DayP
After a few days of what one would call boring research which Twlight found quite enjoyable, Twilight's train was finally arriving for her to go back home in Ponyville. Meanwhile, Pinkie felt that she was required to host a "Welcome Back" party for Twilight. They had yet to receive the letter that Twilight wrote a few days back. Consequently, the news that her friends were supposed to know about, would now be an indefinite surprise. Perhaps, there would be more surprises than Pinkie planned for her party.
Twilight got on her train, and began pondering about her research again. She had discovered that they spoke the same language, and that they were pretty much ponies... with a different body structure and all. She also discovered what it meant to find a can of beans, or a simple drink. The water had been polluted; for the most part. Which was why they're unable to drink directly from a pond or lake. They have to use their own filtering system using charcoal, sand, and a few cloth. Twilight had seen some handheld devices that seemed to fit perfectly in their... hoof. Whenever they saw a Zed, they pointed the device at it, and it would propel a projectile and... kill the Zed.
It wasn't the only device she saw; there had been many others. Many of them were longer, and oddly shaped. One of them literally looked like a tube with a button on it! Some had these rectangular shaped objects that were detachable to the device. It also had a cylinder on the top with glass.
Twilight had really thought of taking her studies further in Ponyville, but she would have to take the scrying mirror with her; what she used to do studies on real-time with the other universe. It really was just an enchanted gold ring placed on a diamond encrusted stand, but still, the Princess probably would disapprove of it, so to save the trouble, she just left it there.
Twilight had fallen asleep on the train, since as usual, she stayed up all night doing research. If Spike had been there, perhaps she wouldn't have stayed up so late... or make that big of a mess. Shortly after she fell asleep, the train arrived in Ponyville leaving Twilight still sleep deprived.
Just as she gathered her stuff and exited her cart, she was immediately greeted by one of her most hyperactive friends; Pinkie.
"Hey Twilight! Haven't seen you in a few days, so was it fun? Huh? You need to tell me all about it! Was there cake? Cupcakes? Oh, even better! Were there any signs of leprechauns-" Leprechauns? Author clearly never thought of what he was writing.
"Pinkie!" Twilight interjected.
"Oh, sorry." Pinkie said sweetly with an adorable smile beaming across her face.
Twilight nodded, understanding Pinkie's usual actions. "So are you coming?" Twilight asked.
"Going where? To a party?" Pinkie asked hopefully.
"No, with me to Chernarus. Didn't you get my letter?"
"Uh, let me check." Pinkie said while putting a hoof to her chin, to strike a thinking pose. Just then, she turned to her side and started throwing things; much like it was in a bag, except she didn't have her saddlebag with her, so it came from oblivion. She tossed a few papers, a balloon, a bunch of confetti that exploded out of oblivion instead of her throwing it out, streamers, a rubber duck, a baseball bat, a baseball which was followed by a distant "Out of the park! He goes all the way!" speaker, and lastly, her party cannon.
Twilight, being used to this, wasn't really surprised or questioned where she got all of those things, and where they were the whole time. Instead, she just asked a question that she already knew the answer to, "Find it?"
"Nope!" Pinkie said cheerfully. "Don't you worry. You can tell us all about it at your party - OOPS!" Just then, Pinkie darted off into the distance leaving behind a pink blur.
"Well, looks like I wouldn't have been able to study anyway." Twilight cooed.
She started walking to her library to talk to Spike about the letters she sent, and if he even got them. Unfortunately for Twilight, she was stopped by Rainbow Dash.
"Hey Twi!" Rainbow said swooping in from the sky, but not landing. She stayed in the air, hovering.
"Hi Rainbow Dash, I'm sorry, but I really need to see Spike."
"Oh, okay..." Rainbow said looking at her suspiciously, but continued. "So uh... pretty nice day right? You wanna see Rarity?"
"No thanks, maybe later. I really need to see Spike." Twilight said, unwilling to change her response.
"Uh... Are you sure?" Rainbow said with a hint of begging in her voice.
"Yes. Maybe after I see Spike. It shouldn't take too long." Twilight started trotting to the library as she said that.
"Oh come on!" Dash pouted.
Twilight ignored it, and continued her way to the library. Shortly after her arrival, she could hear soft groans. She quickly swung the door open to see Spike laid in the middle of the floor with six tubs of ice cream around him, all different flavors ranging from Sapphire to Quartz. Near the tubs of ice cream, she spotted the five letters that were meant for her friends.
"Oh Spike, this is why you should never eat all that ice cream! It's not good for you. Well, at least you learned your lesson." Twilight said quietly since Spike seemed to be sleeping.
Just as Twilight started towards the five letters to hand to her friends in person, she tripped and hit a few books off their shelves. The noise was moderately loud, and Twilight froze to see if she had awoken Spike. It was like she was trying to sneak past a full sized dragon. She stopped at every squeak in the floor, and stopped to look at Spike every second.
It was to a point where she realized that this was silly, and she could just use her magic to put him in his bed upstairs; which she promptly did.
"I must be going crazy." Twilight muttered under her breath.
She walked back downstairs, cleaned up the empty tubs and large spoons on the ground, picked up the letters, and left to find her friends.
