After that rather depressing meeting with Mitta, Apple Bloom made her way out of the lone mare’s house and back to the others. She couldn’t bear to see a grownup pony cry. She thought grownups were too tough for something like that. But actually seeing it happen made her heart sink.
Three Leaf spotted the filly approaching them and turned toward Grey Hoof and the others. “Hey guys, she’s back from Mitta’s! We can start the party now!”
“Hold on, there,” Grey Hoof interrupted with a raised hoof. “No party in Sunny Town starts until I say so. I am the party pony here, after all.”
“Aww… well, let’s hurry up then!” she exclaimed before she sped toward Apple Bloom and propped the filly onto her back, racing back toward the group.
“Hey!” Apple Bloom yelled as she clutched onto Three Leaf’s neck, hanging on tightly. “Could ya slow it down a bit?!”
Three Leaf slowed down eventually, and set Apple Bloom down in front of them. All the Sunny Towners looked down at the filly curiously as she stared back at them.
“How’d it go with Mitta?” Grey Hoof asked. “Not a very chipper soul, huh?”
He expected an answer, but he didn’t get one. Apple Bloom just looked down at the ground, her downcast expression telling him just what she felt.
“I’m guessing she told you about the Cursed One…” he answered with a shake of his head. Everypony else narrowed their eyes in response. Apple Bloom lifted her head back up, looking Grey Hoof in the eyes.
“Cursed One...? She was talking about you guys, and how y’all killed her daughter-”
“She deserved it!” Roneo blurted out suddenly. Everypony else agreed with a nod of their heads. Apple Bloom just cowered as a response to Roneo’s sudden outburst.
“”It wasn’t her fault…” Grey Hoof added as he hung his head, “but she had to go. She had the mark, and it was going to spread to all of us.”
“It’s a cutie mark!” Apple Bloom responded angrily, stomping her hoof. “It’s not a curse!”
Three Leaf giggled and bent down toward her, squishing her face with her hooves. “Aren’t you the cutest thing, thinking such weird things? You’re a silly filly, yes you are!”
Apple Bloom swatted her hoof away and bared her teeth. “Ah ain’t cute or silly, and neither is what Ah said. Y’all just got the wrong idea. She didn’t have to be killed.”
“Little Apple Bloom,” Gladstone cut in, “perhaps you just need something to calm your nerves. Grey Hoof has prepared an exciting party in your honor in the town square. You must join us in such a merriment.”
Grey Hoof nodded in agreement, and turned his back. “Come everypony, let us all enjoy this party, for we have ourselves a new member of our herd!”
All of them cheered enthusiastically, even the normally timid Starlet. But Apple Bloom was finding this situation hard to swallow. Her murderers wanted to throw her a party in the occasion of her joining them. But she wanted no part of it.
“Ah ain’t joinin’ no herd of yours,” she complained as she followed them toward the town square. “Ah want out, now!”
“But you haven’t even seen the party yet!” Grey Hoof said before they turned the corner, and before they could say anything else, Apple Bloom laid eyes on a familiar place in town she saw not too long ago. The town square was not very far from Gladstone’s house, but still seemed like a big place.
Decorations were seen practically everywhere, almost enough to rival Pinkie Pie’s parties. Streamers were hung up around banisters and wires, and there were tables setup up covered with food and drinks. Balloons floated about everywhere, and added a sense of flair to the atmosphere.
Normally, Apple Bloom would’ve loved a good party, especially if it was thrown in her honor. But knowing the reason behind it put her off the idea. She shook her head and turned back to the group.
“Ah don’t wanna hang around here anymore. Ah’m leaving.”
Even if she hadn’t been in Sunny Town for long, and therefore wasn’t familiar with the area, it was a rather small town, much smaller than Ponyville, so she could figure the way out easily. Her hooves carried her forward, determined to leave this Celestia-forsaken town.
“Not so fast, little one,” Grey Hoof responded as Apple Bloom kept walking. “You can’t leave Sunny Town. Once affected with our protection, you’re unable to leave.”
She was already ignoring his words, and paid no attention to what he was saying. She kept moving forward toward the entrance of the town, wasting no time in escaping this horrible nightmare.
Gladstone stepped forward as they all watched the yellow filly leave their sights. “She’s unable to leave, right? As far as I know, nopony who has ever been in Sunny Town left us.”
“Calm yourself,” Grey Hoof answered with a smile. “We gave her our gift. This town is something she’ll never leave, and because of that, she’ll be protected by us from the monsters out there in the forest.”
Gladstone nodded, and they faced forward, watching Apple Bloom leave without going after her. They knew she would end up coming back to them, so they went back into the square to start their party.
Despite Grey Hoof’s warnings, Apple Bloom made it out of Sunny Town without any problems. Once she did, she breathed a sigh of relief, finally glad she was out of that nightmare of a place. But nowhere in the dark Everfree Forest was any safer, so she had to find her way out. Unfortunately for her, the area she was in was so deep in the forest, she couldn’t find her way anywhere. She couldn’t even find Zecora’s hut if she wanted to.
