Lee parked the car just outside the alley. Glenn had gotten out of the the car a few moments ago to distract the walkers roaming around it. Once Lee had switched off the ignition, everyone began climbing out of the vehicle. Applejack side-eyed Starlight as she shut the door. The girl hadn't said a word the whole way back and nobody else did either.
That woman back at the motor-inn seemed to had taken a toll on everyone. Applejack was the one who agreed to let her have the gun, there wasn't anything they could for the poor girl. She was bit and her time was forfeit, what could they do? Just let her turn? Leave her all alone so that she could die alone? Turn alone?
There wasn't a "right decision". She was going to die anyway and even then, Applejack still had a sinking feeling in her chest over how wrong it was. Maybe Lee felt the same way, hopefully, she didn't want to be the only one feeling hurt over this.
He came to the door leading into the office, he opened it and everyone entered then proceeded into the main foyer. Aside from the suicide, Applejack found the car ride to be surprisingly pleasant. This was the very first time she's ever rode in something like that, a vehicle. She's taken taxis before, sometimes when she went to Manehattan or some other really fancy city but none of them were as relaxing and as cozy as the car.
She frowned, looking around and noticing someone was missing, Starlight hadn't come in with them.
Applejack was about to go back into the office when her name was called out. "Applejack!" She jumped, startled. She turned to see a scowling Twilight heading her way. Rainbow and Rarity were right behind her, not looking as mad as she was. "Why in Celestia's name would you just take off without telling me!? Do you not understand that we have to stick together? Especially in a time like this!" She exclaimed.
"Ah'm sorry Twi but ah went with Lee and Carley to help out Glenn, ah wasn't just gon' stand around doin' nothin'."
"Well that's all well and good, darling but at the very least you could've told us where you were going," Rarity replied. "But instead you left us here without saying a word."
"Yeah, Twilight wanted to go out and look for you guys but I said it would be a stupid idea." Rainbow frowned as she scanned around. "Hey, where is Starlight anyway?"
"A-ah think she's in the office." Applejack explained. "We... had uhh... a bit of an issue at the motor-inn."
"Wait, an issue? Why? What happened?" Twilight inquired, her scowling expression changed to a look full of worry.
She hesitated for a second before she exhaled through her nose. "It was just walkers... walkers an' all." She waved it off, eyes falling to the floor as she recalled back to the incident.
There was a click followed by a door's hinges that began to squeal as it opened. "She's not telling you everything." Starlight walked out of the office, shutting the door behind her before fixing Applejack with a glare; the farmer couldn't help but oblige by returning it.
They stared at each other for a few moments, neither saying a word. Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow were glancing between them, feeling the tension build. "W-w-wait, hang on..." Applejack and Starlight ripped their eyes from each other and turned toward Rainbow. "Did you two... get into a fight or something? What's going on?"
Starlight scoffed, turned and threw Applejack a cold smile. "Well, you gonna tell 'em or are you just gonna pretend that it never happened?"
"Hold on before we get into this whole..." Rarity's gestured to the two with her hands. "Dispute, we should head into the office." She drew in closer to the group and lowered her voice. "I'm sure we don't want to attract any more attention to ourselves now do we?"
"She's right," Twilight said. "Whatever happened between you two, obviously seems like a big deal-"
"Obviously, she says," Starlight muttered to herself.
"...And we should do definitely do this in the office." She rolled her eyes at her mentor but turned and entered the office regardless.
The others soon entered the room with Rarity being the last. She closed the door and turned to face her two friends. "Now that we have some privacy, would either of you care to explain what exactly happened while you were out?"
Starlight was standing by the large desk that Lee and Pinkie had moved earlier, she turned beside her at Applejack; giving her the same glare as before. She flicked her arm at Twilight and the other two. "You gonna tell them or not?"
Applejack kept her mutual gaze on her friend for a moment, falling to the ground seconds later as if she were contemplating her inquiry.
When seconds felt like hours, Starlight sighed, the events of what happened at the motor-inn fueling her anger; Applejack's lack of speech only irritated her further. "She let someone kill herself." She spoke the words directly to Twilight.
That seemed to have brought the farmer out of her internal conflict. Starlight could practically feel Applejack's scowl prodding at her face.
It took a moment to register, nobody said anything until Rarity abruptly broke the silence. "YOU WHAT!?"
Applejack quickly turned to Rarity and other girls. "It ain't what you think."
"O-oh really? Really? You didn't let that girl die? You didn't just let her off herself, just like that? Just because she was bitten?" Starlight immediately rebutted and Applejack averted her gaze back to her.
"Well, you just explained it didn't ya! She was bitten! What else could we do!?"
"Umm, how about not let her take her own life? Have you ever considered that!?"
"She was gon' die anyway!"
"Yeah and, according to you, apparently the best thing to do was let her kill herself." Starlight scoffed.
Applejack merely rolled her eyes, her frown still on her features. She was about to reply when she noticed the expressions on Twilight and Rarity's face. They were both directing disturbed looks at her.
