crazy? I’m the real Lyra, you’ve known me for years, please, you have to believe me.”

“Don’t trust her, she’s the one who attacked me,” the other Lyra managed to cough out as she struggled to stay standing.

The first Lyra slowly began to approach her, her eyes wide and filled with desperation. “Bon Bon, please, you have to believe me, remember all our conversations, and lunches? You have to know it’s really me.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Bon-Bon saw the other Lyra stumble as she also tried to move towards her, causing her to swing the weapon so it was now pointed at her instead of the other Lyra.

Upon seeing this, the second Lyra began to tear up. “Please, Sweety Drops, I love you, you can’t think I’m really that monster.”

This caused Bon-Bon to pause. Only the real Lyra would know her name. The Lyra she was pointing the weapon at had to be the real one. And now that she thought about it, the other one starting to approach her should have raised some alarms. She knew what she needed to do.

In one swift motion, Bon-Bon swung the weapon back at the other Lyra and pulled the trigger.

The last thing that crossed the other Lyra’s face as this happened was a look of fear and shock as she saw the determined, cold look Bon-Bon had put on.

And when the bolt collided with the other Lyra’s chest, instead of darkness, it exploded in blood and shards of bones. Bon-Bon watched in horror as her marefriend collapsed to the ground, and felt her heart sink into her stomach as she stared into the lifeless eyes of her best friend.

Eyes now permanently frozen in fear and betrayal.

Author's Note:

Written by Schattendrache

Comments

[TigerCat111]

Oof

[PresentPerfect]

FFFFFFFF

I was definitely not expecting that! D: