The zombies were fast approaching, okay maybe not but they were getting closer to them. Out of a morbid sense of curiosity, Twi took out her phone and activated its flashlight to get a better view of their undead visitors.
The zombified pirates looked dry and withered, with pale brown skin and sunken eyes. They had large yellow glowing eyes which illuminated the path ahead of them, and that light was locked onto the campers.
“Uh, Twilight? Now might be a good time to use your magic.” Applejack advised.
Twi reached out for her geode, only to remember that she left it inside her bag, in her tent. “I’m afraid I’ve left it back at camp... We ran there a little too fast, perhaps.”
Most of the girls have not thought to pick up their geodes as they rushed to the screams of Derpy and Sandalwood and they did not sleep with them on ‘cause, who sleeps with a necklace on?
The only one who thought to bring their geode was Applejack, but from the looks of it, she was rather reluctant to get in range of these ghouls. Understandable, but oh so unfortunate for the rest of the girls.
“Give ‘em a smackdown!” Rainbow Dash roared.
Twi objected, however, “It’s no use! These zombies are immortal as they are bound to their treasure. They can’t die as long as their fortune remains buried!”
“You sure about th-!” Applejack didn’t notice how close the monsters have gotten. They were now stepping on Derpy’s tent, to which she has long abandoned it.
“We’re sure about it!” Spike screamed.
“I’m, like, out of here bro! See ya!” Sandalwood made a run for it, followed by Derpy.
Discord snapped his finger with his usual unwavering confidence, only to remember that he’s virtually powerless in here. He snapped it again a couple of times before agreeing with Sandalwood’s idea. “Okay, I’m out of here... If Fluttershy agrees to run for our lives.”
Fluttershy was cowering behind Rainbow Dash and only poked her head out when Discord proposed to leave. “I agree.”
“And so do we! Let’s run away and come up with a good plan!” Sunset yelled.
Back at the camp and exhausted, the girls took their time to gather their bearing on the fact that they were literally stuck in a forest cursed by pirates. How can they fight back against immortal zombies? Finding the treasure was their only option but good luck uncovering it in a forest this massive. Not even Spike’s flair could help here as he first needs to learn the scent of the buried treasure to track it down. So... what now?
Discord remembered something. “Hey, hold on a minute. They were four zombies back there, and we may not have told you yet about Caballeron and his henchmen.”
“What?! Doctor Caballeron is here?! Why didn’t you tell me?!” Rainbow Dash freaked out as she was the most knowledgeable in the bad doctor’s evil shenanigans.
“Wouldn’t wanna ruin the fun camping trip, right?” Discord answered before clearing his throat. “Now it may be possible that these zombies are just Caballeron and his goons trying to scare us away Scooby-Doo style, but we can’t be sure until we unmask them.”
“Oh yes oh yes oh yes! Please tell me we are living through a Scooby-Doo episode!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she bounced around the site.
Her jolly bouncing was soon put to an end as Sunset grabbed her by the arms and brought her down to earth. “No time for childhood fantasies Pinkie! Our lives are at risk here, whether the zombies are real or not!”
“Aw 🙁"
In the dead of night, they relit their dying campfire to discuss further about their course of action against their new (potentially) undead opponent. The exact number of pirates that composed Crooked Back’s crew was unknown so for all they knew, there could be close to fifty zombies roaming the dark woods. Sunset was the one to take the lead as always.
“The first thing we should do is to confirm which outcome is true. Rainbow Dash and I will scout out these zombies and see if Caballeron and his henchmen have anything to do with this sudden attack.”
“Why is it only you two? Shouldn’t it be safer if you brought more buddies for this task?” Discord pointed out.
“It’s only us two in case we are spotted. Dash can carry me back to camp with her super speed. If there’s more than one, she won’t be able to make good use of said super speed.” Sunset explained.
“I suppose that makes sense... And what are we going to do in the mean time? Play a nice game of checkers, hm?”
“I love check-”
“That was just a joke, Pinkie.” Discord quickly said.
“🙁"
Sunset snapped her fingers to get back their attention. “In all seriousness, I want the rest of you to reach out to Kind Heart in his radio tower and let him know about the situation. Our cellphones have no network here so the only way we can call the police is through him.”
“That makes sense, I mean, Doctor Cabelleron and his goons are surely armed with hunting rifles in a no hunting zone, so we can force them to leave with the police’s help!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
“Let’s not waste any time and get this over with so we can at least have fun this weekend.”
