"Well, girls, are you all ready to come back to life?"
A chorus of agreement met the alicorn, coming from the band of friends, reunited. It had taken a fair bit of time left to Rarity to explain exactly what happened, but it was just the amount needed for Twilight to complete her hopefully non-explosive spell.
"Alright, everyone, gather around. The spell should bring our souls back to life while simultaneously creating new bodies to inhabit. The timing will be essential between the two factors so I'll need utmost concentration. That means I can't have any of you—"
"Being loud, obnoxious, distracting, or flying through windows," Rainbow finished.
Twilight shot an unamused glare her way. "Now then, I'll start the spell in a... Wait, where's Pinkie?" She looked around the others for the missing sixth of the group, her friends following similar actions.
"Ah think she said somethin' about takin' care of business," Applejack tried.
"She went to the bathroom?" Rainbow asked.
Applejack shrugged, but Twilight answered, "I doubt that's the case. We can't do any bodily functions like that as a spirit. In fact, we don't even have to breathe. We've just been doing it out of habit."
The sound of breathing suddenly died down.
"Here I am!" an energetic voice suddenly exclaimed, startling one timid pegasus. Pinkie hopped on her hooves to her spot in the ring of friends. She looked at all the inquisitive stares she was getting. "What?"
"Where'd you go?" Rainbow asked.
"Oh, I was just... playing a game." She giggled deviously to herself, drawing a suspicious glance from her chromatic friend.
"What kind of game?" she asked warily.
"I'll tell you later," she smiled.
"Right... So, Twilight? Are we good?"
Twilight nodded. "Everyone else ready? For real, this time?" They all agreed. "Good. Then let's begin." Twilight smirked as she lit her horn, casting a chilled glow across the room. The light show expanded outward in beams of magic, connecting individually to each of Twilight's friends, who all watched with snippets of intrigue. Twilight gave a subtle nod of her head and directed the flow into herself as well. Taking one good look at all her friends, she activated the spell in a magnificent flash.
Twilight opened her eyes, having closed them under the brilliance of the light. Around her were the others, all recovering similarly. Nothing seemed to have changed, except for a sunhat having been blown off, much to the muffled laughter of one pegasus and earth pony.
"Did it work?" Fluttershy asked, seeing the alikeness to moments earlier.
"It should have..." Twilight said, "Mm, Rainbow, try phasing through the ground and flying without wings."
Giving a mock-salute, the pegasus set her sight to the ground. After a moment of uniformity, she stamped her hoof. "...Nope. Can't go through it. Heh, I'm going to miss that."
The others all put on triumphant grins at the news. "We're alive, then?" Rarity concluded.
"Seems so," Rainbow replied, "Here, let me try flying." She bounded upwards, only to start her descent after reaching the top of her arc in a flail of unsure hooves. She caught herself in flapping wings, floating to avoid hitting the ground. "And I'll miss that too," she said, "But, hey! We're alive!" A round of cheering met the words, pleased that they could all literally go back to their lives. Rainbow grinned, doing a flip in midair with her revitalized soul and body. Unfortunately, she came crashing to the ground with an "oomph" halfway through.
"Ya stop usin' your wings one day and ya forget how ta use them?" Applejack teased, looking down at the grounded pegasus.
"No!" she defended, "That was just a slip up. A small, minor slip up. It must be the new body because my left wing just gave out. She tried to flex it to prove her point but couldn't even feel it. "Ugh, it's numb or something," she muttered.
"Uh, Rainbow?" Applejack commented, "Ya might wanna take a look at your wing."
"Sure?" She turned her head around over her shoulder to see the bony stump of her pride and joy. Eyes dilating to pinpricks, she swiveled her head around her, eyes connecting with her lovely, blue wing sitting disconnected away on the floor. "Tha— Tha— It's..." She went silent before suddenly rounding on the spell caster of the group. "Twilight! Explain!"
"Ee." Twilight winced. "Uh. Something went wrong?" she offered sheepishly, drawing back with an uneasy smile.
