"So Applejack's a ghost now?" Sweetie Belle asked when Applebloom finished her story. Applebloom had just gotten back to the camp when Sweetie Belle ran over and started interrogating her on where she had been. She had only been gone for a few hours, it's not like she could have died or anything.

"Yeah, I guess the stress she had when she died ended up tying her to the forest" Applebloom said as Big Mac walked over, interested in what they were talking about. He quickly pulled up a chair before sitting down with a full mug of cider, which came from the barrel of cider he took off the farm a few nights back.

"But if she's tied to the forest then why did it take this long for her to show up?" Sweetie Belle asked. She had a point though. Applejack has been dead for over a month now, so why did she only show up now?

"Maybe she couldn't find y'all" Big Mac said as he finished off his mug, and was getting ready to stand up and refill it when Sweetie Belle turned towards him.

"But the forest can't be that big, and wouldn't she have come back near here, where she died?" Sweetie Belle argued, thinking about all the ghost stories she knew and what restrictions were usually placed on the ghost.

"Eeyup, but Twilight tried to get her to the hospital" Big Mac said while refilling his mug, "They think she died during the teleport". Both Sweetie Belle and Applebloom were surprised at how calmly Big Mac talked about Applejack's death, but then again, when you're dead yourself it doesn't really matter anymore.

"But if that's correct then shouldn't she be able to go anywhere?" Sweetie Belle asked, noting a flaw in the story Applebloom had told her. She quickly turned around and saw Applebloom shifting uncomfortably. Sweetie walked over to her slowly, getting Applebloom's attention.

"Everythin' okay Sweetie?" Applebloom asked nervously.

"If she died in the teleport, than why would she be bound to the forest?" Sweetie Belle asked slowly, leaning in so her nose almost touched Applebloom's.

"Well, uh, I'm sure that, uh..." Applebloom stuttered, trying to figure out a lie to say to Sweetie Belle. Applejack had made her promise to not tell any of them that she was going to go see the other Elements and tell them that she was a ghost now. She also swore to not tell Zecora so that she could surprise her and her daughter one day.

"There's something you're not telling us..." Sweetie Belle said while giving Applebloom the stink eye, hoping it would make her speak up. As she had hoped Applebloom cracked, and she quickly pulled Sweetie Belle out of the camp, not wanting Big Mac to know the secret, even though he probably figured it out by now.

"She's going to see the others" Applebloom whispered, looking at Sweetie Belle with sad eyes. She couldn't believe she just broke a promise she made to her sister...

SNAP! THUD!

"What was that?!" Sweetie Belle shouted, looking towards the source of the noise. Her and Applebloom quickly ran over and found what looked like a royal guard, but his bones were bent at weird angles, and he didn't seem to be moving at all...

"Is he dead?" Applebloom asked worriedly, picking up a stick to poke the guard with. As she reached forwards to poke him she heard a noise above her, and suddenly she was being crushed by some unknown object.

"Luna?!" Sweetie Belle shouted in surprise when she looked at the thing that had landed on Applebloom. The princess of the night quickly got to her feet, making sure not to step on Applebloom. She looked around before realizing what had brought the two fillies to where she was.

"Oh no..." Luna said quietly, fear coming over her face. There was no way they could have seen her drop the body right, they wouldn't know it was her that...

Nice job Luna, this will feed them for weeks

"What did Grey Hoof just say?" Applebloom asked slowly, looking at Luna hoping she would answer her. Luna slowly started to shake as Grey Hoof began to laugh. His plan was going to work, he was going to make one of the all mighty rulers of Equestria succumb to the curse and die!

Ha ha ha ha ha!

"Why is he laughing so much?!" Sweetie Belle cried as she held her head, the laughing increasing in volume.

Still haven't figured it out young fillies?

"What?" Applebloom and Sweetie Belle asked, looking at the body and then at Luna, trying to put the two and two together. When the realization dawned upon them their jaws dropped.

Did you finally figure it out young fillies?

Grey Hoof started to laugh again as Luna began to shake on the ground violently. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom went over to help her but she suddenly took off, so fast that she ended up throwing the two fillies back against the trees. After they hit the ground they rubbed their heads, looking over at the guard pony's body only to see a pack of timberwolves pulling it apart.

"Eww..." Sweetie Belle said slowly, nearly barfing at the sight, "At least we're more civilized than that"

"Yeah..." Applebloom said as she turned around to head back to camp, "Let's go back now"

"Deal!" Sweetie Belle said as she ran past Applebloom, eager to find something nicer to look at.

________________________________________________________

"So, you're a ghost now?" Twilight asked slowly, trying to understand what Applejack was saying to her, "But how are you here?"