Back at Derpy and Sandalwood’s camp, Sunset and Rainbow Dash searched for the four zombies that were previously here. They couldn’t be too far seeing as their movements are slow and sluggish, unless they weren’t actual zombies...
In the dead of night, there wasn’t any light penetrating through the thick foliage of the trees, casting the entire forest below in a near abyssal darkness. The campfire was still on which facilitated the act of making their way back to the camp.
“No sign of our mysterious four zombies...” Sunset remarked.
Rainbow Dash was getting impatient, running around in the dark at super speed wasn’t really a good option, so this endeavor was going to take some time. “Now what? This forest’s too big, it’ll be almost impossible to find them while it’s dark.” Just in preparation for her eventual speedster-esque running, she tied her hair into a ponytail.
“Maybe if we just make a lot of noise, they’ll come back to scare us. Afterward, we’ll hide and follow them to spot any suspicious behaviors.”
“Sounds good to me.”
The two girls called out as loud as they can to get the attention of any potential wanderers as the woods were deathly quiet at night. Any loud sound is bound to get the attention of someone. After they stopped shouting, they began to hear footsteps slowly approaching them.
“Bingo! Looks like it worked! Let’s climb up this tree, they’ll never think to look up!”
Using their expert tree climbing skill, they scaled it up and waited patiently for the slow arrival of strangely only three zombies, albeit different from the ones they saw earlier. Different clothes, though still pirate themed and their eyes didn’t glow as much as the previous ghouls.
Once they got to the camp, the undead pirates briefly stopped and exchanged strange looks before resuming their search for the two girls whose shouts they heard.
Up in the tree, Sunset whispered to Rainbow Dash. “Now, that was odd. Maybe these zombies are smarter than we think, or they’re just guys in costume looking to scare us away.”
“I can’t help but get the feeling we are living through an episode of Scooby-Doo...”
Just as Sunset predicted, they did not look up and simply shambled out of the camp and through the dark woods. At that time, the two spying girls slowly and quietly climbed down to follow the haunting ghouls.
It was difficult for them to remain undetected, as any sound will alert the pursuers to their location. The crickets up above weren’t loud enough to completely masks their footsteps, which forced them to move even slower, just barely enough to keep up with the living dead.
The four zombified pirates were behaving strangely at times, showing a lot more sentience than a zombie normally would have. Various action, such as readjusting their posture, glancing left and right and even sometime checking their forearm for... something.
Maybe they were just very intelligent zombies, maybe. Or... they’re fakers. This stalking took a couple of minutes until the ghouls suddenly stopped their pursuit and straighten their backs.
“Looks like we took too much time, these girls are gone.” said one of the living dead.
“What were they even doing back here? Didn’t they run away from us already?” exclaimed another one.
Finally, the one dressed up as Captain Crooked Back spoke in a very familiar voice to Dash at least. “Very well, let’s make sure they’re gone in the morning and then we’ll go back to our search. The treasure’s real and I won’t let any of you dissuade me from finding it.”
Doctor Caballeron, I knew it! Thought Sunset Shimmer from behind a bush. She whispered to her friend that they should go meet up with the rest of the group to tell them the news.
Just as they were about to leave, Sunset accidentally stepped on a branch that was essentially invisible in the dark. Oh come on! That’s just unlucky!
The three wannabe ghouls spun around and reached for something inside their pirate clothes. Both Sunset and Rainbow Dash noticed in horror that they pulled out their hunting rifles.
Rainbow Dash looked at her friend with a look that said “They’re going to shoot us!”
“What was that?” said one of the hunters in a nervous voice.
“Could be just a critter, but it could also be someone spying on us like Daring Do. Search around with your googles, we must make sure no one is following us!” ordered Caballeron.
Sunset grabbed the broken branch and threw it away. The sound of its impact with the ground distracted the three hunters just long enough for them to move away from their hiding spot.
Caballeron inspected the broken branch and came to only one conclusion. “We’re being followed. Our disguises are compromised! Don’t let them get away or else we’re gonna get in severe legal issues!” His words erased all anxieties from his partners, who now looked quite angry.
The two girls hid behind a large tree and Sunset peeked out to wait for a good opportunity to make run for it. “Once they turn their back to us, you’ll use your speed to get us out of here, got it?” she whispered.
But no response came. “D-Dash?” She turned around only to see the reason why there were only three of them.
