Sorry it took so long update. Between schoolwork, Thanksgiving and lack of inspiration it just to a while to write (it's my first crossover, so I wanna get it right). But don't worry this story will not die! I will keep writing to the end no matter how long it takes! I just hope I get the details of Is This A Zombie? Right. If I get anything wrong or forget something please leave a PM so I can fix it or add it to a future chapter. Now on to the show!
Spike and Ayumu were climbing up the mountain, because of the high altitude it was snowing even if it was summertime.
"Geez I didn't expect it to snow! In the middle of summer no less!" Ayumu said looking around then again I shouldn't be complaining… he added in his head.
"Well we're on a really tall mountain. The higher we go the colder it gets, sometimes it even snows, at least that's what Rainbow Dash told me." Spike replied in a somewhat tired voice.
"A friend of yours, right?"
"Yup! She calls herself the best flyer in Equestria but she can definitely back up that claim!" the baby dragon elated to Ayumu. The zombie remembered Spike talking about her earlier and she kinda reminded him of Haruna, at least in the cocky department. Maybe if I meet her she'll show me one of those Sonic Rainbooms that Spike told me about.
Ayumu then noticed Spike shivering and looking pretty fatigued. "You okay kid?" He asked with concern.
"Yeah… I'm fine… just a little cold." Spike tried to assure but didn't notice he tripped over a rock and landed on his face.
Ayumu took of his makeshift hood, wrapped it around Spike and then hoisted him up on his back.
"Hey… what are you doing?" Spike whined a bit. "You've been walking all day, buddy. It's pretty much nightfall by now, maybe we should find a place to rest and we'll continue in the morning." Ayumu answered while picking up Spike's sack.
"But what about the migration?"
"I'm pretty sure those dragons need to rest too. Besides you said it yourself, you're a baby dragon and as much as I respect you for trying to tough it out, you need a break." Reasoned the older dragon.
"But you seem totally fine! Why aren't you cold or tired?" Spike retorted. Ayumu stopped in his tracks and turned to Spike in a sparkly way "Because I'm older than you." He replied simply making Spike humph a little. Being a zombie helps too… Ayumu added in his head. The two come across a cave in the on a steep mountain ledge. "That could work."
Meanwhile further down the mountain…
"DAMMIT! WHY IS IT SO COLD?!" Haruna shouted as she, Eu and Sera trotted up the mountain.
Sera looked back at the unicorn giving her an irritated look "We are high above a mountain. It gets colder the more you climb. If it's any consolation, you can blame the maggot when we find him."
Haruna puffed her cheeks in annoyance. Still, she had a point. The snowstorm was getting worse as they kept going and it was making it hard to see. They stopped when they came across an opening, not really a cave because it wasn't that deep, but enough for three of them to fit and take shelter.
"This blizzard's probably going to get worse. We may as well rest for now, we'll continue when it passes!" Sera called out behind to her companions. Eu and Haruna gave a confirming nod as the three of them went into the small "cave".
Eu put Mysteltainn down as she and her friends huddled together for warmth, Haruna to her left and Sera to the right, with her in the middle using her wings to cover them both.
"Thank you Lady Hellscythe."
"Yeah, thanks."
The alicorn looked at the two of them and gave them a nod "Hm."
Eu gave a look at the magic chainsaw, the divining rods on top were still pointing up mountain. More thoughts Ayumu came to her mind. Sera turned to the necromancer and saw that her mind was elsewhere "Don't worry. We'll find him." The bat-pony comforted while giving Eu a nuzzle.
The necromancer wanted to smile SO badly. Since living with Ayumu and meeting Haruna and Sera, she had even more reasons to smile than she ever had in her long life. I found the greatest friends anyone could ask for. Why must I be cursed to be in pain when I want feel? Eu thought sadly. For some reason she was getting flashbacks of Tokyo Tower and the first time Ayumu heard her voice. She spoke and she even smiled. She still had pain but it wasn't as bad as those other times and now that she thought about it, she never really had an explanation for it. Is it… because of Ayumu?(1)
But her thoughts broke when a large rock in front of them had a pink glow flickering on it. She turned to Haruna, seeing her horn glowing the same color.
