That Time the Apple Cousins Dug Up A Zomny

by Ghostly Glow

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Babs Seed, Applejack, Apple Bloom, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Comedy, Other
Length: 1857

Applebloom and Babs Seed accidentally dig up a Zomny

With the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders out of town, Apple Bloom and Babs are left with nothing to do. When Babs suggests getting a rather unusual Cutie Mark, Apple Bloom is all about it. Unfortunately, they picked the wrong place to dig.

Published 2013-01-21 04:40:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-07-24 17:26:35 UTC

Wrong Spot by a Long Shot

"Right...so we got the shovels, the lantern’s attached to the pole, and I've got the instructions." Apple Bloom said, glancing over their inventory. "Anything else we need?"

"Think that's it." Babs answered. "Let's shake a hoof. I don't wanna be out here too long." She shuddered as she looked around at the empty graveyard. "This place gives me the creeps."

The fillies made their way out into the graveyard, staying close to each other, finding comfort in the heat of another living body. They both had the eerie feeling that something-or somepony- was watching them. Nobody was, of course, but the sensation of tense dread didn't leave.

A small sign finally announced their arrival to the correct location. At first, it looked like the plot was full, but careful inspection showed that there were two empty spots at two opposite ends of the section. "Which do ya think he wants?" Apple Bloom asked.

Babs shrugged. "I don't think it matters. Pick one."

Apple Bloom glanced back and forth between the two bare patches of earth. Deciding it didn't matter, she chose the one on the far left.

After taking their positions, the two started digging furiously, banging shovels together constantly and hindering progress. They eventually figured out that they weren't getting anywhere, a wisely decided to dig on different sides. But soon they got a huge shock.

The silver end of Babs's shovel smashed through the roof of a banged-up box.

They stared at the unexpected blockade. Apple Bloom tapped the top of the box with her shovel. "What is this?" she asked, utterly bewildered.

" I dunno. Bring the lantern closer." Babs instructed. The lantern was lifted and hovered over the gaping hole in ground that the duo crouched in. The box was rather small. Babs shuddered. Did they just hit a coffin?

This was not what she signed up for.

Apple Bloom quickly clambered out, not too pleased with the unexpected turn this little adventure was taking. Grave-digging? Sure. Grave-smashing? No thanks. Babs stayed where she was, curiosity gluing her to the spot. Maybe this wasn't a coffin. Maybe it was a treasure chest! This wouldn't be a bad place to put it. Nopony would look for one here.

"Gimme a light, would ya?" she called up.

Apple Bloom looked back down at her cousin. "I don't like this, Babs. We should leave." she pleaded. But her comrade would her none of this. "C'mon, swing that lantern over here. I ain't moving 'til I know what this is."

With a reluctant whimper, Apple Bloom moved the lantern over to Babs. Babs smiled in thanks and immediately turned her attention back to the box. She hesitated for a moment. What if this really was a coffin?

She shook the thought away. That was future Babs’s problem. With a strong kick, she broke the lid.

It was a coffin, of course, and she accidently poked a corpse.

She jumped back, a scream frozen in her throat. Apple Bloom cried out in fear, dropping the light in the grave. Thankfully, it didn't break. Unfortunately, it illuminated the dead pony. It was a navy-blue pegasus, just about their age, with a bright orange mane. Its right ear was torn to shreds, its front left leg bone was partly exposed, and all that was left of its tail and right wing were bones. The body was a horrid mess of cuts and bite marks, and its skin was stretched tight over bulging bones.

If that wasn't bad enough, Babs could swear it was moving.

No....it had to be some trick of the light. Corpses didn't move, save for the occasional decomposing twitch. In fact, that was probably the reason for the disturbance. The body was moving as it rotted away. Perfectly natural.

And, as if that perfectly sound reasoning was a cue, the corpse opened its bloodshot eyes and slowly sat up.

The filles stared at for a moment, then did what any sensible filly would do: scream in terror and run the buck away.

Dead-Eye View

The zomny had slept for a long, long time.

Its slumber had been undisturbed for years. Nopony bothered it. Nopony remembered it. It didn't even remember itself. It simply slept and dreamt of better times.

Until it dimly felt something poke it in its belly.

Waking up was a bit slow at first. Its infected mind had been at rest for so long, it almost forgot how to function at any higher level.

The poke had roused its senses, and it processed an achy feeling in its stomach. Its instincts quickly classified this as hunger, and its thoughts immediately switched to food.

It shuffled slightly at first, trying to get a feel for moving. After establishing that it could move, albeit stiffly, it tried to open his eyes. They were sealed shut by dried mucus and dirt. It tried again, using all of its focus for straining its eyelids until finally, they shuddered open.

