A Bad End Leads to a Good End

Chapter 1: The Discovery

It's already been a few hours after her funeral and Apple Bloom was as bored as Twilight without her books. The moon had already risen and the rest of the Apple family had already gone to bed. However, due to being a zombie right now, Apple Bloom could not sleep at all, no matter how hard she tried.

"Why did this have to happen?" asked Apple Bloom. After what happened in Sunny Town, she thought she was cursed to live like this for the rest of her life. Not that she was alive anymore, but she wasn't dead as well. Deciding that lying all night in bed wouldn't help, Apple Bloom walked out of her room and carefully snuck out of the house, making sure not to wake up Applejack or Big Macintosh. Granny Smith had gone to help a relative with something in another town so she was gone, making things a little easier for her to sneak out. After she got out, she walked through the fields of Sweet Apple Acres. If there was one thing she was thankful for is that she could still smell normally as the smell of apples was overwhelming.

"At least Ah can still smell normally. Ah always loved this smell." said Apple Bloom. However, as she got further through the field, she thought she heard crying. Curiosity got the best of her as she started walking towards the source of the crying. She then came upon where the crying was coming from, which was from inside the Cutie Mark Crusader Treehouse.

"The treehouse? Why would somepony be there this late at night?" Apple Bloom asked as she cautiously walked towards the entrance of the treehouse. As she reached the top, she carefully took a look inside, making sure her glowing red eyes didn't give her away. What she saw was something she never expected. She found Scootaloo on the other side of the treehouse crying for some reason. Apple Bloom saw that she was holding something so she tried to see what it was and got a big surprise to see Scootaloo holding a picture of her when she was still normal together with Scootaloo.

"...Why did you have to die?" Scootaloo suddenly said. Apple Bloom could easily tell that there was deep sadness in Scootaloo's voice. It made her heart, or whatever was left of it, hurt a little.

"We had so much fun together...ever since me and Sweetie Belle helped you during the party, we always helped each other try to get our Cutie Marks...but things won't be the same without you...Applejack misses you....Sweetie Belle misses you...Twilight misses you...heck, even all of our classmates miss you.......I...miss you." Scootaloo said, nearly choking on those last words as she started to cry heavily. Apple Bloom felt her heart drop even more as she saw Scootaloo cry her own heart out. She was about to head back, knowing she couldn't even let her friend know what had really happened, but then she heard Scootaloo start singing something very familiar. It was the same song both of them as well as Sweetie Belle sang at the talent show sometime ago.

"When your, a younger pony and your flank is very bare feels like the sun will never come when your cutie marks not there...." sung Scootaloo as she continued to cry.

"So the three of us are fighting the fight...There is nothing that we fear...Will have to figure out what we'll do next until our cutie marks are here..." Scootaloo sung some more as she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"We are the Cutie Mark Crusaders...On a quest to find out who we are...And we will never stop this journey..."

" ...Not until we have our cutie marks." Apple Bloom suddenly sang herself, almost immediately realizing what she just did as Scootaloo's head immediately shot up. She started looking around the room, looking for the source of the voice, knowing it belonged to Apple Bloom.

"Apple Bloom!? Is that you!? Where are you!?" Scootaloo said, almost sounding desperate to find the source of the voice. Apple Bloom thought she could sneak away, but deep down, she knew it was pointless. Besides, no matter what she looked like now, she had to let Scootaloo know what happened.

"Relax Scoots, Ah'm right here." said Apple Bloom as she walked into the room right in front of Scootaloo. Scootaloo immediately saw Apple Bloom, or what she thought was her. She saw a black, decayed looking pony with red eyes and black teeth that could possibly rip her apart in seconds. But what let Scootaloo thought that this zombie thing was Apple Bloom was the red ribbon in her hair. Both it and the hair looked exactly like Apple Blooms. Scootaloo even knew that the voice also sounded just like Apple Bloom's.

"A-Apple B-B-Bloom, i-is that y-you?" Scootaloo asked, either through fear, sadness, or shock.

"Yeah, it's me. Ah know Ah may not-OOF!" yelled Apple Bloom as she thought she was being tackled by Scootaloo...until she felt Scootaloo wrap her two front legs around her body.

"Oh Apple Bloom, I missed you so much! I don't care what you look like either, you're back and that's all that matters!" Scootaloo said as she continued to hug Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom, realizing the weight of the situation, decided to hug Scootaloo back. For some reason, Apple Bloom felt more comfortable in this embrace and thought she could feel her cheeks burn a little bit.

'Why am Ah feelin' like this? Do Ah feel this good about lettin' Scoots know what happened to me?' thought Apple Bloom as Scootaloo then released the hold and Apple Bloom thought she could see Scootaloo's cheeks look a little red as well.

"Sorry, I'm just so happy to see you. But what happened and why do you look like that?" asked Scootaloo. Apple Bloom knew that Scootaloo was going to asked this and sighed as she knew she had some explaining to do.

"Get comfy Scoots, this is going to be a long story"