Grunting in frustration, Applejack shoved aside the bushes. She saw Lilly posted on top of the R.V., keeping watch as she usually did. Starlight was not with her this time, however.
The image of that bandit shooting his group member was playing in Applejack's mind on a continuous loop. Rewinding over and over again. Every time the scene replayed itself, she grew more disgusted and shocked; unable to process this as her new reality.
She had never seen anything like that before. Murder was very rare in Equestria, it never happened. Never seen it happen but here? The bandit, the guy just killed his group member as if it was just a casual thing. Something that he did on an average day. When she first saw it happen, it stunlocked her before she realized her situation and dealt with it accordingly.
When the situation was handled, her emotions, thoughts and questions ran on overdrive. It was when she started to think about what happened. To really process what had taken place right in front of her.
She continued past the empty road, over to the other side. Ben was still freaked over the whole ordeal. The only normal reaction she expected. Rainbow Dash, similar to how she acted before when encountering the bandits, was indifferent. No care, no remorse or guilt. Just angry at the fact that they let one of them go. And Fluttershy? She was silent about the whole thing.
Normally, Applejack wouldn't have paid any mind to that since Fluttershy was always quiet. Anxious and timid all the time but this was different. Her face seemed empty and hollow as if nothing had happened. She never said or acknowledged what had happened. She just kept on walking, staying silent.
Ironic, given the fact that Ben, someone who she barely knew and was not even of the same species as her, appeared to be having a more standard reaction to watching somebody murder another in such a brutal and uncaring way; as compared to her friends who she knew for years. It was concerning, to say the least.
"Get the gates open! They're back!" Lilly shouted before climbing down the R.V.
Kenny and Larry jogged over to the gate, pulling it aside to let in the group. Everybody came over to the gates and began bombarding them with questions about the farm. Applejack quickly felt overwhelmed as she stepped through, entering the motor inn. Ben, Rainbow and Fluttershy entered afterward.
"Girls!" Twilight exclaimed happily as she saw Rainbow and Fluttershy. "You're okay!"
Rainbow threw a glance in Flutters' direction. "Heh, yeah, I told you we were gonna be fine. You worry too much, Twi," she replied.
Fluttershy turned beside her, fixing her friend with an intense stare. Rainbow ignored it or at least tried to.
Twilight raised a brow. "Yeah, well, sometimes worrying can be beneficial but regardless, I'm glad to see you two safe. You've been gone quite a while."
"So, how was the dairy? Is it as safe as they said it was?" Lilly asked.
Applejack let out a sigh before shaking her head. "No. No, it ain't."
Lilly frowned, folding her arms. "What? What do you mean!?"
"The whole dairy is surrounded by bandits," Applejack answered.
"Bandits!? Seriously!?" Kenny exclaimed.
Applejack nodded. "Yeah, seriously. When we were on our way there, we stumbled upon Rainbow. That was when she told us Fluttershy had been taken by bandits."
Fluttershy tensed while Rainbow went wide-eyed.
"What!?" Twilight exclaimed, turning to Rainbow. "I thought you said everything was fine!?"
"I-it was, I-I-"
"In what universe does being kidnapped qualify as fine to you!?" Twilight didn't bother waiting for an answer as she walked over to Fluttershy with a concerned expression.
"Yeah, we stumbled upon Rainbow and then we got to the dairy. We met the St. Johns' mother, but Rainbow wanted to go out and look for Fluttershy." Applejack continued. "Mark, Ben and Carley stayed back on the farm while me, Lee, Rainbow and Danny went out to look for her. When we got back..." she exchanged an uneasy look with Ben. "When we got back Mark had gotten shot."
"What!?" Lilly exclaimed, everyone who was surrounding them had the same worrying expression as the brunette did.
Applejack nodded, a deep frown on her face.
"Y-yeah," Ben suddenly said, drawing everyone's attention to him. "Andy said he needed help with the fence so Mark volunteered to help out, he came back with an arrow in his shoulder!"
Applejack nodded once again. "That's when we decided to go back. Lee thought it was best to let y'all know what's goin' on, he and Carley stayed back since Mark was still restin' up in their house."
"You've gotta be shitting me," Lilly muttered under her breath. "You should've just woken him up and left, right then and there. That place is too dangerous!"
"Did they at least have the food!?" Larry interjected, an angry look on his face. "Because that's the whole damn reason we went there in the first place!"
Applejack was about to shake her head when Ben spoke up. "Y-yeah, yeah they did. Their mom, her name's Brenda. She came over to me and gave me and Carley some biscuits. She said she was cooking up a meal for us."
"Yeah, I saw," everyone turned their heads toward Fluttershy. She wasn't cowering or shying away as she usually did whenever she was put on spot. "When I got... cleaned up, I went into their kitchen. They gave me a towel and I wanted to return it, umm... Brenda?" She looked at Ben, unsure of the woman's name. The teen nodded. "Yeah, Brenda was cooking something in the kitchen so... yeah. They had food."
"Well, we gotta go back now!" Larry exclaimed. "I haven't gotten anything to eat yet!"
"For once, ah agree!" Kenny added. "We need the food, to hell with the bandits! We can take 'em!"
"Are you saying we should risk a firefight over food?" Starlight asked, frowning.
"We'll starve to death if we don't," came Kenny's rebuttal.
"Do we even have enough ammo for that?" Lilly asked.
"The St Johns' got plenty," Applejack answered. "And it's not just ammo, they've got the guns too."
