The light of a full moon shined down on Ponyville’s graveyard. Dozens of headstones and memorials were scattered around. Many were in poor condition with the words engraved into them barely readable. Others were brand new with barely a crack in them. Sitting in front of one of the headstones were three fillies and a baby dragon. A volumetric flask sat between them as well as various powders and liquids. Beside each occupant was an obtuse object: to the pegasus’ side was a shovel with a sharpened spade, at the unicorn’s side was a baseball bat, with the earth pony was a table leg, and two knives duct taped to the end of a broken broom sat at the baby dragon’s feet. The baby dragon held a piece of parchment and a quill in his hands.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go over this one more time. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, do we have everything?”
“Read out the list,” Apple Bloom said. “We’ll check off each item if we have it.”
“Alright then,” Spike looked at the parchment. “A copy of Necromancy for Foals?” Sweetie Belle held up a deep blue book with a silver pentagram on it. A red rectangular piece of plastic sat in the middle of the book. On the book’s cover was what looked like a small colt wearing a black hooded robe and a large smile on his face. The words ‘Necromancy for Foals’ were at the top and bottom of the book.
“Check,” Spike checked off an item on the list.
“Flammable liquids?” Scootaloo picked up two glass bottles. One had a translucent yellow liquid in it while the other had a clear liquid in it.
“Check,” another item was checked off.
“A source of fire?” Spike was poked by a yellow hoof.
“Check,” the four of them chuckled.
“Good,” Spike said rolling up the parchment. “We have all of our safety measures. Sweetie, turn to the bookmarked page and we can work on the solution.” The book was opened up and the rectangular plastic was removed.
“How do you even have a copy of this?” Scootaloo asked. “I thought all the copies in Equestria were burned after what happened thirty years ago.”
“All the copies in Equestria were turned to ash,” Spike replied. “Nopony said anything about acquiring a copy outside of Equestria.”
“That doesn’t explain why Twilight has an original printed copy of this book,” Sweetie Belle said. “What, did she go out of Equestria when she was a filly to get this or something?”
“Time spell,” all of the fillies nodded in understanding. “That, and morbid curiosity.”
“Is Twilight performing experiments that spit in the face of creation again?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I’m not at liberty to say,” Spike’s eyes darted back and forth.
“That’s a yes then,” a white hoof placed itself on a page of the book. “Half-Life Potion. First, we need a teaspoon of an alluring scent.” Scootaloo opened a bottle of perfume. She poured a small amount of it into a spoon then into the flask.
“A tablespoon of sweetness,” Spike opened up a bag of sugar. He scooped a small amount onto a spoon and dumped the spoon’s contents into the flask.
“A piece of desire,” Apple Bloom opened up a diary. She flipped through the pages until she found a page with a heart drawn around written words. She ripped it out, tore the paper, and threw the scraps into the mixture. “Is that Applejack’s diary?”
“Shhh,” a hoof was over Apple Bloom’s mouth. “She doesn’t know about this. Besides, all I took was one love poem she wrote about somepony. There’s at least ten of those in here. And all of them revolve around one pony.”
“Aww, that’s so sweet,” Sweetie Belle looked back at the book. “A pinch of alicorn from an alicorn.”
“What’s alicorn?” Scootaloo asked.
“It’s what unicorn horns are made of,” Spike opened up a pouch with a white powder in it. His fingers pinched a small amount of the powder.
“How’d you get that?” Spike shuddered. “Okay, best not to ask. What’s left?”
“Two more things. A portion of the sky,” Scootaloo dropped a small cloud into the flask. “And two shots of life.” Apple Bloom opened a test tube full of a blood red liquid. She slowly poured its contents into their mixture. When she was done, Spike picked up the flask. He swirled its contents, carefully examining them. After a few moments, the ingredients fused together and gave off a deep red glow.
“I think it’s done,” he said. “Ready to go?” Sweetie Belle shut the book and placed it in a saddlebag. She and her friends picked up the objects beside them. They crouched down into a defensive stance with determination in their eyes. Spike picked up his broomstick and turned to the headstone they stood in front of.
“Here goes nothing,” the flask was turned over. A drop of the glowing liquid spilled into the soil. Spike took a few steps back. The four of them stood there waiting. “I don’t think it…” The earth shaking interrupted him. From the base of the headstone, they could hear frantic digging. A rotting green hoof pushed its way out of the dirt.
“It worked!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “I can’t believe it worked! Do you know what this means?”
“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle said. “We get to do something that nopony has ever done before!”