"I don't know, I just found myself in the forest one day like this" Applejack said, looking at her body, or whatever it was. They had been talking about it for around a few hours now, but all the had managed to deduce was that Applejack had somehow come back to life as a weird glowey thingy, as Pinkie put it.

"Can you walk through walls?!" Pinkie shouted, quickly stuffing her hoof in her mouth so she wouldn't say anything else. Twilight gave her an annoyed look before turning back to Applejack, who was now poking her hoof at a wall. Twilight watched as Applejack faded away momentarily as she put her hoof through the wall.

"I guess I can go through walls" Applejack said surprised that she had actually managed to get her hoof to go into the wall.

"But to do so it seems like you had to lower your density so that you could fit between the particles in the wood" Twilight said, receiving blank stares from everypony else.

"Um, English please?" Rainbow asked sarcastically.

"She made herself lighter so she could go through the wall" Twilight said with a sigh, which made the others laugh. She quickly shook her head before looking back at Applejack. When she looked back Applejack  was gone, but it felt as if somepony was right behind her...

"BOO!" Applejack shouted suddenly, making all of them jump slightly, except for Pinkie. She just sat there calmly with a giant smile on her face.

"Uh, Pinkie?" Applejack asked while leaning over Pinkie's shoulder, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Pinkie said happily while turning to face Applejack.

"She didn't scare you like she did us dear?" Rarity asked while shooting Applejack an angry glare.

"Nope!" Pinkie said loudly, making everypony give her a weird look.

"Did your Pinkie sense tell you Applejack was about to do that?" Fluttershy asked quietly, still shaking from the scare.

"I think so" Pinkie said while tapping her chin, "I just felt like she was about to do something scary, so when she did do it, I didn't get scared!". Pinkie looked at the others with a giant smile, which faded away when she saw their confused looks.

"What?" Pinkie asked, snapping the others out of their stupor.

"Sorry, we were just, uh..." Rainbow said, looking to Twilight for an excuse.

"Amazed at how keen you are Pinkie" Twilight said, letting Rainbow breath a sigh of relief. Rainbow quickly mouthed a thank you to Twilight before looking back at Pinkie who was looking at Twilight in confusion.

"What does keen mean?"

________________________________________________________

"That took a long time" Scootaloo moaned as she left Fluttershy's house with Applejack in tow. Twilight had interrogated her for almost three hours, trying to get everything she could out of her so she could tell Celestia. In the end Applejack asked her to not tell Celestia about anything, afraid that she might think that it would be her duty to fix things, which wouldn't end well.

"Are you headin' back to the camp Scootaloo?" Applejack asked as Scootaloo started to enter the forest.

"Yeah, want to come?" Scootaloo asked nicely, hoping she could surprise Big Mac with Applejack's new look.

"Sure, I'll tag along" Applejack said happily, smiling sweetly at Scootaloo as she walked up to her side. The two of them made their way through the forest, running into the traps the girls had set up to catch squirrels. Scootaloo ended up getting her hoof caught in one and was nearly pulled, but Applejack grabbed her and kicked the trap off her hoof.

"Watch where you're walking Scoots" Applejack said while roughing up Scootaloo's mane with her hoof.

"Yeah, yeah, let's keep moving" Scootaloo said quickly, she didn't like being babied like that, especially not by one of her friend's sister. They walked in silence until they got back to the camp. As the walked into the clearing she could hear Big Mac snoring from inside the house, but there was no sign of Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.

"I wonder where they went" Scootaloo said as she headed towards the house, eager to wake up Big Mac first so he could show Applejack to him, but Applejack decided to beat her too it. Using her new found ability to walk through walls she entered the cabin and shook Mac before heading back outside. He slowly opened his eyes, and the looked around in confusion.

"Hi Big Mac" Applejack said from beside him, her head sticking through the wall.

"What the hay?!" Big Mac shouted as he jumped back off his bed, caught off guard by the sigh of his sister's head. Applejack laughed before coming all the way through the wall.

"What in tarnation?" Big Mac said slowly as he looked over Applejack's body, trying to figure out if he was hallucinating or not.

"Nice to see you again" Applejack said while smiling sweetly at Big Mac as she walked around the bed to get closer to Big Mac. He watched her closely as she walked in front of him, hugging him closely.

"Sis?" Big Mac said slowly, recognizing his sister's familiar feel.

"Eeyup" Applejack replied softly as she hugged Big Mac tighter. Big Mac quickly hugged her back, trying to fight back tears. Despite his masculine look her was still crushed by the news that his sisters had both died, and finding Applebloom in the state she was in brought him some comfort, but finding Applejack like this was too much. He slowly broke down, crying into his sister's shoulder as Scootaloo watched from the door. Scootaloo smiled at Applejack before walking away from the house, wanting to let the two siblings be alone. Next Chapter: Rotten Apples Estimated time remaining: 8 Minutes