"What are you doing Haruna?" Sera asked.
"I'm trying to levitate that rock, duh! We might need it if we're gonna find Ayumu!" Answered Haruna scrunching up her face again making her horn glow brighter. Maybe a little "too" bright when the rock shot up into the clouds out of sight.
The three of them peeked outside to see where the rock went.
"Oops…" Haruna said sheepishly.
Meanwhile up in the clouds the rock hit one of the dragons that were flying to rest in the mountains on their way to their final destination. Thinking it was the dragon behind him, it launched itself at him and the two attacked furiously at each other with their fire breath.
As fire came down towards them, the girls ducked back inside the cave. "Were those dragons?!" Haruna exclaimed as she saw shadows moving through the clouds. "I think so…" Sera answered as Eu held up another note 'I thought dragons were extinct.'
Further up the mountain…
Twilight, Rainbow and Rarity just barely dodged a dragons fire breath by hiding behind a boulder (that mysteriously fell from the sky; they were shocked when it showed up, but they didn't care because they had cover).
"What the hay?!" Rainbow exclaimed after blowing out a small fire on her tail. They looked up to see the brawl heading further up the mountain.
"Oh dear, those dragons are heading right towards…!" Rarity panicked.
"SPIKE!" Twilight finished with dread.
Even further up the mountain…
Ayumu was walking at a steady pace in a steady pace along the ledge to the cave he saw. Since he was still inexperienced with flying as a dragon, he didn't want to risk it with the blizzard and especially with Spike on his back. Further down the mountain they were several sharp rocks, sure Ayumu would be fine if he fell on them but he wasn't going to risk his new friend's safety.
Ok… one step at a time. You can make it. Ayumu thought to himself as he inched himself closer to the cave when suddenly he heard roaring from a distance. "Huh? What was-?"
"Ayumu, look out!" Spike yelled as two dragons came barreling towards them.
They crashed into the mountain during their fight and they flew away. Ayumu managed to dodge but the impact was causing an avalanche, and even though he was running as fast as he could if he didn't act quickly they were both going to fall into the rock pit. Then he got an idea.
"Spike! I'm going to toss you to the other side!" Ayumu yelled as he grabbed Spike as he was about to throw him to closer to the cave.
"But what about you?! There's no way you're gonna survive the fall!" Spike said worriedly.
Ayumu sighed Might as well tell him now…
He turned to Spike getting all sparkly again "Aw don't worry, I'm a zombie!"
"A WHAT?!"
Ayumu tossed Spike before he could answer and right at that moment the avalanche took him down.
"AYUMU!" Spike exclaimed with tears in his eyes as the snow kept coming down the mountain.
It seemed to go on forever and when it finally stopped the snow was sturdy enough to walk down. The baby dragon mustered enough courage to climb down to look for his friend gripping the cloth that wrapped him, leaving his sack behind.
"Ayumu! Where are you?!" He called out only to get silence as a response. Oh no…
He kept going down, assuming the worst, when he saw some snow moving around by itself. Spike gasped realizing what was going on. "Ayumu! Hang on, I'll get you out!"
Spike dug and dug his way through the snow until he saw Ayumu's head. The older dragon took a deep breath once his mouth was free of snow. "Hey, Spike. Looks like you found me."
"Don't worry! I got ya!" Spike assured him as he kept digging to free his arms. Once he did he grabbed his hands to pull Ayumu out.
"One. Two. Three!" the baby dragon called out and pulled Ayumu out of the hole but his heart stopped when he realized he only pulled out only half of his body!
Spike freaked out and let go of him "How?! What?! Why?! HUH?!"
Ayumu sighed as he turned to lie on his back. "Like I said earlier kid, I'm a zombie."
Spike backed up a bit "Z-zombie? Like "living dead", "eating brains" type zombie?"
Ayumu actually looked a little offended when he said that "Hey, that's a hurtful stereotype. If wanted to eat your brain I've would've done it already. Oh and on that topic can you find my lower half? I can't exactly move."