“Hmmgn!”
The fourth hunters, the biggest of the bunch, had gotten a hold of Rainbow Dash. His left arm had wrapped around her body and lifted her off the ground as if she was as light as a feather. His right hand was covering her friend’s mouth so she wouldn’t be able to call for help. In his zombie costume, he was downright terrifying.
Before Sunset could do anything, he whistled to his fellow hunters to look in their direction. Now, there were three hunting rifles locked on her.
“Now ain’t this an unpleasant surprise?” Caballeron said in an annoyed voice. “You two just couldn’t help yourselves to play the hero, huh? Reminds me of an old ‘friend’ of mine; Daring Do. Perhaps the name rings a bell? Anyhow, you two Daring Do wannabes are gonna regret it real fast...”
At the watchtower, the old Kind Heart was sound asleep. At his age, he often had to take naps during the day to keep on doing his job as his body was slowly weakening. To compensate, he did hire other rangers to be stationed at the other watchtowers built around his prized forest. What he didn’t know, however, was that he would soon be living through a very long night when his radio suddenly turned on.
“H-Hello? Is s-someone there?”
Kind Heart woke up surprised and sluggishly stumbled out of bed, picking up his cane in the process to walk over to the radio. “This is tower 3. What is the problem? Over.”
The callers answered. “W-W-We're lost in the woods! There are zombies out there! Pirate zombies! Th-They're totally real, bro! We ran away from our camp, but now we’ve lost our path! Please help us, Kind Heart!” The old ranger could also hear some feminine whimpering accompanying the frightened voice of the caller.
The old man recognised the voice of Sandalwood and Derpy. He had known them for quite some time and was determined to led them to safety. Although he wasn’t fully buying the pirate zombies, he knew that there could sometimes be bears present near the lake and simply assumed that it was a wild animal that attacked them.
“Just tell me where you are, I’ll guide you to the watchtower, over.”
Kind Heart looked to his right. There on the wall lied the full map of the forest, complete with all the trails and bear sightings. He had a feeling he was going to have a bad night. He was even second guessing all this buried treasure and undead pirates' myth. It could be real after all; he did read about the weird happenings at Canterlot High which is only a few kilometers away from here.
“I think I see a mine, but that’s about it. The trees are obscuring my vision, I can’t see anything else!”
The mine, yeah it was literally on the other side of the forest. These poor high school students were a long way from the comfort of his watchtower. “Take the trail on your right, over.” simply responded the old gentleman. Now he simply needed to wait for them to call back.
In the meantime, he went outside to look over in the distance. From his position, he had a good view of the lake and the other watchtower. Even in the dead of night, his forest still amazed him with its beauty and serenity. No way could such a peaceful place be haunted with the spirits of cruel pirates. He’s way too old for this.
The radio turned back on, but this time it was a different familiar voice. “Hey, Kind Heart? It’s Twilight Sparkle, we need your help, over.”
Rushing back to the radio, Kind Heart answered immediately. “What can I do for you girls? Over.”
“We need to come over to you quickly. Can you show us your location? Over.”
Going back outside, he turned on the flood lights. The switch was sadly broken and had to be manually held to keep the lights on, something he hoped would get fixed soon. After a few seconds of waiting, he saw some lights emanating in the forest. Cellphones light to be more precise.
“We’re making our way to you. We should arrive in at least five minutes, over.”
Good, more complications on their way. He’s going to have a lot to juggle tonight, hopefully his nap would have given him enough strength to last to morning.
“Fantastic view! Hold the pose!”
“W-What?”
Out of nowhere showed up Photo Finish and her two kind assistants. The latter jumped on him and pampered the old gentleman with makeup and new clothes, ones that looked more fitting as a park ranger than his pyjamas.
“Perfect! Now stay put! I must capture this moment!”
Her camera’s light blinded Kind Heart as she rapidly took hundreds of photos, striking very extravagant poses while doing it.
“I-I’m kinda in the middle of something, Photo Finish!” protested the old ranger. His protests didn’t reach her, however.
“Splendid! Splendid!”
“I need to do my job! Some of your friends are in danger!”
“I know! And off... I go!”
With a snap of her fingers, her assistant ripped the ranger’s clothes away and removed his makeup before the trio left in a hurry.
Mumbling unsavory things under his breath, Kind Heart noticed that his pyjamas were also ripped away during the photoshoot speedrun.