For a few moments, all it could make out was a bright light and some brown and pink smudges.Those smudges quickly cleared until it could see some sort of animal. In the five seconds that followed, it took notice of the round snout, the two pointy slabs that seemed to be ears, and two green orbs that seemed to pop out of the creature's skull. The pink fur on the top of its head and its brown coat struck a familiar chord with the zomny, though it didn't know what it was.

It made a shrill sound that caused the corpse to start forward in fear. The brown thing lept out of the hole that the zomny laid of the bottom of, and for a few moments, it saw another creature with a yellow coat and red hair.

It also made a nasty shrill noise and both of them moved away much quicker than the zomny thought possible. It watched them go. Then he made its first decision in many years: follow them. It didn't know why it wanted to follow them, it simply did.

Slowly, it sat up. It was pretty hard to move. Its mind finally started to move at a faster pace. His first realization: he was a male. His second: the creatures that ran from him were ponies. And he was also a pony.

He glanced at his surroundings and frowned. What was he doing in a hole? For that matter, what was up with the box? He looked down and prodded at it. The top was smashed to pieces. Did he do that? Or was that the other ponies’ fault?

He dismissed his ponderings. Before he did anything, he'd have to get out of this pit.

He stood up slowly. His limbs obeyed. He studied his legs for the first time, and his frown deeped. One of them seemed to be injured. It was all torn up and showed some sort of white rods through the red flesh. That wasn't good. He tried to move it. To his relief, its mobility still seemed intact. He turned his head and was surprised to see two flat things at his sides. One was fluffy and covered in an odd type of fur, but the other was nothing but white rods held together by strands of red. The fluffy one could be moved, but the roddy one merely twitched.

He looked up at the top of the pit and reached for it. It was too far to grasp. Perhaps if he moved the box upward? Yes, that might do it...

After about half an hour of struggle, he finally got the box to stand upright. He scrambled to the top of it and pushed itself upward.

As one would predict, the coffin crumbled beneath his hooves.

He laid there, momentarily stunned, before sitting up again. The box now thoroughly destroyed, he chose to wait until morning. Surely someone would let him out.

Right?

Idle Hooves Are the Devil's Playthings

"Alright, so we've tried out rock farming, we tried modeling, and we tried being librarians...anything we haven't done?" Babs asked, looking at her grumpy cousin imploringly.

"We've done everything! And we still don't have our Cutie Marks!" Apple Bloom scuffed the ply-board floor of the clubhouse with her hoof, eyes downcast. "Ah just don' get it...we've tried everything we can think of, but there's still nothin'."

It hadn't been a good week for the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They were far below the quota, mostly because there were only two of them. Sweetie Belle was off in Canterlot with her sister, and Scootaloo was out doing a camping-trip redo with Rainbow Dash. It was just the cousins this week, and things hadn't been going too well.

Babs offered her cousin an encouraging smile, even though she was also feeling a bit hopeless.. "Aw, don't be like that, cuz. I'm sure there's something we haven't done yet. We just need to keep thinking, that's all. Branch out a bit, ya know?"

Apple Bloom glared at her. "Isn't that what we've been doin'?"

Babs shook her head. "We keep tryin' things that somepony else is good at. Nopony has the same Cutie Mark, right? So that means nopony can be good at the same thing as somepony else. What we need to try is somethin' nopony we know does. Somethin' like grave-digging."

Apple Bloom gaped at her, completely shocked.

Babs held her hooves up. "Just a suggestion."

"N-no...it's not that." Apple Bloom stammered. "It's..It’s just that Mr. Cake's cousin just died. Maybe we could make his grave!" she chirped.

Babs grinned. "See! That's thinking outside the box!"

******

"I dunno, lassies." Grave Guard mumbled, still a bit taken back. He'd heard many odd things in his time, but two fillies wanting to dig a grave....

Well, it was definitely new.

"Pleeeasssse?" they begged, putting on a set of puppy-dog eyes that would make Cthulhu pick them up and cuddle them half to death.

Grave Guard gnawed on his bottom lip nervously. On one hoof, he knew this would end in utter disaster, but those eyes were impossible to resist. Plus, there was a pumpkin pie in his fridge that he wanted to eat the moment he got it. Unfortunately he hadn't the time. But if he let the fillies dig, the pie would be all his. His wife would never get her grubby hooves on it!

With that thought, he immediately caved.

"Alright, you can have a go at it." He dug in his coat pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper. "There are your instructions. The shovels are by the shed. Oh, and the grave needs to be somewhere in Plot C." He knew the Cakes wanted it in a certain spot, but there was a pie calling for him and he couldn't be bothered.

"Sure thing, mister." Babs said in her best business-pony voice. "We'll have it done in no time!"

He didn't bother to respond. He took off in a cloud of dust.

"Alright, let's start digging!" Applebloom said excitedly. "There's no possible way this could go wrong!"