"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!"