Spike was a little scared now, but it's true that Ayumu hasn't done anything to hurt him. In fact he doesn't act at all like the zombies in the movies or his comic books. He wasn't decaying or moaning or acting mindless or trying to eat his brain. He was…normal. So he went over to the hole and started digging again. He got Ayumu's lower body out (and avoiding the bloody parts), but still weirded out by the whole ordeal "Okay…now what?"
"Bring it over, place it below me and my powers will do the rest." Ayumu explained motioning to his severed chest. Spike walked towards Ayumu and placed his other half down. To his surprise the two halves started to magically put themselves back together until they healed completely, like the injury never happened.
"Whoa…how did you do that?" Spike said in awe.
Ayumu got back on his feet doing a little stretching "It's one of my zombie abilities. Because I'm immortal, my wounds instantly heal, even severed body parts."
"Wait…zombies can do that?" Spike asked genuinely confused.
Ayumu sighed again, this was gonna take a while "Let's get to the cave, kid. I'll explain everything."
As the two climbed back up the mountain Rainbow Dash's head popped out of the clouds. "Phew, Spike and Ayumu are ok. Better go tell Twilight." (Luckily she didn't see Ayumu heal himself.)
Later…
The two dragons were now settled in the cave, it was a bit of a tight fit Ayumu, but it would have to do.
"So… I don't get it. Why didn't you eat my brains if you're a zombie?" Spike questioned kind of hoping he didn't offend him again, but Ayumu just smiled. "That whole brain-eating thing is something exaggerated for the movies. A real zombie is someone brought back from the dead to be a servant, that's basically what I am." (No, really, it's true. Google it.)
"Reallly? How did you- you know… became alive again?"
Ayumu took another deep breath preparing for to tell the rest of his story. "Well after I said bye to Eu when we met, I was walking home and I heard screaming coming from another house and blood spattered on the window. There had been reports of a serial killer in town and it was in that house. I called the police but I had to do something, so I went inside when suddenly a sword came out through my chest, after that everything went black." He said as he subconsciously rubbed his chest as he remembered the day he died.
"Then what happened?" the baby dragon asked.
"Like I said, everything was black when suddenly the words "don't die" appeared before me and then I saw blinding light. When it passed I was in a graveyard and Eu was watching over me. She explained how she brought me back to life, sure I was freaked out but at the same time I was grateful to her. That's how my zombie life began and Eu has lived with me ever since."
"But how did she know you died and why didn't she revive those other people that died?" Spike asked, questioning why someone would only revive one person.
"After I brought her home she explained to me that since she's a necromancer she can tell when someone dies an early death. She happened to be in the area when she sensed the deaths and she saw my body in the house. She's only allowed to revive a person every hundred years or so because of the armor that restrains her magic and also because when she heals somebody she feels the same amount of pain that person felt."(2)
Spike's eyes widened to such a thing. "Eu must have been really hurting then. She must really like you, even if she only knew you for a day."
"Yeah…" Ayumu said as his mind went into fantasy mode again.
"Oh you big stud, I miss you so much! Please come back to me!~" Our weak-kneed protagonist imagined Eu to say.
"Oh don't worry I will!" Ayumu said to himself in a giddy voice.
"Dude, are you okay?" Spike asked confused at Ayumu's behavior. The zombie snapped out of his little happy place. "Uh y-yeah! I'm fine!"
Spike just blinked at him but shook it off. "Ok… but where were your parents throughout all of this?"
"My folks are always traveling. Barely ever see them anymore."
"Wait…so they don't even know you died?" Spike gave Ayumu a sad look.
"No… I haven't told anybody, not even my best friend Orito. The only ones that do are the ones that know that magic exist, but as far as everyone else knows, I'm alive." Ayumu answered solemnly.
"How come you haven't told your parents or you're friend?"
"My parents haven't exactly been close for long time and about Orito, I couldn't even tell I live with three girls until he found out by accident, telling him I'm a zombie would just make things way too… weird" Ayumu replied. Sure there have been times where he had thought about telling Orito the truth, he just wasn't ready yet.(3)
Poor Ayumu… Spike thought, feeling bad for his friend.
Ayumu continued explaining until he got to the part where he battled against his killer Kyoko, a magical garment girl that went rogue and was killing people to gain immortality.
