Andy is patrolling the farm. In the distance, he sees multiple figures running towards the farm. He soon realizes that it is Lee and the group. He comes to the conclusion that they encountered the bandits. He chooses to run over to them.
Rarity rams the fence gate open as the others follow suit. Lee bends over to catch his breath, his adrenaline didn't stop until now, whereas Twilight and Rarity didn't have the need to.
Andy reaches them with concern written on his face. "Lee! What's wrong?"
Lee isn't going to reply anyway when Rarity speaks beforehand. "I thought this place was safe!" She fiercely stares at the farmer.
The group never notices Danny coming up to them. "HOLY SHIT! A-are you okay?" His voice, laced with concern as he looks at Mark who is still clutching his shoulder.
"Of course not! An arrow is jammed in his back!" Twilight immediately replies.
"Fucking Bandits! They have no right being out here!" Andy comments.
"O' mah lord! What happened to you, sweetheart?" Brenda came out of the house a few seconds after Danny and immediately saw Mark.
"It was those bastards in the woods mama!" Andy explains as he looks over at her.
"I'll... I'll be alright once-it's o-out. Ugh-this hurts," Mark groans as severe pain ached on his shoulder.
"Hey, guys!" Doug yells out to them.
Lee's group and the St. John family see the rest of the motel's occupants coming into the farm with the rest of the mane six.
Fluttershy spots Mark who is leaned forward for whatever reason. It only took her a few seconds to realize that he was injured. As soon as she did, she flies straight to him with mere concern. She saw the arrow lodged in the man's back before she even gets to him. "OH MY! Are you okay? Does it hurt? Don't worry I'll get it out as soon as I can!"
Mark immediately replies. "N-no, t-there's no need, I'll... I'll be fine." Fluttershy doesn't believe that, an idiot wouldn't believe that.
"Oh no, honey, c'mon. Brenda's got you. C'mon inside now, we'll have you all patched up!" Brenda and Katjaa help Mark get to the house. Brenda looks over her shoulder at Fluttershy who is following them. "It's okay, honey! We'll take good care of him."
Fluttershy wants to make sure he's okay but he seems like he's in good hooves, so she decides to smile and nod before walking away.
Applejack runs over to Rarity and Twilight. "What the hay-was that?"
"We were fixing fences, way out there!"- Rarity points to where they ran from. -"And for some reason! The fence turned on!" She gives Andy a glare again.
"Was Mark shot by a bandit?" Pinkie Pie startles them both.
Lee looks at her with confusion. "Yeah, we ran into them on our way up here... how did you know?"
Pinkie shrugs. "Just a hunch."
Lee looks at Twilight, waiting for an explanation. "I don't know... she's just being, Pinkie..." Twilight trails off.
"They gave us a lotta' problems in the beginning, killed a' bunch of our farmhands. We were able to get em' to stop by makin' a deal," As Andy finishes, Kenny immediately retorts.
"You KNEW about these people?"
"Food for protection, not like we had much of a choice but they did stop hasslin' us," Danny answers.
"Goddammit! Carley said this place was safe," Larry speaks through whil gritting his teeth.
"I-it was just a fluke thing... we shouldn't stop assuming there aren't bad people roaming around out there," Lee speaks in an attempt to calm the situation down.
"What do you mean a "fluke""? Lilly abruptly asks.
"I mean, it could've happened anywhere. It could've happened to us back at the motel," Lee reasons.
"Listen, we may-have had an agreement with these people but we will not stand for this shit!" Andy says and Danny immediately speaks after Andy was finished.
"Ain't no way, we're gonna let those sons o' bitches getaway with this."
"You know where these assholes are?" Kenny demands.
"They're hard tah pin down, but I think I know where one of their campsites are." Danny looks at Lee. "When you're ready tah scope out that bandit camp, come find us." Danny and Andy start walking back to their farmhouse.
"Bandits? Really? Alright, this place isn't safe. Once we're done here, we should leave," Lilly suggests... actually it's more of a commandment.
"Leave?"- Kenny abruptly says. -"Lilly, this place is a hella' of'alot safer then that motor inn! I think all of us and our guns can handle a coupl'a punk with bows n' arrows. What we need to do is find a way to get our whole group out here to stay... take this place over if we have to."
Applejack immediately interjects. "Whoa-hold on now, these're nice..." struggles to search for the correct word.
"People," Lee helps her out.
"Right, these're nice people. We shouldn't be takin' over anythin."
"The talking horse is right," Larry says, smugly but Applejack doesn't pay it any attention.