"You just... w-wait, hold on for sec, what exactly happened. I mean, step-by-step what exactly happened?" Twilight inquired, her stutter to her voice.
Starlight, unfortunately for Applejack, began explaining what happened from the point they arrived at the motor-inn and from the time they left it. By the time she was done filling them in, it seemed like both Twilight and Rarity were in agreement with Starlight. Although, Rainbow had an unreadable expression.
"That poor girl... a-and you just let her... do that to herself?" Rarity said.
"What else could ah do?" Applejack's voice was beginning to raise, her blood pressure increasing. "She was bit. She was going to turn. How can y'all NOT understand she was going to die anyway?" She finished defensively.
"But you could've stopped her though." Twilight replied. "Instead, you let her... kill herself."
"Did you not just hear what ah just said? She was going to die anyway and besides that, what good would that have done? It wouldn't have done anythin'!"
"You could've brought her back here! W-we could've saved her, I-I may have been able to find a cure."
Applejack's brain stopped for second and had to recalibrate to process the statement her friend had just said. "A-a-ah'm sorry... what?"
"We could've saved her if you had brought her back here." Twilight repeated like she was so sure of herself and it was then, the farmer didn't need any further explanation.
Her jaw had hit the floor and a humorless laugh escaped from her lips as her hands rubbed at her temple. "Do you even know what your sayin'? Do you even realize how completely... stupid that sounds!? A cure? Seriously, Twilight!?"
"Well, it's a lot better than just letting her kill herself! At least, we would actually try to save her!"
"Oh for love of..." Applejack clasped her eyes shut and took in a deep inhale. "How many times do ah gotta say this before it finally gets through your thick skulls? She was bitten, she was going to turn and she was going to die! Either way!" She locked gazes with Twilight. "There ain't no cure in this world that would've saved her!"
Her heart was reaching increasingly high, she started to feel hot and her fists began to clench. Applejack was practically spelling out why it was a "good" decision, you could easily figure this stuff out through simple intuition.
"...You don't know that." Twilight attempted to refute.
"Oh ah don't huh? Really? Ah don't know that? There are walkers everywhere Twi. If there was a cure, why are they still around!?"
She could blatantly see the struggle on Twilight's face as she attempted to find a rebuttal, her mouth slightly agape and a conflicting frown on her face. "Honestly, ah don't even know why ah'm explainin' this to y'all." Applejack shook her head, looking at the numerous disapproving expressions she was receiving. "Ah understand not wantin' to... y'know, let anythin' like that happen but it ain't like ah had much of a choice!" She then directed her eyes back at Twilight. "Ah would've expected you out of everyone else to understand but apparently ah was wrong. You're so caught up in your own delusion that you ain't even thinkin' clearly." She merely scoffed before she shook her head once more. She walked past them and left the office.
Kenny watched as Applejack stomped her way out of the office and over to the corner, next to Trixie and began chatting with her. He heard the whole conversation, the walls weren't thick enough to keep their voices inside of the room. "Sounds like they're at it again," he said, particularly to his wife.
"They seem like they have a lot on their plate," she replied.
"Ya don't say. Ever since they got 'ere, they've screamin' at each other nonstop. It's like all they ever do is argue." He kept his voice down, he didn't want Applejack or Twilight or any of them coming back at him.
"That doesn't sound like you at all," he didn't miss the sarcastic edge to her tone but ignored it nonetheless.
"If they continue on like this, we're gon' have to consider cuttin' 'em loose."
That got Katjaa's full attention, she looked right at her husband with a frown. "And why would we consider doing that?"
"Ah'm just sayin' if we ever have to go out lookin' for supplies, it ain't gonna do anyone good if they're screamin' an hollerin' at each other. They'd have more chance finding walkers than actual supplies."
"Still, you don't get to decide what to do with other people's lives, Ken."
"Then they shouldn't be puttin' our lives at risk." Kenny already thought those girls were unhinged. They were trapped in a pharmacy store with walkers right on their doorstep and the thing they decide to do was yell at each other and the fact that they were crying over a scroll just screamed that they were insane.
Even Twilight who came to him earlier, asking him a bunch of bullshit about magic and spells and all kinds of other delusional shit was insane. What, was she serious? Was she kidding? Magic? Spells? If he didn't know any better, he'd have thought she was screwing with him. It didn't take a degree in psychology to figure out that these girls belonged in mental institution.
"I can't believe she would do that..." Twilight's eyes were glued to the floor as she fully processed what she had been told.
"That brute... and the audacity for her to try and justify her decision," Rarity shook her head, a scowl on her face.
Throughout the entirety of the argument, Rainbow Dash had kept uncharacteristically silent. Mainly because she actually agreed with Applejack. She still had some doubts, sure, they haven't seen anyone die from a bite yet but from what Applejack explained; this woman, whoever she was, seemed like she was completely certain that she would turn and that the only way to prevent that... was to take her own life.