“Brr! It’s awfully cold out here...”
“... sell for a fortune, ay? I’m sure we’ll find a buyer pretty quick. These things look ancient... and rare.”
The voice of Doctor Caballeron rang through her ears as Sunset slowly woke up. She was in a rather uncomfortable position. Her hands were stuck above her head and it felt like they were crushing each other. That feeling also carried over to her legs. Lastly, she felt something over her mouth and slowly came to realise that she was tied up and gagged inside of a very luxurious trailer, Caballeron’s trailer.
Both Sunset and Rainbow Dash’s geodes were now missing, taken by the greedy hands of the archeologist. Her friend looked understandably angry at Caballeron, groaning at him through her gag.
“Hmgn! Hmpf, mmmmmgn!”
The bad doctor looked rather amused by her little tantrum and crouched next to her, swinging the geodes in front of her face. “I must admit, I’m quite intrigued by how you even came into possession of these relics. They’re truly one-of-a-kind, but I guess it doesn’t matter how you found them, all I'm curious to know is if your friends also happen to have more of them. Do they?”
Sunset winced and shook her head. “Hm hm!”
Cabelleron frowned. “I see the face of a liar here... Oh well, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to go after them. We still have a lot of time to uncover the buried treasure after all. Oh yes! With the treasure in our possession; we’ll be able to buy everything we could ever want! Mostly... entire companies to amass greater fortune to finance my next expedition. Slowly over time, I will get to rule over the world!”
If her hands weren’t tied, Sunset would totally face palm. This guy was talking as if he was a Totally Spies villain or something... The fact that they were tied up only reinforced this feeling.
No matter how much danger they’re in, these two girls would never let themselves be reduced to damsels in distress.
Once the coast is clear, they’ll make their daring escape. (Ha!)
“Anyhow, I suppose our hunt is futile during the night. We must have chased off all the campers here. I hope you won’t mind if we hold you captive just a little longer until we find the treasure. I promise it won’t be long since you’re looking at experts in this domain!”
Rainbow Dash tried again to break free, mumbling more threats through her gag.
“I feel like a muzzle would have been more appropriate for you, Miss Daring Do fan #1.” Caballeron took out a Daring Do book, Dash’s book, and waved it in front of her face. “Yeah, I see just how much you idolise her. Well, let me tell you something very important; it’s great and all to idolise someone but kids like you should never inspire to be like her. I’d wager the results here speak for themselves.”
In a last-ditch attempt to get the last laugh, Rainbow Dash abruptly straightened her legs to trip Caballeron as he was walking away.
“Hmpf!”
Feeling slightly humiliated, the bad doctor brushed off the dust from his clothes. “Still feel a little smug? I’ll make sure to correct that behavior by the end of this weekend.”
He dropped the book in front of her and shut his bedroom door. “Now please be quiet, I’ll be trying to sleep here.”
Now left alone, they knew it was time to make their escape. This whole scenario was strangely resembling that of a kid’s cartoon. Heroines getting capture by the bad guy? Check. Monologuing villain? Check. Escaping the baddies’ evil trap? Check, though there isn’t really a trap here...
Rainbow Dash first went with a little more brute force, but evidently that idea was going nowhere. She looked to Sunset to come up with a solution to get them out of this sticky situation.
Our bacon-haired protagonist looked around the trailer but couldn’t seem to find anything in reach that could get rid of their bonds... Until she laid her eyes on Dash, more specifically on her ponytail.
“Hmgn mmmpf!”
“Hm?”
Sunset sighed and pointed at Rainbow Dash’ hair, albeit with great difficulty because her hands were tied in an uncomfortable position. She looked confused but nonetheless leaned closer to her. With careful handling, she took out Dash’s hairpin, undoing her ponytail at the cost of having something mildly sharp in hand.
She gingerly scraped her binds with the hairpin, making sure to not apply too much pressure, else it would break. Her hands were slightly trembling thanks to the pressure put on her at the moment. These binds were going to break... in the fullest of time! I can promise it.
Rainbow Dash wasn’t feeling too patient, however. “Hhmpf Ohme Hon!” She pouted on her side, looking at the ceiling for some stimulation.
Wrong move! Sunset dropped the hairpin but caught it back just in time! Her hands were trembling more than they were before as her fingers became sweaty. The drops of sweat on her forehead were also becoming more visible as she was getting anxious.
