//------------------------------// // Starved For Help: Crazy woman... // Story: The Mane 6 And Lee Everett // by Can-dees_Murder_Weapon //------------------------------// The group walk in silence as they trail through the woods, searching for the bandit camp, Danny spoke about. "Y'all see anythin'?" Danny whispers from behind the group. "Not yet," Lee whispers from the front of the group. "I know it's 'round here somewhere, it's gotta be close." "How DO you know where their camp is?" Rainbow Dash whispers. "I-I used to scout out alone searchin' for em'. Mama didn't like it so ah stopped," Applejack hears the stutter in his voice but shrugs it off. Lee stops, making everyone else stop. He kneels down to a rusty can. Ehh... not important. Lee thought. He gets back up and continues on further. The group wonders through the woods for a few moments. Applejack glances around the trees and a large object catches her eye. She looks at it more intently and realizes that it's a tent. "Look!" She whispers. Everyone quietly walks over to her and sees the tent among other furniture. "Oh shit! You found it," Danny whispers loudly. The group glance at one another when Lee holds up his index finger to his mouth telling everyone to be quiet before they move up. Lee and the others move closer to the camp which is only a few metres away now. He takes cover behind a tree before poking his head out to scout the camp for anyone within the area. Fortunately, he doesn't see anyone. The group moves a bit more closer to the camp to get a better angle. Danny and Lee take cover behind separate trees whereas Rainbow Dash and Applejack hid behind the same tree, the camp is right there now. "Y'all see anybody?" Danny quietly says while pointing his hunting rifle at the camp. "Looks empty," Lee says. "Ah agree but we should keep our guard up just in case," Applejack suggests. Danny nods before making his way into the camp, The others soon follow after. "Watch mah' back y'all, I'm gonna go check out the tent." Danny moves closer to the tent that's in the camp, which is the only tent IN the campsite. As Danny gets closer, Applejack and Rainbow Dash turn around to make sure that no one is coming, while Lee points his hunting rifle towards the tent. Danny's within arm's reach of the tent. He notes that the tent's zipper isn't closed the whole way. He flings open the tent's entrance and sees no one just two empty mattress with blankets. Danny looks over his shoulder to Lee. "Clear." "So, there's only a few bandits... I'm sure we can handle them when they get back," Rainbow says as she walks up next to Lee. Danny seems to understand what Rainbow Dash is thinking. "Nah, there's more... much more. This camp's too small, it isn't their main base." "Thought so," Lee says. "Let's take a look around anyway, there might be some shit around here they stole from us," Danny says. The group starts scavenging around the camp. Applejack walks over to a table that's occupied with boxes and other empty food items. It also, had an empty water bottle. On the left side of the table there is a box and a small gasoline can next to it. Applejack puts her hooves on the table to push herself up to see inside the box. Nothing... Applejack thought. She frowns before using her right hoof to push the box aside to make sure she doesn't miss anything, but she still doesn't find anything. She exhales through before turning away from the table. Lee comes over to Applejack. "Hey, Applejack What were you girls yelling about back at the farm? It got pretty loud." Her neck starts to heat up with embarrassment and from behind it, starts to become itchy. "Ohhh... did anypony hear?" "Well, when I was pushing, Clementine on the swing. Kenny asked what was you guys are arguing about, so I decided to see what was wrong." Lee's brow furrows. Applejack shakes her head as she facehooves. "Oh boy... ah didn't mean to get that loud. Ah wanted to go along but, Rainbow didn't want me to go. Long-story-short, she didn't want me to go but Ah didn't want sit around all day, ah wanted ta help... ah don't wanna feel like we're invadin'." "You're not. If you want to, you can stay with our group however long you need," Lee offers with a smile. "Ah don't know where ta go if we left, but thank you, Lee... really," Applejack sincerely thanks him. "So... you girls gonna be alright now?" "Yeah, for now... but, Rarity... ah don't know." "I saw what she had to do. Listen, Applejack just understand, Travis was already dead. If, Rarity never done what she did... I don't you would ever see her again," Lee sadly says. The thought of never seeing Rarity again sends fear and sadness into her heart. The thought of Rarity being so close to dying makes her feel ill. A touch on her shoulder brings her out of her chain of thought. She looks at Lee who is kneeling. "You will be fine, don't think about it too much. Just be grateful that you still have them here... with you and alive, okay?" Applejack nods. "Your right..." Lee smiles. "Alright."