"She was down to her last life, I destroyed her sword to leave her defenseless, I could've finished her off and after all that, at the last second I didn't kill her. I couldn't kill her and I still don't know why…" Ayumu said trailing off. To this day he didn't what stopped him from killing that psychopath.(4)
It was silent for a while, until Spike spoke up. "Well… I may be wrong. But maybe you were showing Kyoko you weren't like her."
Ayumu gave what the baby dragon said some thought. He smiled at Spike while ruffling his head, the younger one chuckling all the while. "Yeah… maybe you're right kid. In fact, in a way she helped me appreciated life by taking it away. I met really great friends since I became a zombie, so I guess it wasn't all bad."
Then he told her how he met Tomonori, another vampire-ninja and that little… incident that happened.
"You two are married?! Just because of a kiss?!"
"By accident! Haruna pushed me in front of her and I accidently kissed her! By vampire-ninja law that makes us married!"
"Well… do you like her? In that way I mean?" Spike questioned.
"I do like Tomonori, don't get me wrong. But I just like her as a friend." Ayumu admitted. "Is there a way out of that marriage thing, then? I mean the whole thing was accident." Spike replied.
"I honestly don't know kid. Even if I could, I don't wanna hurt her feelings and lose her as a friend after everything we've been through." Ayumu sighed, it was complicated with Tomonori.
"Who knows Ayumu? Maybe she'll understand." Reasoned Spike.
After that he talked to a big part of his afterlife: the King of the Night. Ayumu explained how he was Eu's former zombie servant that turned against her after he killed the leader of the Seventh Abyss protectors of the Underworld. He made her run away because he told if she didn't kill him that he would hurt her friends.
"Why would this 'King of the Night' guy go through all that, just because he wants to die?"
Ayumu just gave a light shrug "He was tired of being immortal. He didn't want it anymore, but like I told you earlier, Eu's sensitive about death and refused to kill him. After our fight he thought one day I would blame Eu and hate immortality too, but I told him to me it was my second chance at life and with Eu, Haruna and Sera, I won't be alone though it. After that Eu finally decided to let him go, much to her regret."
Spike was silent for a moment, in awe of Ayumu's tale. "Wow Ayumu. You're even more awesome than I thought!"
Ayumu looked surprised at that "Really? Don't you think it's weird that I'm a zombie?"
"A little. Zombies get a lot of bad press." Spike admitted while rubbing his arm.
"The word does have a negative connotation." Ayumu agreed.
"Why don't you call yourself something else?" Spike added.
"Like what?"
Spike thought about it "I don't know. Living impaired?"
The two dragons laughed at that, and then Spike went over to his side of the cave and sat down. "Hey…um…I'm sorry for freaking out earlier."
"It's ok kid. I'm sorry too for not being completely honest with you." Ayumu apologized as well.
"I understand Ayumu." Spike said as he covered them with the fabric to use as a blanket and he leaned onto Ayumu looking sleepy. "You know, I'm glad you joined me on my quest. You're a really cool guy."
Ayumu smiled to himself and saw Spike had already fallen asleep. "Thanks Spike. You're pretty cool yourself."
Does anyone have a theory of how Eu was able to talk to Ayumu but she didn't look like she was in pain? Does she have some control of her powers or what?
That's how it works right? Let me know if it's not
Does Orito ever find out about Ayumu being a zombie? You think I should do something with that in the future?
This was actually supposed to be a parallel between the differences between the anime and the manga. Because in the manga, he would've killed Kyoko if Ariel hadn't intervened and in the anime he missed on purpose. So I thought I do a little something with that
I think I gave myself diabetes with that last moment! I always loved little moments of fluff in stories, so I couldn't help myself! Also, does anyone else find it funny that in Ayumu's fantasies, Eu still has different voices even AFTER he knows what her real voice sounds like? I had a lot of fun writing Ayumu in this chapter, because in my mind Ayumu's a genuinely good guy. Sure, he does stupid stuff sometimes, but mostly by accident.
Like what you see? Anything you wanna ask me? Something you wanna see happen? Comment below and let me know! See ya! And Happy Holidays!