"I'm gonna go head out and help, Danny find this bandit camp. You guys should try to make friends with the St. Johns," Lee suggests.
"Uhh-excuse me? But, where is Travis?" David asks, concerned for his student.
Rarity's heart crashes and her eyes widen as she remembers what she did to him. She can't even describe the amount of distress she was just induced with. He was trying to kill me... he tried to kill me. I-I had to, I d-d-didn't want to... it was self-defense... that's all it was and it wasn't him... it wasn't. Rarity is too focused on dreading about what happened.
Fortunately, she isn't alone. Lee and Twilight also remembered what happened.
As Lee ran to the fence gate, out of his peripheral vision, he saw Rarity being pounced on by a walker. It only made him ran faster then he was before.
Lee glances at Rarity before turning to David. He sighs sadly. "He's... gone. I'm sorry."
David slowly hangs his head as he furrows his brow. "No way..." he mutters to himself.
"I hate to ask but was Travis... bitten?" Lee asks.
David looks at him and shakes his head. "No, why? Does it matter now, he's gone?"
"Because he turned... a few minutes after he... died. He almost hurt Rarity."
David looks apologetically at Rarity before frowning as he comes to an conclusion. "Don't you guys know?" He glances around the group.
"Know what?" Lee curiously asks.
His conclusion was correct, they didn't know.
"I-it's not the bite that... kills you."- David looks around the group and sees confused expressions and clarifies. -"We will all turn, regardless of how we'll die, the only way to stop it is to destroy the brain... it's gonna happen to all of us."
"We're all infected... everyone," Lee asks.
David glances at the ponies before speaking. "I don't know about... them, but I would presume so. When I first experienced it, we were all hiding in the school gymnasium and I thought we were finally safe... but I was wrong. One of the girls named "Jenny Pitcher" she was too frightened and she couldn't sleep, so... she took sleeping pills... a whole lot of them. Someone went to go check on the girl's room the next morning... and..." David trails off.
"Hey!"- the entire group is startled by the abrupt yell. They all turned at Pinkie Pie. "Look at what I did!"
Pinkie points at the new and improved swing that Pinkie (apparently) fixed. The mane five weren't as surprised as the humans.
"You didn't do that!" Larry accuses.
"Sure I did! All I did was walk off, found rope over at that large box by the house! Cut a large wooden plank with a saw that I didn't ask permission to use but I assumed it was okay because I was helping. Then I ran over to the tree and-"
"ALRIGHT! I GET IT! YOU FIXED IT. Just, shut up." Larry harshly says.
"Well, you don't have to be rude about it!" Pinkie retorts.
Duck runs towards the swing. Before Clementine follows him, she turns to Pinkie and smiles. "Thanks, Pinkie Pie,"
"Aww, it was nothing!" Pinkie cheerily says.
"How'd you manage to get up there?" Lee asks.
"I climbed!"
Lee stares at her for a moment before heading off, not even bothering to wonder. The rest of the group goes their separate ways. Kenny follows his son, Duck. Larry goes with his Daughter, Lilly. Doug and David go off to look at the fence, leaving the mane six to talk amongst themselves.
The mane six stand in silence for a few moments until Applejack speaks up. "A'hm thinkin about goin' with Lee and Danny."
"I want to go as well!" Pinkie says.
The rest (except, Pinkie Pie) of her friends seem unsure of Applejack's decision.
"You sure... you want to d-do that, Applejack? You... may be forced to do something... you'll regret later," Rarity says with shame.
Applejack and the others (excluding, Twilight) give her a confused look. "What... do you mean?" Applejack asks for clarification.
"W...when, Travis turned into a... walker... I..." Rarity trails off as she struggles to tell them what happened. She is afraid of what they'll think of her.
Luckily, Twilight is there to take care of her. "When, Travis was on her... if she hadn't have done what she did... she may have been fatally injured."
"I pulled the arrow out of his neck... and I shoved it... into his head." Rarity's voice breaks as she finishes the sentence. She soon breaks down sobbing and whimpering. Pinkie Pie's the first one to comfort her, she goes and hugs her and Rarity sobs into Pinkie's chest.
"Shhh, shhh, it's okay, Rarity. It... wasn't your fault." Pinkie says while softly stroking Rarity's mane to soothe her sorrow.
"B- *SOB* but, I *SOB* killed him! Don't you *SOB* understand? I killed HIM!" Rarity squeaks out.
Fluttershy kneels down to pat her friend's back.