- he looks over at the tent then back at Applejack. -"I'll be back in a bit, I'm gonna go check in the tent." Lee stands up to head over to the tent. He steps inside it, he glances at the two empty mattresses, one of them having a framed picture of two women. He picks it up to inspect it further, he immediately spots the age difference in the picture. Lee presumes that it's a picture of a mother and her daughter. "What'cha looking at?" Lee gasps in fear as he turns to the source of the voice. Rainbow Dash chuckles. "Sorry! Didn't mean to scare ya!" "Rainbow Bash, don't do that. I could've hurt you," Lee politely says. "It's Dash, not Rainbow Bash," she says bluntly. "Anyway, what are you looking at?" She takes a step into the tent to get a better look at the picture. "It's a picture of-" "Obviously! But what of?" "I was just getting to that before you cut me off." "Oh right, continue." Lee sighs before holds up the picture for her to see. "Oh... do you think they're still around?" Lee puts the frame back onto the mattress. "I don't think so." Rainbow Dash exhales sharply. "Well, there's no point just standing around. What else is in here." She goes further into the tent and spots a bulge under the blanket. She frowns for a moment before taking off the blanket with her mouth. Lee eyes widen as he picks up the hat. "What the fuck?" "What? What is-" "DON'T YOU FUCKING MOVE!" A loud feminine yell cuts Rainbow Dash off. "SHIT!" Danny says as he points the barrel of his gun at her. Lee quickly leaves the tent soon after. "Put. Your. Guns. Down." Lee gets up and raises his weapon at the woman, he immediately realises that it's the woman from the picture. The woman continues. "I ain't goin' back you tell em', Jolene ain't goin' back!" She hisses out with a maniacal grin. "Hey! We had a deal! No shootin' as long as we gave you food, remember?" Danny says to the woman. "You had a deal with them! I ain't them! Oh yes! I know you! I know what you are and ah know what you do!" The deranged woman says to Danny. Applejack who is standing closest to the woman looks over to her right suspiciously at Danny. "You don't know me!" "Steal mah' shit! Steal everything from me!" The woman viciously accuses. "We had a deal! You're the ones who broke it first!" Applejack looks over to the deranged woman who is looking back and fourth at Lee and Danny. She recognizes the crossbow in the woman's hands. The woman doesn't seem to care about the colourful pony that's standing by her table. "W-who are you?" Applejack politely asks. She did not want to anger the woman any more than she already is, so she tried speaking in a gentle tone. "Oh mah! I-it can talk!" The woman just chuckles. "Ain't that surprisin'!" The woman's chuckles morphs into psychotic laughter which sends chills down Applejack spine. Rainbow Dash is in deep distress for her friend. She's going to get herself hurt! Rainbow looks at the woman. I can take her, I'm fast enough... she won't see- "DON'T EVEN TRY IT MISSY!"- The crossbow in the woman's grasp aims directly at her. "Yeah! Ah know what you're thinking! Thinking you can take me before ah can kill ya! Well ya CAN'T NOW! Ah got mah' eye on you! Now maybe y'all didn't hear me last time, when ah asked you sweet! PUT YA DAMN GUNS DOWN! You think ah won't kill you? I'm gonna take this here crossbow and put a nice sharp arrow right through your eyeballs... and into your goddamn brain!" "Where did you get this hat?" Lee demands. The woman grins maniacally. "The little girl..." "You stole it from her!" "So, what if I did? You stole her from ME!" "Is this woman insane?" Rainbow whispers. "Obviously," Lee whispers back. "You know what... ah change mah' mind. I'm putting this arrow right through your balls! Yeah! Right through! String em' up on that tree!" The woman gestures towards a tree to her right. "Just... put down the crossbow. We ain't gonna do nothin'," Applejack calmly says. The woman chuckles. "No no, ah need this to kill y'all, sorry!" Then the woman stares directly at Danny. "Hey, Danny! maybe, you can ea-" *BANG* Rainbow Dash and Applejack gasp in shock as the woman falls to the ground, dead. Applejack soon realizes that Danny's the one that shot her as she surveys the dead woman. Blood immediately starts pouring out of the woman's head and onto the floor around her with huge chunks of flesh and a bit of skull fragments lay. Applejack doesn't care right now. She turns around and Danny. "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" "Because she was goin' to kill ya," Danny casually says. "Y-yeah! But, did you had to kill her though? Maybe shot her in the leg, I could've knocked her out!" Applejack explains. Danny rolls his eyes. "Well, ah didn't think of that." Rainbow walks up next to Applejack. "Why are you even torn up about this? Danny just saved your life!" Applejack looks right at her in bewilderment. "WHAT? Why am ah torn up about this? Because somepony just DIED!" "Yes! Somepony who WAS going to kill us! What if she did? How would, Rarity feel?" The question that Rainbow Dash asked about Rarity, got to her. Applejack is speechless, she has nothing to say. She remembers what Rarity asking her to be careful before they left. What if that woman DID kill her? Rarity's already feeling guilty over Travis's death but what if she lost Applejack. How would Rarity even feel if she or Rainbow Dash never returned. "Alright, just settle down, girls. There's nothing we can do about it now, let's just go back now." Lee gently says as he walks over to them. Lee turns towards Danny. "We should head back now." "Well, if they aren't here, then ah don't know where they are. So yeah, we had back." Danny walks over to the woman's corpse. He picks up the crossbow the woman had, he looks at it before grinning. He starts walking out of the camp. Rainbow Dash sighs. "Come on, let's go." Rainbow follows after Danny. Lee starts walking out before looking back at Applejack who is still staring at the woman's motionless body. He walks over to her and puts his hand on her shoulder. "Come on, Applejack. We should go." He gently says. "Yeah... yeah," Applejack mutters mainly to herself. She and Lee walk out of the camp to go back to the Dairy. END OF CHAPTER...