Rainbow knew, that if she were ever... bitten, she wouldn't want to turn into one of those walkers either and Celestia forbid that from ever happening. Maybe she should have said something instead of letting Applejack take all the heat.
"Rainbow!"
"Huh? Yeah?" Her train of thought vanished and her eyes flew to Rarity.
"I said, are you okay? You've been quiet ever since we stepped into this room." The seamstress didn't look worried or concerned, in fact, she still looked like she was annoyed if Rainbow was reading it correctly.
"Y-yeah, I'm just trying to figure something out," she internally slapped herself for not coming up with a better excuse and the seamstress didn't seem convinced.
"Oh? And what might that be?"
Rainbow was about to answer, her eyes fell to the floor and her mouth was slightly agape. Nothing came to mind, nothing that would throw her off anyway. "I think Applejack was right about what she did." Twilight and Starlight looked at her, the disapproving looks returned. Rather letting another chain reaction go off, she followed it up quickly. "That's all I'm gonna say." Before she turned and walked out of the office; leaving three displeased girls behind.
"Wow, so that's what happened?" Trixie's brows were raised, eyes wide with disbelief as she listened to Applejack explain what went down at the motor-inn. As usual, they were by the restroom away from the others. Trixie, to her gagging disgust, had moved the dead walker further away from the restroom right by the boarded up window; near Doug.
"Yup," Applejack simply replied, holding back a sigh and half-expecting the magician to blow up at her.
There was a short pause, the farmer's anticipation grew even bigger before it was abruptly cut. "Honestly, you and Lee did the girl a favor."
She frowned before looking directly at the magician "Wait what?"
"Yeah, I mean, you did say she was gonna turn so... wouldn't it be better to, you know, end it? So, you don't become a walker?"
"That's what ah tried explainin' to Starlight, and the other girls, Rainbow and Rarity."
"And... they weren't convinced?" Trixie replied, a smug look on her face as if she knew the answer to that already.
"Uh huh, Twilight kept insistin' that she could've saved her." Applejack couldn't resist rolling her eyes.
Trixie scoffed which soon turned into laughter. "Saved her? How!? There's no cure or magic here."
"That's what ah told 'em but they didn't budge."
"Not surprising, Twilight's always been a bit of a... oh, what do you call it?" She frowned as her eyes averted elsewhere. Seconds later, they returned back to her interlocutor. "Uh, thin-skinned?"
The rational part of Applejack didn't want to agree with Trixie's description of her friend. She wasn't supposed to be bad mouthing her or thinking that way but another part was much more persistent, less rational, and was gnawing at her to go with it. "Yeah, ah'll say." Applejack responded.
"Hey Doug, how's everything?" Trixie took a quick look over her shoulder and saw Lee speaking with Doug.
"So far, so good. You wanna step outside, take a look around?" Doug asked.
"Ha, I'm not suicidal yet."
"No, the gate out there is closed. We step out the store, we'd be fine."
Trixie turned back to Applejack. "Wanna go?"
"You're goin' out with 'em?"
"Yeah, that's why as I asked if you wanna come?"
"No, Ah've had my fair share of trouble t'night." Applejack turned and walked away, over to Pinkie Pie who was chatting with Fluttershy. She was still next to Larry, it seemed like she was successful with calming him down as he was no longer clutching to his chest.
Trixie shrugged it off before walking over to Doug and Lee who were just about to exit the store. "I'm kinda bored of just standing around here doing nothing so I'm coming with you guys."
"Alright then, uh... w-what's your name again?" Lee inquired.
"Oh right, I don't believe we've spoke to each other yet." Trixie smiled, closed her eyes in a smug fashion and her hand flew up to her chest. "I'm the great and powerful Trixie, pleasure to make your acquaintance." Her eyelids opened up to an expressionless Lee.
"I'll just call you Trixie." He clearly wasn't amused, granted there wasn't anything to be amused about; they were just names... highly over-the-top and ridiculous names.
"Certainly," she said before returning to a more casual manner; she turned to introduce herself to Doug. "And you're Doug."
His response was... somewhat delayed and with a short gasp; he blurted out, "Oh, uh hi, I-I'm Doug." He held out his hand.
Trixie looked at it for moment before she took it and shook his hand. "Trixie."
"It's nice to meet you Trixie, so uh y-you wanna go outside?"
She raised a brow at him. "That's why I'm here, yes."
"Oh, o-okay... good."
Doug stared at her for a few seconds, not saying anything. Trixie was unable to read the expression on his face but what she could tell from his physical gestures, the way his hands were clasped together, the way he fidgeted, it was almost like he was... nervous? Perhaps, he was just a weirdo or another Fluttershy who was scared of meeting strangers.
Lee glanced between the two before he turned to the stocky guy. "Doug?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah uh yeah sorry about that." He turned, pulled out a set of key and began unlocking the door.
Trixie raised a brow at Lee and gestured to Doug to which he replied with a shrug and gave her an "I dunno" expression. Once Doug quickly finished unlocking the door, he opened it and the three of them left the pharmacy only to be met with the repulsive scene of an everyday walker.