"Rarity, think of it this way, you weren't the one who killed, Travis. You didn't kill him, those bandits did, not you. You aren't responsible for him not being here... if it wasn't for the bandits, he would still be here. So, you don't need to blame yourself." Rainbow Dash's statement actually helps Rarity calm down a bit although, she is still sobbing but not as hard as she was before.
Applejack feels nothing but utter sympathy for her friend
unfortunately, it doesn't change her mind about going with Lee and Danny. "A'hm mighty sorry ya had ta go through that, Rare but a'hm... still going with Lee. Just stay here, so you can settle down, alright?"
"Are you SERIOUS?" Applejack looks at Rainbow Dash who is in disbelief.
Pinkie looks up at Applejack with sad eyes. "Applejack... I... I think I'll stay here with, Rarity."
"You're still gonna go out there? Even after, Rarity told you what happened... REALLY? Why do you want to go out there, anyway?" Rainbow demands.
"Well, for one: I don't want to just sit around and do nothin' all day! And two: Nopony knows how long we're gonna be stuck here for-"
"We've only been here a few hours!" Rainbow interrupts.
"I don't give a flying feather! I'd still rather be helpin'!"
Rainbow closes her eyes as she grits her teeth. She opens her eyes but continues to grit her teeth. "Fffffine! If you're so thrilled on "helping" you aren't going alone... I'm coming along with you."
"Oh really?" Applejack sarcastically remarks.
"Yes! Whether you like it or not, I'm going to make sure that don't do anything stupid," Rainbow harshly says.
"Ah think it-"
"WOULD YOU TWO JUST SHUT UP, ALREADY!"- Everypony becomes silent as they stare at Fluttershy. -"You two are going, who cares! What you two should be worrying about is, RARITY! She isn't doing too well and here you two are arguing over who goes on a... a... walk through the woods!" As soon as Fluttershy finishes her rant she starts panting when Lee comes over to them.
"Is... everything alright here, girls?" He asks concerned, glancing over the six ponies.
"Yeah, me and Applejack were just... having a stupid argument." Rainbow looks at Applejack who looks back at her for a moment before walking up to Lee.
"We'd like to go with you and Danny."
Lee frowns before he decides to reply. "You sure? After what happened today, it may not be such a good idea."
"We're sure," Rainbow says.
Lee sighs. "If you really want to, then you can. I was actually gonna go head out now. C'mon."
Before Applejack follows Rainbow and Lee, she feels a soft hoof touch her shoulder. She looks back and sees Rarity.
"Please... be careful," Rarity she desperately says.
Applejack sadly but kindly looks at her as she holds her friend's hoof. "We will be. don't worry about us alright?"
Rarity pulls her hoof away and nods.
"We'll be back soon," Applejack says before joining Rainbow Dash and Lee who are speaking to the St. Johns Brothers.
She walks past the picket fence as she starts to hear the conversation.
"My friend is sobbing because you wanted them to check your stupid fence! Did you even THINK to tell them that it was DANGEROUS?" Rainbow accuses.
"Like I said, a'hm mighty sorry about that, I shoulda' told em'" Andy tries apologizing.
"Obviously," Applejack comments as she reached them.
"Ah assume, you're also going along." Danny asks Applejack.
"Yup,"
"Alright then. We saw what they did to your friend, Mark. Nobody's safe here until we start ta' fight back." Danny says.
"But, how?" Lee asks.
"We should go out and do some recon, then we'll all mount up for some revenge."
"Hell yea," Andy comments.
"Who're these... people in the woods?" Applejack demands.
"Don't know, but ah think some of them use to work up at the big box up the way," Andy answers her.
"Big box?" Applejack asks confused.
"It's a store, people work at," Danny explains.
"Anyway, they're nutty as all hell and they get mad when they're hungry," Andy explains further.
"Y'all ready to head out there and find their camp?" Danny asks. "You gals sure, you want to come along?"
"Yeah, we're sure," Applejack sternly says.
"Alright, then, just makin' sure."
"It's a good opportunity to find out more about what we're up against. Let's do it." Lee says.
"I'll stay here, hold down the fort," Andy says.
"Y'all remember, we're just doin' reconnaissance for now. It's no use gettin' ourselves killed."
Danny, Lee, Rainbow and Applejack make their way over to the front gate when Clementine runs over to them.
"Are you going now?" Clementine sadly says.
"Yeah, we'll be back soon, Clementine," Lee reassures her.
"Please be careful,"
"We will, Clementine," Applejack says.
The group leaves the farm to seek out the bandit camp.
END OF CHAPTER...