Deep within the Everfree, a cupcake-covered rabbit was making its way towards a cave. Right before entering, it was grabbed by its ears and brought to a table. The two black gems that formed the rabbit’s eyes fell out of their sockets, and were picked up by a gloved hand. The owner of said appendage dropped them in a pouch with 4 other pairs of gems of different colors, and proceeded to grind the pouch and it’s contents using a mortar and pestle. He then emptied the pouch’s contents into a jar labeled “Emotional Gem Powder”.

The rabbit meanwhile jumped into a bowl of water nearby to clean itself from the pink icing that covered its fur, and after a couple of minutes hopped out to join the rest of its undead brethren. It looked slightly pink from the icing, and his creator bent down and picked him up, staring and looking at him intensely.

“Smells like pastries.. Looks like pastries... Tastes like pastries.. Maybe you’ve earned yourself a name, since you already look different from all your peers. MANN, NAME THAT PINK RABBIT!”

The pink rodent was flung across the room, and smacked into the wall above a large manticore. It opened an eye, took a look at the bunny detaching itself from the wall, and called out.

“PINKY!”

In Ponyville, a certain technicolor pony’s tail twitched.

“Alright. Pinky, get over here, I have a carrot for you!”

Pinky, leapt from the wall, and promptly smashed itself onto the floor. As it got back up, it tried and failed to leap to its owner, as the fall broke the creature’s rear legs. Mann, seeing this and taking pity on it, got up, snatched its ears and walked over to Ali. He placed it on a table, where the creature started to flail about. Not even bothering to glance at it, Ali threw a carrot and a couple more rabbit bones at it, then went further into the cave.

“What have you been working on? You come here at dawn, sleep until the afternoon, then repeat for a week. What are you doing?”

“Ahh.. Mann, Mann, Mann... I’m working on my next project of course. I found a large hole a couple miles away from the apple orchard, so I go there each night and get some corpses.”

“Wait.. There’s a graveyard in the ponies’ town?”

“Not really a graveyard, they just dug a hole in the ground and they throw all the dead in. I guess a spooky scary cemetery wouldn’t fit in with the ‘Harmony and Friendship’ crap that the ponies preach.. Anyways, I have couple dozen corpses by now, I’m going to try to get some proper minions, and work on some kind of home.”

“Out of corpses?”

“You’ll see..”

Ali ended that sentence with a smirk, and opened a door in the side of the cave Mann was sure didn’t exist a few seconds ago, and entered. A horrid, putrid smell started to leak out of that room, along with pus and blood. Mann gagged, stepped away and started to walk towards the entrance, trying to escape the horrors of that room. He glanced at Pinky, and saw it add more bones to his skeleton, replacing broken bones and reinforcing his overall structure.

’I have even more questions to ask him.. Are those undead sentient? Can they understand more than just basic orders? This one seems to understand that it was broken, and know how to fix itself.’ Mann witnessed Pinky putting his pink hide back on and picking two new gems for his eyes. ’It can think for itself, but to what extent? Another mystery..’ He took a glance to the room his friend entered. The door was closed now, but he could hear Ali chanting. ’He always seem to have a plan, no matter what happens.. Wonder what monstrosity will come out of that workshop of his..

Finishing his train of thought, he decided to go outside the cave to hunt some food, as his wounds were healing up nicely. An undead rabbit with emerald green eyes hopped onto his back as he was leaving, and started to tap on different sides of his head.

“What are you doing?”

The rabbit started to tap faster to the left.

“STOP THAT!”

His shout came out as a roar, which resonated throughout the forest, startling creatures. A cry came out of a bush to his left, which he started to approach. He didn’t make it far before a zebra came out of it, brandishing a staff in one of its hooves. The zebra appeared to be a she, and she was clearly scared of him, no matter how brave of a face she tried to put on.

“Stay back, foul beast, lest you find yourself deceased..”

Mann immediately crouched, right wing slightly extended and what is left of his tail raised. He did not want to deal with her at the moment, and it was clear she would fight as hard as she could to survive this encounter. If he wasn’t hurt so much, he would have easily killed this striped imitation of a pony, but with his injuries, he had to be careful. The tension could have been clawed into, and it was broken by the undead rodent jumping off Mann’s back and landing between him and the zebra.

“What is this? A rabbit most likely, yet my instincts tell me to tread carefully. I do not wish you harm little one, but from the monster behind you you must run.”

The rabbit responded by leaping up to her face and kicking her with its back legs, the force behind the undead’s attack strong enough to make the zebra stumble backwards. Mann took this as an opportunity to get rid of his opponent, and pounced on her. The zebra recovered just in time to see a maw half-filled with teeth aimed at her, and barely ducked, resulting in her Mohawk-like hair getting eaten. She reacted rather violently, and bucked the manticore in the face. Mann stumbled, dazed for a bit, but recovered rather quickly.

That’s nothing compared to that flying rainbow horse.

He countered by clawing at her backside, resulting in three deep cuts in her right back leg. The rabbit, not wanting to be forgotten, kicked her where she was cut, making her cry in pain, and fall to the ground. She looked up to see Mann grinning and the rodent staring her down.

“Is this how my life ends? Dying in the forest, away from my friends? I REFUSE TO DIE LIKE THIS! MY STRIPPED FLANK YOU CAN KISS!”

With that, she crushed a gem under her hoof, and a large cloud emerged from it. Mann was blinded, and while the rabbit was unaffected, it stayed to make sure Mann was alright. Mann heard hooves hitting the ground, and the noise started to get further away. When he finally regained his vision, he saw a blood trail leading towards the pony village.

“I... I think I messed up.. Didn’t I?”

The rabbit just looked at the trail, and nodded.

Author's Note

Here is the third chapter! Hope you enjoyed this fight scene, and there might be more to come! :D