Colgate screamed as the deformed pegasus drove Carrot Top into the floor. The earthpony’s eyes were wide and full of terror as she weakly tried to push away from the thing on top of her. Suddenly the unspeakable thing’s head snapped up with a jerk and it stared straight at Colgate, mouth split into a bloody grin.

Colgate felt her heart skip a beat as it advanced on her, leaving Carrot Top gasping on the floor. Colgate’s horn charged with magic as she desperately racked her brain for the self-defense spells she had been learning. Before she could focus on one, however, the Derpy-thing lunged at her with an insane scream.

At the same moment, a poker swung hard into the face of the oncoming monster. The creature crashed to the floor with a thud before spinning to face its assailant. “I’ll swallow your soul!” It screeched.

Lyra swung the poker again, hitting the thing in the side of its head with a crack that made Colgate wince. “Good luck with that,” Lyra growled, raising the poker menacingly.

Bonbon, meanwhile, had rushed to Carrot Top’s side. “Carrot Top, honey, talk to me!” Bonbon turned her friend’s head to face her. Carrot Top’s eyes rolled and her mouth opened and half closed, but made no sound.

Lyra glared at the monster. “What are you and what did you do to our friend?”

The Derpy creature just leered.

Carrot Top twitched then sagged. Bonbon frantically shook her. “Carrot Top!” Her voice grew shrill as she struck her friend’s face. “Carrot Top you have to stay with me!” Colgate felt a creeping chill run down her spine as a sickening feeling of déjà vu washed over her.

“Bonbon, you need to get away from her.” Colgate’s voice quavered as she slowly got to all fours. Bonbon ignored her as she began to sob into her second dead friend’s chest. “Bonbon…” Colgate’s horn began to glow as she refocused her magic, finally recalling her self-defense classes.

“WHAT ARE YOU?” Lyra’s voice cracked as she raised the poker for another blow.

The Derpy-thing laughed.

“None of you will live to see the light of day!”

Bonbon screamed wordlessly into Carrot Top’s chest. Colgate watched as the dead mare’s eyes slowly opened, revealing pale white pupils.

There was a tremendous bang as Colgate discharged her spell directly into Carrot Top’s head, blasting the mare’s body out of Bonbon’s hooves and knocking both ponies to the floor.

“What the hay was that?” Lyra asked, droplets of blood splattered across her face.

Colgate shook her head, feeling slightly woozy. “Self-defense spell. After the wedding…” she trailed off self-consciously as she noticed that Lyra wasn’t looking at Carrot Top. Bonbon had curled into a ball as she had continued to cry on the floor.

Colgate looked away as Lyra nuzzled Bonbon, comforting her with words too quiet for Colgate to hear.

Colgate looked toward the Derpy creature, but seeing the spreading pool of blood and the poker protruding from the corpse’s head made her look away again, feeling ill. Instead she turned her attention to Carrot Top, whose body had begun to twitch. With a groan she trotted over to the body, giving the Lyra and Bonbon a wide berth.

Carrot Top’s pale eyes followed Colgate as she grabbed the other mare’s tail in her magic and began to drag her. Bonbon’s sobs filled Colgate’s ears as she pulled Carrot Top’s body to the lip of the still-open trap door. She turned back to look at the couple and caught Lyra returning her stare. Her friend nodded slightly before looking back at her marefreind. Colgate lay a hoof on Carrot Top’s back and pushed her into the root cellar.

The mare’s body dropped to the steps with a crash, before loudly rolling down the remaining stairs with a cacophony of bangs and thumps. Colgate slammed the trap door, wincing as Bonbon’s sobs rose to a wail of despair.

She gave Lyra a nervously apologetic smile, but received a murderous glare in return.

As Lyra helped Bonbon to her feet and guided her to their bedroom, Colgate retrieved a metal bar propped against the near wall and used it to secure the trap door. Having accomplished that, Colgate sat down, feeling oddly restless.

The thin walls of the cabin did little to muffle the continuing cries of despair and Colgate felt her skin crawl at the sound. She chanced a glance at the remains of the thing that had been Derpy and was struck by inspiration. Hurrying over to the corpse, she grabbed its tail in her magic and gave it a tug, only to find that the corpse refused to move. With a second, experimental tug she discovered that the poker had dug into the wood under the mare’s head.

Colgate hesitated, looking at the poker, but a fresh round of crying overruled her squeamishness as she telekinetically grabbed the handle. With a yank, Colgate pulled the poker free from the floor with a squelch. Trying to ignore that sound, Colgate once more grabbed the body by the tail and dragged it across the cabin to the door.

With a couple of bumps she hauled the corpse down the stairs and across the path that lead away from the cabin. She had just reached the first trees at the edge of the cabin’s clearing when she discovered one slight hiccup in her plan to bury the dead pegasus.

“Where in Equestria did Professor Orange keep his shovels?” Colgate looked back at the cabin. “Oh please don’t tell me he kept them in the cellar!”

Colgate trotted around the side of the cabin and grinned as she saw what she was looking for, a wooden shed set next to the main house. Hurrying over to it, she took notice of a small pile of wood stacked alongside the shed and made a mental note to grab a few extra logs before going back inside.

With a simple spell Colgate illuminated the inside of the shed, revealing a small, cramped space full of tools. Most of these seemed to have been left to rust, but leaning against the wall nearest the door was a wood ax and shovel, both of which looked polished and new.

Grabbing the shovel, Colgate hurried back out of the shed, feeling nervousness creep back into her mind. The crying from the cabin had quieted somewhat and in its place the sounds of the forest seemed to have grown louder. The benefits of being out of the cabin and giving her new friend a proper burial started to seem less tempting then the alternative of not being out in the creepy woods, alone, with the corpse of the thing that had murdered Carrot Top.