"All the more reason for us to go back!"
"Look, even if we do decide to go back, it's still risky," Starlight replied. "One of us could die!"
"So far, none of us haven't." Kenny gestured at Applejack. "Y'all got back Fluttershy and no one got hurt, right?"
She looked away for a moment, remembering what had happened in those woods.
Rainbow, noticing Applejack's lack of response, rolled her eyes and answered. "Yeah, none of us got hurt."
Kenny nodded, looking over at Starlight and Lilly. "See!? If they can do that, who's to say we can't handle a couple of punks with bows and arrows!?"
"Mark?" Starlight raised a brow.
"Ben said Mark got shot in the shoulder while he was out doing some work on the farm! He went out there on his own, we'll all be there and lookin' out for each other!"
"Well, look listen," Twilight said, coming into the fold. "Since it's dangerous, why don't we just send out a team to bring back some food for us?"
"Why the hell didn't you do that in the first place!?" Larry yelled, scowling at Applejack.
She glared in return. "Because a lotta shit happened while we were out! Food was the last thing on my mind, Fluttershy was taken and Mark ended up with an arrow in his shoulder! Ah wasn't thinkin' about food!"
"We're still starvin' here!" Kenny exclaimed. "Ah still say we should go back! We didn't give them fuel for nothin'!"
"Yeah, well, if y'all wanna go back fine! But ah ain't, ah'm stayin' here. Get Ben or Rainbow to take you to the farm." Applejack walked away from the crowd, off to retreat into one of the rooms. She was not planning on going back, not after what happened in those woods.
The rest of the group continued, Rarity gently tapped her on the shoulder. "Darling, are you okay?"
Applejack sighed, feeling annoyed. "Yeah, rare, ah'm peachy. Could you give me some space, please?"
"Oh... of course, sorry."
Applejack didn't say anything. She silently walked into one of the motel rooms and closed the door behind her.
"So, you all think we should go back?" Lilly asked, facing the rest of the motor inn.
"Like ah said, we'll starve if we don't," Kenny said.
"We're safer if we don't." Starlight rebutted.
Lilly frowned, looking between the two before turning to her dad, standing beside her. "Dad?"
Larry flashed the rarest of the rare smiles at his daughter. "Yeah, I say we go back. It's the whole reason why we went there in the first place."
The brunette's eyes darted downward, the frown still on her face. She turned to the rest of the group. "Does everybody else the same way?"
Rarity exchanged glances with her friends and the group members. Doug was the first one who agreed, Katjaa looked uneasy and Kenny seemed too eager to go. Starlight seemed like she already made up her mind. Larry agreed with the idea of going back but his daughter, Lilly was still unsure.
As everybody gave their decision on whether or not they should go, the group decided to split up. Those who thought it was a better idea to stay, would stay back and guard the motel while the others were gone. Twilight Sparkle, Trixie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Starlight and Ben chose to hang back while the others went to the dairy.
"I'll take you guys back to the dairy," Rainbow announced.
Lilly nodded before looking at the group once more. "Is everybody sure about this?" The group gave their assurances, much to her dismay. She was mainly going because of her father. "Okay, let's head off then."
Rainbow lead the group out of the motor inn, Pinkie and Ben waited for everyone to exit before closing off the entrance once more with the large dumpster. As he placed his hands on the dumpster, he quickly found out that it was heavier than he initially thought as he began straining; applying pressure to the metal bin. It was moving slightly, albeit out of place. Ben frowned in confusion when it suddenly became light-weighted, almost tripping over as the dumpster was pushed into place. The girl beside him, Pinkie Pie seemed to have effortlessly pushed it back into place; blocking off the entrance.
The teen's face was riddled with confusion, frowning, mouth open and his eyes in a slight squint. Pinkie did not seem to have struggled one bit, it almost seemed as if she did not try at all.
Noticing, Ben's confused expression, Pinkie gasped. "Are you okay!? Why's your face like that!?"
"Huh? Oh, what?"
She stuck a finger in his face. "Your face. It was all like..." she mimicked the confused expression.
"Oh, sorry. It's just..." Ben's eyes flew back and forth between the dumpster and the girl. "H-how did you do that?"
"Do what?" Pinkie gave a small smile.
Ben pointed to the bin. "The dumpster. H-how did you move it so easily?"
Pinkie blinked, seemingly in thought for a moment before frowning. "Um, I dunno? It wasn't that heavy."
Ben was left confused as the girl walked away and over to where her friends, Twilight, Rarity, Trixie and Fluttershy were. He looked back at the dumpster, kneeling to further inspect it, to see if there was something that he might've missed. Some mechanism, or alter, or lever that he didn't see because there's no way Pinkie pushed this back all on her own.
Granted, he did help... but he probably didn't do much anyway. The teen was thoroughly confused as to how Pinkie Pie was able to move this dumpster without breaking a sweat. He was struggling to even move it in the first place and then she comes over; not only does she move it back into place but it wasn't crooked either.
Ben stood up, placing his hands on one side of the dumpster before pulling. He strained before it finally moved an inch and he stood there with the confused expression plastered back onto his features.
Ben began scratching his head. Was he that weak or was Pinkie Pie that strong? He glanced over at the girl who was creating chatter amongst her friends. She didn't appear to be that strong, there were some muscles bulging but ultimately, she was a skinny girl.
So, how the hell did Pinkie Pie manage to push a giant-ass dumpster that possibly weighed more than her, back into place?