She stopped in her tracks and gazed at the environment around her. There were nothing but trees everywhere, and there wasn’t a landmark in sight to tell exactly where she was. With the Everfree Forest being such a maze of trees and dirt pathways, Apple Bloom couldn’t find her way anywhere. If it was the entrance to the Everfree, she could find her way easily. But this was too distant from there.
As she stared into the distance, thoughts entered her mind. The kind of thoughts that reminded her of what happened in this part of the forest. They were a reminder of the day when she was being chased by zombies, of when her bow was snared against an outstretched tree branch, of the lighted path she thought was a trap set by the zombies that were chasing her.
And then she lowered her head worriedly, when she was reminded of the last thing she saw when she ended up in that clearing. The Blanks were around her, looming over her in every direction, cutting off any attempt at escape. And Twilight appeared behind one of them. Apple Bloom stretched her arm out and screamed her name, to no avail. The zombies had leaped upon her small, feeble body, and all life was gone from her.
That is, until she woke up in an unfamiliar house, but upon looking at herself in the mirror, she realized that she was no longer a normal pony, but a rotting version of herself. It was as if she became one of them.
But she couldn’t return to Ponyville like this. Nopony would want to hang around an undead pony. Her friends at school would be scared of her. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo would be too frightened to even approach her. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon would be scared too, which would actually be funny to see, but not in this way. Everypony in town would panic, and that would be utter chaos. Her life in Ponyville was over.
Apple Bloom didn’t want to believe it, but she couldn’t go back. She tried to deny it as best she could. She had to be able to go back. She didn’t want to stay with Grey Hoof and the rest of Sunny Town.
Just then, something caught her attention. She looked forward to see a lighted path in front of her, just like last night. This wasn’t the part of the forest where she saw three paths, as there was only one way to go. She thought it was some sort of supernatural occurrence, as Sunny Town and its residents were supernatural itself, not to mention all of the Everfree Forest on its own.
Last time, Apple Bloom thought it was a trap set up by the zombies that chased her through the trees. That didn’t end up well for her, as it led her to a dead end. But what if she had taken the lighted path instead? Not too long after thinking about the situation, she thought they couldn’t have made a path of light.
It was then that she heard a sudden voice that echoed through the area. It was distant and faint, but the atmosphere before was so quiet that Apple Bloom could hear the voice. She could make it out as a pony saying “Young filly…”
She couldn’t recognize the voice at all; it was a new voice she never heard before, and it was calling to her. A few seconds later, two bright lights appeared from the darkness that the light led to before fading away. From what it appeared to be, it looked like glowing eyes, except they were yellow instead of red like the zombie ponies had.
Due to her natural filly curiosity, her hooves carried her body forward. The unnatural light lit up the normally dark area around her, making it a bit easier to see where she was headed.
When she came to the end of the path, she saw nothing but a clearing. It looked almost like the clearing she ended up in the night before, except it was brighter due to the earlier time of day. Unlike before, it was sometime during midday, so more light shined through the leaves. But she saw nothing but fallen leaves and a wide-open space.
“H-Hello?” Apple Bloom called out, hoping to find out who called to her before. But she didn’t see anypony in front of her.
“Anypony here?” she spoke a second time, turning her head to look around the clearing. Not a single soul was in sight. “Ah wonder who that was that Ah saw… maybe it was my mind playing tricks on me or somethin’.”
It was then that she heard hoofsteps behind her, and she jumped a bit in surprise. She immediately turned to see a figure that appeared to look rather mysterious.
It was a pony that had a light grey coat, and a short orange mane that hung off her head, decorated with two large yellow streaks that ran down it. A magnifying glass was shown on her flanks, signifying her cutie mark. But something stood out the most: the pony’s eyes were glowing a bright yellow hue that appeared almost ghostly.
“So you are Apple Bloom, are you not?” the figure asked the filly, who was stunned by the appearance of her. Although, she could tell that Apple Bloom focused solely on her glowing eyes.
“Pardon the eyes, friend. There is no need to fear me, for I am friendly to you, unlike Grey Hoof and the others.”
That caught Apple Bloom’s attention, and she calmed herself a bit. It was then that something sparked in her mind. From taking a good look at the pony, she could see that the figure looked just like the filly sitting next to Mitta in the photographs in her house. There was no mistaking the similarities.
“Wait,” Apple Bloom said as she put the pieces together. “Are you Mitta’s daughter? The filly she mentioned in her story about Sunny Town?”
The ghostly filly nodded and smiled brightly. “My name is Ruby. I saw you following me, so I tried to walk away to avoid luring you into Sunny Town. Apparently, that didn’t work, as you followed me in…”
She looked down with her ears folded back, the feeling of disappointment within her heart bringing her down. Apple Bloom wanted to try and cheer her up, but something bothered her about this whole thing.
“Hey, Ruby?” she asked, getting the other filly’s attention. “If they killed you, how are you here? And what’s with your eyes?”