Rainbow Dash was also growing anxious, now occasionally glancing at her progress with worried eyes.
Thankfully, Sunset managed to keep her cool just long enough to put a good dent in her binds. Then, she pulled her hands apart with enough force to finally free herself. She let out a muffled chuckle before taking off both hers and Dash’s gag.
“Close one.” Sunset stated.
“Too close for comfort, now can you free me too?”
Sunset glanced at the cupboards, there must be sharp knives around here to cut through their remaining binds faster. With her legs still tied, she had to hop around like a rabbit to reach the kitchen knives.
“That one should do it.” Indeed, it did. The knife cut through the ropes like butter and in no time, the two girls were free.
Rainbow Dash immediately looked at the door leading to Caballeron’s bedroom with an angry expression. “We can’t let this jerk sell away our geodes! We need them to save the world for when that’ll inevitably happen again.”
“We’ll need to be really quiet if we want to snatch them back. Can I count on you for this?”
“Of course you can! I’m probably like the best at sneaking out of all of us.”
Sunset remained... unconvinced.
Anyhow, they slowly opened the door and nearly had a panic attack when it creaked with the frequency of a screaming baby. Thankfully, Caballeron simply rolled in bed and groaned, still sound asleep.
“I’ll search the left side; you search the right side.” Sunset whispered to Rainbow Dash.
Sunset first started by looking under the bed, a good place to hide some valuable or mostly... embarrassing items. Reaching out, she pulled out a CD of a very familiar band. “Power Crush, huh? Didn’t know he was a fan too.”
As for Rainbow Dash, she found many newspaper clippings in his shelf regarding Canterlot High’s more magical events. Not surprising considering his line of work.
“Oh no... you’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Dash turned around and saw that Sunset was pointing at the sleeping doctor.
“No... don’t tell that he’s wearing our geodes?!”
Sunset nodded. “So, uh, you good at stealing necklaces?”
“Absolutely not! I’m no criminal, but what about you? Didn’t you steal a lot of stuff in your bad girl’s days?”
She gulped. “A-Alright then. Guess I’m the one who’s gonna snatch them...”
With great hesitation, Sunset approached her trembling hand to the sleeping Caballeron. Inching ever so closer, she managed to get a hold of the two geodes but right as she was about to pull them away, he rolled in bed, causing her to immediately move away in panic.
“You almost had it! Try again!” Dash insisted.
After waiting for a bit, Sunset tried her luck again. She was fortunate enough to grab the geodes again and now it was time for the difficult part; removing them without waking Caballeron up. She slowly lifted them up from his neck, carefully observing him just in case he’d wake up. Once the coast seemed clear, she pulled the geodes away.
“Yes!”
“Sweet!”
“Hm?”
Oh snap! It would appear that Sunset wasn’t one hundred percent successful in reclaiming the geodes without waking up their captor. Caballeron’s eyes widened when he saw her with his most prized possessions in hand.
“Hey yo-”
Before he could even finish his sentence, Rainbow Dash bonked him over the head with his night lamp, shattering it and knocking him unconscious. If he had a mirror, he'd see just how unflattering he looked moments before he passed out. “Whew! That was a close call.”
“Let’s get out of here.” Sunset threw Dash her geode and they both put them on.
“Finally, I’m back to being awesome!”
“Heh, you always were, Dash.”
They ran out of the caravan, happy to finally make it out of the evil clutches of Caballeron but were stopped by yet another zombie pirate, Captain Crooked Back to be exact.
“Uh oh... I think they may have heard the commotion.”
“Mmmmmmmmyyyyyy... treeeeaaaasuuuureeee.”
“What?”
Captain Crooked Back lifted his arms in front like you’d expect from a zombie and began to shamble towards them.
“Uh, Sunset? If these guys are armed, then... why isn’t he threatening us with his gun?”
“Only one way to find out.”
Sunset walked up to the shambling cadaver and right as he was about to lunge on her, she used her knowledge in martial arts to throw him over her shoulder and then... she froze.
“You touched him! What didya see?”
Sunset’s face was frozen in horror.
“S-Sunset?”
“He’s... He’s the real Crooked Back.”
“What?! So this whole zombie pirate story is true? Oh my gosh! We were camping in a cursed forest for years without even knowing!”
The zombie’s feet tethered to the ground and slowly, he lifted his whole body up without even using his arms. Once he was finally standing again, he moaned in a wrathful voice. “You will never steal my treasure!”