"What. Went. Wrong?" she said, taking a step forward at each word, her hooves stomping dust and ashes up with each assault to the floor.
"Uh, give me a moment!" She teleported her necromancy book in front of her, conveniently placing it between her and the angry pegasus. Scanning the pages, she froze as her eyes came across a possible answer. She set the book down and looked at her outstretched forelimb.
"Well?" Rainbow asked impatiently.
Twilight didn't answer, instead bringing her limb closer to her face. After a brief moment of thought, she bit herself, clamping down her foreleg. The others all looked at her as if she had sprouted another head, Rainbow taking a step back, but Twilight ignored them. Tightening her grip, she pulled her head away, inducing a sickening fleshy sound as the skin of her foreleg peeled away, revealing the bone underneath.
The sounds of shocked, disgusted gasps rang through the room, along with one, "Ah'm goin' be sick!"
"Twilight!" Rarity gasped, "What are you doing? Have you gone mad?"
Twilight only looked at her ravaged flesh. Nodding, she said, "Yup. Just as I thought."
"What? What could have ever compelled you to do that?" Rarity exclaimed, her theatrics in full swing.
The alicorn looked at her friend, then at all of them. She sighed.
“So, long story short, we’re all zombies.”
Five mares stared at their friend, each drawing faces of horror to shock to everything in between.
“What do you mean we’re zombies?!” Rainbow demanded, eyes dancing around the darkened halls of Twilight’s castle. Scorning the regal walls were unsightly waves of scorch marks spiraling into an epicenter on a disembodied wing's position.
Twilight sighed, “Yeah… I messed up that spell pretty badly. I’ll admit I’ve done worse, but that was awful.”
“Worse?” Rarity cried, “What could be worse than this? We’re all zombies! We’re just mindless bodies!”
"That wasn't even a pun, Rarity," Pinkie lamented. Rarity looked back incredulously.
Pinkie looked up, "Is anyone else getting deja vu?"
"Well," Twilight said, "I'll get started on that spell to fix this. I'd say to go out until it's ready, but that's a bad idea." The others nodded, their demeanor glum at the false celebration.
"There you are!" came a familiar voice. They all turned to see Spike running down the hall. "I've been looking for you everywhere!"
Twilight smiled. "Hey, Spike. Sorry to keep you waiting, but—"
"Whoa," he interrupted, looking at her arm. Glancing around, he saw Rainbow's own predicament. "What happened here?"
"I was getting to that," she said, "We all died earlier by accident. Then I brought us back, but it didn't work as planned. We're all zombies."
He put on an unamused face. "Told you they were real. And I leave you for one moment and you kill everyone. You really do need your assistant, huh?"
She smiled, "My number one assistant. Hey, where did you put our ashes, anyways?"
"Your ashes? I thought they were just books or something!"
"Don't worry about it. So where are they?"
"Um..." he said, grabbing onto his tale as it wrapped around him, "I might have used them in the garden... as fertilizer... but only because I didn't know what they were! I just know ashes help soil!"
Twilight's eye twitched. "It's... fine, Spike. It was just an accident. I'm sure we'll make nice flowers."
As an awkward silence loomed, Rarity spoke up, "Does this mean... we'll be pushing up daises?" She looked around with a sheepish smile.
The silence came, unabated.
"Oh, come on!" Rarity said, "That one was on purpose!"
Pinkie shook her head in shame.
"Hey, girls," Rainbow said, "If we're zombies, does that mean the Princess can come back for us again? Like a kind of loophole in the deal?"
"Nope!" Pinkie denied, "She won't be coming back. In fact, she won't ever be coming back for us."
'Why's that?" Twilight asked, eyes narrowing.
A burst of pink flashed, revealing a cloak and a scythe at Pinkie's side. "Because I challenged her to limbo!"
Everyone stared.
"What?" she asked innocently.
"Well... I'm going to get started on that spell. Try not to reap any of us, please."
Twilight sighed as she turned away from them. What an eventful day, she lamented. At least it can't get any worse from here.
Right?
Probably.
"What an eventful day..." she drawled.