Without an explanation, Ruby giggled as if what Apple Bloom said was something silly. But to pardon her rudeness, she calmed herself. “I am a ghost! When they killed me, a curse descended upon Sunny Town, and when that happened, my spirit wasn’t laid to rest, but left to wander around the Everfree Forest. It’s not as exciting as it sounds, trust me…”
Ruby’s ears folded back as the truth stung in her half-living heart. Apple Bloom didn’t exactly understand much of this, and was very optimistic about it.
“So, you’re like a friendly ghost, right?” Apple Bloom asked as a precaution. “You ain’t gonna haunt me or nothin’, are ya?”
Ruby looked back at Apple Bloom and shook her head. “Oh no no no, I’m not like that! Besides, my spirit can’t leave the forest anyway.”
“How come?”
“Well…” Ruby started as she rolled her eyes, then she proceeded to turn away from Apple Bloom and walked a few paces away, as she stared into the looming darkness. “I think it’s still the effect of the curse, but if I tried to leave the forest, my ghostly body would take great pain.”
“Aren’t you a ghost? You shouldn’t be able to feel pain if-”
“Shush,” Ruby interrupted as she held out a hoof. “While I may not be alive anymore, I can still feel pain. Apparently, the curse doesn’t take mercy upon my spirit.”
She turned back around, and walked toward Apple Bloom with a serious expression. “Let’s say you were to poke me in my eye. It would hurt.”
After a brief pause and silence between the two fillies, Apple Bloom curiously raised her hoof toward one of Ruby’s eyes, and it flashed in response, startling her into tumbling backwards into the dirt. Ruby narrowed her eyes at Apple Bloom’s attempt.
“Please never try that again,” she retorted with a stern tone. “I told you it would hurt. No need to prove it.”
“Ok ok, sorry,” Apple Bloom apologized as she stood back on all fours. “So, you feel pain. It’s just out of nowhere?”
“Pretty much. But that is a whole other subject entirely different than what I called you here for.”
She cleared her throat before she started speaking again. “This situation you’re in, it’s serious. They captured you, and made you into one of them. You’re cursed now.”
Apple Bloom lifted up one of her hooves and looked at it, but nothing seemed extraordinary about it. She questioned in her mind what exactly Ruby meant, especially since she left Sunny Town. “What do you mean, cursed? Ah feel fine, and Ah look fine as well.”
“Think back. Was there something that seemed off about an hour or two ago?”
She stared at Ruby with a confused expression, but decided to humor her and focused on the immediate past. She thought back to when she woke up, since that wasn’t very long ago. The first thing she noticed was her reflection in the mirror.
“When Ah woke up, Ah looked just like one of them…” she responded while staring back at her hoof, briefly seeing the mental image of an undead version of it. “Ah was a zombie for a few minutes. Or, Ah looked like a zombie.”
She turned back toward Ruby with a worried expression. “Am Ah a zombie now?”
“As sad as it is to say, yes.”
After hearing that, Apple Bloom’s ears lowered, as did her head as she took a moment to take in the situation. She didn’t want to be one of them. All she wanted was to spend a little time with Twilight in the Everfree Forest. She didn’t know that one day, her curiosity would lead her to live a life as an undead pony, forever cursed and left to wander the Everfree Forest without a hope.
Ruby came up behind Apple Bloom, and placed a hoof on her shoulder to get the sad filly’s attention. She lifted her head and turned to the ghost, which was hard to believe she even existed at all.
“Not to go about on a totally different subject, but based on what you said, I can say you have met my mother. How is she…?” Ruby cautiously asked, hoping that things were well about her long-lost mother.
Apple Bloom sniffled a bit, as the heavy weight of her situation was still set on her shoulders, but rose her head to gaze at Ruby. “She’s fine… but she really misses you. Last Ah saw her, she was cryin’. Ah bet my family’s the same right about now…”
She looked back down and slid her forehoof against her cheeks, ridding them of her tears. She felt the need to cry, but wanted to be strong since another filly was in front of her. Yet, she was still worried about what her family would be like if they knew what happened to her.
Big Macintosh was a really tough stallion, but when things got to him, she would get as soft as a plush toy. Granny Smith normally wouldn’t let anything get her down, but even the slightest bit of tragic news would bring her to tears. To see an elderly pony cry would be something depressing to witness.
Applejack, however, was quite possibly the closest a pony could get to having an elder sister. Applejack and Apple Bloom were the best of sisters, who loved each other in a way unlike any other sisterly couples were. They shared many great times with each other, memories Apple Bloom could never forget. The filly looked up to her big sister, and wished to grow up to be just like her.
However, because of this situation that Apple Bloom had gotten herself into, she could no longer experience such things. She could no longer know what it would be like to have a big sister to look up to, to help her out when she needed love, to look after her when times were tough. The luxury was gone.
It had seemed like minutes had passed since Apple Bloom started thinking back about her family, and Ruby decided she needed to leave the filly to her thoughts. “I know things are tough on you now, but please, watch over my mother. I feel she needs you as well…”
With that Ruby started walking away. She faded into the darkness of the trees, leaving Apple Bloom to her lonesome. However, she left a lighted path behind in her wake, so that when the filly snapped back to her senses, she would safely find her way back to Sunny Town. Surely, this would not be the last time Apple Bloom would see the mysterious Ruby.