Still, the idea of leaving Derpy’s body lying out in the woods to be scavenged by the animals was just too horrible to consider. So Colgate ignored her misgivings and began to dig.

Minutes dragged by like hours as the shovel blade tore at the cold earth. The work was arduous and the only sound to help Colgate pass the time was the fading sobs of Bonbon and the creak of the tree branches above. Colgate tried to hum a song, but gave up after failing to think of one which had a tune fit for grave digging.

Finally, as the sound of crying faded, Colgate set the shovel aside. The grave was shallow, and she was not happy with the fact that Derpy’s final resting place had a large root running through it, but it would serve. Solemnly, she pulled the poker the rest of the way free from her friend’s head, and rolled Derpy into the hole. She heard the front door of the cabin open and looked back to see Lyra standing in the doorway.

Picking the shovel back up, she poured the loose dirt back into the grave, before planting the tool behind the spot as a marker.

Feeling that something else was needed, Colgate knelt before the fresh grave and cleared her thoughts. “Derpy,” she started. “You seemed like a really nice mare and I wish that I had known you before all this. I don’t know what happened to you, but I am sure that you wouldn’t have eaten Carrot Top if you hadn’t turned into a crazy monster… I guess I just hope that, wherever you are now, you’re at peace.” Colgate felt a hoof rest on her back and she looked up to see Lyra smiling sadly at her.

“Thank you.”

Colgate swallowed, feeling a familiar tightness in her chest at Lyra’s smile. “I’m sorry about blasting Bonbon.”

Lyra’s face reddened. “Oh yeah. Sorry, I didn’t mean to get mad at you over that. It wasn’t your fault.”

Colgate felt her own cheeks brighten as her heart rate sped up. “Don’t worry about it. We’re all just on edge right now.” Colgate looked back to the grave and felt the blush drain from her face. “I am so sorry about your friends.”

Lyra nodded and pulled Colgate into a tight hug. “I know,” Lyra sniffed. “I am trying to keep it together for Bonbon’s sake, but I don’t know how long I can hold up for!” She rested her head on Colgate’s shoulder. “Thank Celestia I still have you here Colgate. I can’t even imagine what I would do without you here!”

Colgate’s face began to burn as she patted Lyra on the back. “Well… Well I am not going anywhere, Lyra!” She put a hoof down to steady herself as Lyra hugged her tighter. “Actually I just found some logs, so when we go back inside we can light a nice big fire and wait out this horrible night till morning. Once the sun is out we can probably-” Colgate was cut off as a sudden searing pain in her foreleg drove everything else from her mind. Her scream of pain was soon joined by Lyra’s as she saw Derpy’s maimed head sink its teeth deeper into Colgate’s leg.

Colgate battered at the undead mare’s head as it started to drag itself from its grave, using Colgate as leverage. Lyra snatched up the shovel and drove it down onto the Derpy ghoul’s head with all her magical strength. Unfortunately, Colgate’s bloodcurdling scream of agony made it clear that the force of the blow had only added pressure the creature’s bite.

“GET THE AX!” Colgate sobbed as blood began to pour down her leg.

“What ax?” Lyra shouted back, frantically, dancing in place.

“Shed! Side!” Colgate cried, frantically kicking at the creatures face.

“Right!” Lyra dashed off as the thing got one of its hooves free and started kicking back at Colgate. Another crack sent fresh waves of agony up the mare’s leg as she felt herself begin to lose consciousness.

Colgate fought the urge to pass out with all her will as she thrashed in the creature’s grip. Feeling its hold loosening, the monster stopped its attack to focus on maintaining its hold. As Colgate tried to jerk away, the creature was pulled free, inch by inch.

Finally, with a last yank the monster was wrenched free from its grave!

With a grin, it dropped Colgate’s mangled limb and stalked forward. Colgate’s blood dripped from abomination’s mouth like saliva, splattering on the mare’s body as it drew level with her face.

Tears welled in Colgate’s eyes as the monstrous Derpy creature leered over her. “I’LL SWALLOW YOUR SOUL!” It screamed, spraying Colgate’s face with blood and spittle. Colgate closed her eyes and screamed.

“Hey, Derpy!” Lyra shouted, followed by a wet impact. Colgate peeked up to see the creature’s headless body slowly tumble off of her. She turned her head to see Lyra levitating the now bloodstained ax.

“Heads up,” she growled, and brought the ax down again. The sounds of heavy blows continued as Colgate’s vision faded, mind drifting away into oblivion.

Author's Note

And near the end of this chapter I got a serious case of writers block, Soundspeed got overwhelmed by personal troubles and had to stop editing after chapter 2, Cotton Candy got wrapped up with drawing the comic that we work on together and kept forgetting to finish the title card and the story screeched to a halt once more.

The story might have died here if not for two things. First, Cotton Candy, after months of procrastination finally drew the poster style cover for the story. Second, a few voice actress friends of mine started asking about doing a radio play together, with this story being an obvious choice for a full cast reading. Last, but not least, I started my series "Lets Read" with Soundspeed, Lightingrabbit and Cabral, where we make fun of horrible fan fiction. Doing that reminded me that, no matter how badly this story might turn out, at lest it would never be "Living the Dream" or "My Little Dashie; Love Never Dies".

As a fun note about the story it self, this was the chapter where I decided to include a comedy tag. Not just because of the terrible one liner at the end, but because this is about the point where the OTT Pony vs Deadite action ramps up to fairly silly levels.

Though that might just be me being weirdly psychotic.