Since the boutique was closest to her house than any other, she stopped there first. On her way, she noticed how little ponies were out and about from when she first came.
What time is it? I couldn't have been gone that long right? Twilight thought as she looked up towards the sun trying to judge the time. It was about two in the afternoon.
Twilight continued keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. Though the ponies in Ponyville were friendly and willing to discuss matters before jumping to conclusions, they also listened to Pinkie, and everypony knows what happened with the Zecora incident.
She started trotting slightly faster, and immediately bumped into the doors of Carousel Boutique. She knocked twice, then opened the door. The lights were off, and she charged her horn to cause alteration to the lighting. Due to it being an alteration and not an illusion spell, only Twilight could see through the darkness; which revealed Pinkie Pie with a smile to die for, Rarity with an annoyed look smashed on her face, Rainbow Dash near a light switch - then the lights flashed on, causing Twilight's alteration spell to shine even brighter which caused her to yelp as if she was surprised by the surprise party.
"Surprise!" Pinkie and half a dozen other ponies called out from behind. She quickly doused her spell, and slowly regained normal vision.
Due to her previous yelp, everypony laughed as they assumed it was because of the surprise; not from her spell being harmful.
"You guys got me!" Twilight said smiling, not wanting to admit that she was only surprised by the sudden lighting, and that she was fully prepared for the incoming cheer.
Pinkie greeted her with a big smile, and began rambling on how she accidentally told her about it, but she probably didn't notice it, so she did it anyway in a place where she'd least expect it. Then, she sent out invitations last minute to get as many ponies as possible to come. She also mentioned that Rarity didn't really approve of this as she only has so long until her clients' dresses need to be completed, and that now wouldn't be the best time. But when Twilight was mentioned, she was immediately open to the suggestion.
Twilight still needed to tell them about the letters they haven't received, but there were just too many ponies around for her to mention it now. It would have to wait a bit longer.
It was now close to midnight, and the party was near its end. Everypony except for Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Twilight were there. Since they were closer friends, and they all knew each other, they started asking Twilight about Canterlot; which jogged her memory about the letters.
"Did ya' get to see your brother? You know... Your BBBFF?" Applejack cooed.
"As a matter of fact, I did! Which reminds me... I need to ask you girls about something important." Twilight said as she went through her bag to grab the letters she had sent. "I meant to send this to Spike for him to give to you, but I guess he fell asleep, or was too busy eating ice cream to really care for it much." She levitated the notes; one to each pony and they each read it.
After a few minutes, they all stared at each other, and simultaneously said; "Chernarus? Zeds? Humans?"
"Yes, yes, and yes. Chenarus is an island that is infected with the Zeds. Zeds are basically zombie ponies, but they're zombie humans. Humans are the species that are still living. The Princess told me that if none of you are going, or some don't want to go, then none of us are going." Twilight said putting her face towards the ground, not wanting to mention that if they didn't go, then she was going alone. "I suppose you all want to know what we're going to be doing there in the first place?"
The other five nodded, and paid attention to the information. "Every living person - human, is suffering and are living on sheer will power to just... want to survive. Everyday, many of them die due to starvation, or dehydration. Due to the circumstances, they would even kill a person just for one meal, and not even consider to ask if they're friendly because that could get them shot. It's pure chaos; not caused by Discord. It's come to the point where the Zeds aren't the real problem. It's the lack of humanity. They are all well armed enough to help themselves by building a civilization, but they can't trust each other enough to do that. Even when they do, they are shortly betrayed. Sometimes, they just don't feel like they want to live anymore and they... commit suicide." Twilight shivered when she remembered what she saw. A young child was roaming through the forest being chased by bandits and rogues, just because he ate more than what he was supposed to. Shortly after, he hung himself because he didn't want to be caught and possibly tortured by the men chasing him.
"Bandits and rogues are the biggest. They kill for fun, and are heartless. I'll leave the descriptions at that. Our mission is to restore harmony, or whatever is left of it, and even more important; restore a civilization. This is a very dangerous mission, and if one of you don't want to come, then you should speak up. If one of us decides they don't want to go, none of us come. If we do go, then once we are there, there is no going back until we complete the mission." Twilight finished sternly.
"Whelp, I'm in." Applejack said sincerely.
"Yea, I guess the Wonderbolts are gonna have to wait... Danger is my middle name after all!" Rainbow said big headed.
"Oh... okay." Fluttershy said not so enthusiastically.
"Well, I suppose I could go. This is far more important after all." Rarity said with a small smile.
"Well, of course I'll go, but how will we get there?" Pinkie asked, shortly after, the other girls nodded in agreement. How will they get there?
Twilight went through her bags and grabbed out the rune that will bring them to Chenarus. "We will get there by using this rune. It's used by -" Twilight was cut short when Pinkie sped up to Twilight.
"Oh! What is this, it's shiny!" Pinkie said, still in motion towards Twilight. The shininess of the rune, that seemed to be recently polished caught Pinkie's eye, and she lost her positioning on her hoofs, which caused her to trip and knock the rune out of Twilight's levitation spell. It fell on the floor, and cracked. Before Pinkie could say, "Oops!", a bright light shrouded the room for a few moments, then they were gone.