Description:
- Instrumentation -
“I’m not so sure Lyra…” Bonbon says with a hint of trepidation, swirling around the potion bottle in her hooves.
“Aw, come on Bon, it’s perfectly safe. Got it from that new boutique place in Canterlot, with all the special brews.” The minty coated mare responds, trotting over with a grin.
Bonbon ponders for a few moments before uncorking the bottle with a pop. “Well… only for you, Lyra.” She chuckles and takes a large sip before making a face. “Eugh… it tastes like wood!”
Lyra puts a hoof on the bottle and nudges it up to her mouth again. “Gotta drink more of it to work! Flavour won’t last long, I’m told!”
The mare with the bottle nods, drinking back most of the fluid and setting it on the empty stage, wiping her mouth on the back of her hoof. “So how does this work anyway?” She asks, flexing her joints as they started to feel a little stiff.
“Come over here, and you’ll see.” Lyra responds, beckoning her over to the centre of the stage and looking out over the vacant hall.
Bonbon shuffles over, finding her legs moving with increasing difficulty as she went. No pain, but a strange discomfort like none she’d ever felt before. “Urgh… feeling kinda strange.” She replies, a little light headed as she sat down on her haunches.
“Natural! Don’t worry.” The unicorn giggles, putting a hoof to the cream coated mare’s own. She pulls Bonbon’s hooves out behind her and holds them together.
Bonbon giggles as well, head still swimming. When she tries to pull her hooves back in front of her she finds herself impeded- almost as if her they were glued together behind her! “Lyra…?” She asked, craning her neck and widening her eyes in surprise to see her hooves running and fusing together. A creak of wood echoed about the hall as her arms went rigid with a curve, the gist of what was to happen had been explained to her by Lyra, but it hadn’t really sunk in just what she had agreed to try!
“I’m here, Bon.” The other mare smiles, standing up onto her hind hooves and taking Bonbon with her just as her hind hooves began to do the same; creaking and fusing together, now forming almost a burl of wood at their end. “Just according to plan!” She reassures.
Bonbon winces a little as a blush upon her face betrays her situation. She was supported up by the minty mare, surely she’d have fallen over otherwise. The mare shivers as the burl of wood solidifies and expands, taking on geometric shape and growing upward to connect with what had been her forehooves, making her body take on a strange triangular shape. She couldn’t bring words to her mouth from the stiff and tingly sensations enveloping her form.
Lyra leans her over and takes her hooves away, satisfied that she was balanced and rigid enough to stand on her own now. “You’re looking like my harp already!” She chortles with glee, sliding a hoof over the mare’s rigid wood.
With a prickling itch an untold number of tiny knobs began to grow from the edge of what was once her forelimbs, unable to move her neck enough to see. “W-what’s that Lyra..?”
“Means you’re ready to be strung up.” The voice from behind her replies, delicately taking a selection of thin metal strings and threading them through the bottom of her frame, bring them up to the pegs one by one and tightening them down with tension. With each string’s knot the harpist gives it a pluck, sending the strangest of vibrations shuddering through the soon to be harp’s body.
“A-ah… that…” She stammers with a smile, the final string in place as she feels them pull against her rigid frame. Her words were cut short as the harpist gives her full range a rolling strum, testing each and every note to tune them finely. The wood had edged up her flank and down the tips of her tail and ears by this point, her blush returned visibly.
“That what?” Lyra grins again, leaning herself back into view again.
“Is… Is this as far as it goes…?” She asks lightly, a little short of breath as the shell of immovable wood creeps up onto her belly and chest, restricting her breathing as it worked inward.
“No, no it goes further.”
“H-how much further…?” She inquires with a tremble, finding her neck and head locked into place, unable to turn it at all to see around her. Her tail and mane grew heavier, with a creak and shudder freezing into place.
“Well, all the way really!” Lyra replies with a smile.
“But f-for how l- mmnph…” Bonbon begins to ask, but her words are muffled by the hoof of the mint coloured mare on her mouth. Behind that hoof her lips solidify into the hardwood that matched her new form.
“I never really asked how long… I guess it’ll wear off. Probably not until the concert season is over at least.” Lyra slides her hoof over the beautiful wooden carving before her, gazing into its eyes as they too succumbed to the fine polished wood. “But you’ll be the central part of every performance the whole while. I promise.”
Lyra leaned the figural harp back against herself and began to pluck out a gentle melody that filled both the mind of the harp and vast hall around them with wondrous resonance.
Only for you, Lyra… Only for you. Bonbon thought to herself, letting the music wash over her as she stood frozen in seemingly permanent repose, a mere instrument at the hooves of her mare.
Only for you.
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Not as spooky as the last two I’ll admit (Or is it?), but no less fun to draw, haha.
I question my own brain sometimes.
Adobe Illustrator CS4, 67 layers.