“And hopefully we get our cutie marks from it,” Scootaloo grinned. A second hoof breached the surface.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ZOMBIE HUNTERS! YAY!” they screamed at the top of their lungs. The hooves pushed on the ground pulling up the body they were attached to. The head of a green earth pony stallion rose from the dirt. He had a purple mane and a similarly coloured goatee. A pair of round glasses were over his eye sockets. The left socket was empty while the right had a milky white eye in it. As he pulled himself from the ground, pieces of flesh fell of the pony.
“Braaaains,” he said as he got on all fours. “Braaaaains.”
“Gee,” Spike said. He placed the flask down. “Way to break a stereotype.”
“Braaaains,” the zombie continued. The zombie stumbled forwards approaching the four youths. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle ran to its left while Scootaloo and Spike ran to its right. Sweetie Belle tilted her head and hit the zombie’s foreleg. A loud snapped came out from the impact of the baseball bat. He moaned in pain and leaned to his right. Apple Bloom took her table leg and did the same as Sweetie Belle. Spike and Scootaloo swung their weapons from under his right legs. Both legs were cut off. The zombie fell to his side squirming and flailing his broken limbs. “Braaains.”
“Well now,” Spike said returning to the flask. “That was easy.”
“I know,” Scootaloo said. “TV shows and movies make it seem a lot harder.”
“Maybe it’s because we used a small amount of the potion,” Sweetie Belle placed her bat down. “If we used more of it, maybe we’d get stronger zombies.”
“Girls?” Apple Bloom asked. “You’re forgetting something important. Did we get our cutie marks?” The three fillies quickly turned their heads to the flanks. Like at the beginning of the night, they were bare.
“Awww,” they said. Spike kneeled in front of the zombie with the flask in hand.
“Maybe you didn’t get it because we didn’t kill it,” he said. “Who wants to go first?”
“Me!” Sweetie Belle shouted. The sudden noise caused the zombie to jerk his head. His head knocked the flask out of Spike’s hand. It flew into the air spilling the potion on seven other graves. Spike hopped back from the zombie as Sweetie Belle raised her bat over her head. She dropped it on the zombie’s head. The bat pushed through its skull. The zombie’s limbs stopped their movements. Sweetie Belle struck the zombie’s broken head two more times. She wiped her brow with a smile on her face. When she turned to her friends, they had blank expressions on their faces. “What? I had to make sure that it was dead.” Sweetie Belle turned to her flank. Again, it was blank.
“Rats,” she said. “I thought I would have gotten it this time.”
“I think we have more important things to deal with,” Spike said. “Look over there.” He pointed to seven graves behind the one they stood in front of. Seven zombies were pulling themselves out of the ground. Each of them were almost fully out of the earth.
“Oh boy,” Apple Bloom said with wide eyes. “This is bad. We can’t take out seven zombies!”
“Why not?” Scootaloo asked. “We took out this one, why can’t we stop seven?”
“Because they’ll be attacking us at the same time,” Spike said. “And they all got more than a drop of the potion, they might be stronger. Look, we’ll try this again tomorrow. We’ll focus on one at a time like we did tonight. For now, I say we burn them down. Anypony disagree?” Nobody there said a word. The zombies started stumbling towards them.
“Braaaains,” they moaned. Sweetie Belle grabbed the bottle with the clear liquid in it. She opened it up and splashed all of the zombies with a liberal amount of the solution. She and the other crusaders stood behind Spike. He took in a deep breath and puffed his cheeks out. A jet of green fire flew from his mouth as he exhaled. His head turned from side to side, dousing each of the zombies in flames. The moaned for a few moments before their ashes turned to purple sparks. The sparks swirled together into a circular mass before flying off into the distance.
“Sweetie,” Spike turned to the white unicorn. “Which one of the flammable bottles did you spill on them?”
“The clear one,” she answered. “Why?”
“That wasn’t the sight of zombies burning,” he pointed off into the distance. “That was the sight of something being sent via magical fire. Scootaloo, where did you get the liquids?”
“The lantern oil I got from home,” Scootaloo said. “The clear stuff I got from Twilight.”
“Oh no,” Spike dropped his weapon. “She must have given you the stuff we soak parchments in.”
“Is that how you send letters via fire?” Apple Bloom asked. Spike nodded. “So if the zombies were covered in the stuff that gets sent by magical fire, then that means…” All of the crusaders’ eyes widened. They stood in their place in absolute silence. A gust of wind passed by them.
“We need a scapegoat,” Spike said breaking the silence.
“Agreed.” All of the scattered materials and weapons were picked up and packed away. The four of them ran out of the graveyard as fast as their hooves and feet could carry them. Out of all the materials they brought, one was left behind: the flask. It sat on its side with a small amount of the potion dripping onto the ground. The earth underneath it shook and a hoof breached the surface.