The sun was beginning to set, evening had arrived a while ago. A cloudy sky, filled with an orange haze and a reddish sun over the horizon. Twilight and her friends were already long worried before then.
Truth was, the unicorn had been procrastinating. Hesitant about going out. Where she promised she would go out and look for Rarity. She'd been convincing herself - and her friends, mostly Rainbow Dash - that Rarity would come back. That if she just waited a little longer, they would hear the door opening and they would see the fashionista appear around the corner and they'd have a mini happy reunion. All the pressure, anticipation and ill-thoughts would be put to rest.
Against her hopes, that outcome never happened. They were aimlessly waiting for something that they all knew wasn't going to happen and Twilight could no longer prevent the inevitable.
Lee had discovered a boat that was practically hidden in plain sight, in the shed. Right next to them, in the mansion's backyard and the mood naturally lifted. It definitely lifted Kenny's. He'd found hope again, and he was now examining the aquatic vehicle.
But despite that, the ponies couldn't find it in themselves to be as enthusiastic as the others. As far as they were concerned, Rarity was their main priority. Not even the people she'd went with, David, Carley or Lilly had returned yet.
And there they all were. The entire group, placed in the living room. Lee paced around, a clear expression of boredom on his face. Many of the others were either standing idly somewhere in the room or seated on one of the couches. After the boat had been discovered, Twilight thought it'd be best to leave once Kenny was finished examining the boat.
She was standing by the windows, looking between the gaps in the boards that were nailed up against it. "Are you sure, you wanna go out there alone Twilight? I-it's dangerous," the unmistakable soft voice of Fluttershy came from behind her.
Without turning to look back at her, she responded. "I know, Fluttershy but Rarity is still out there and who knows what's happening. She could be in trouble for all we know."
"B-but do you have to go out there alone, though?" The pegasus paused. "M-maybe... maybe, I could-"
"No, Fluttershy." She really didn't need to explain why she didn't want the pegasus to go with her.
"Oh, alright. I just want you to stay safe."
Twilight turned to look at her. "And I will." She layed a hoof on the pegasus's shoulder with reassuring eyes. "I'll be fine, Fluttershy."
The door opened and Ben and Kenny walked into the room. The older man wearing an annoyed expression. "Good news or bad news?"
"Let's get the bad news outta the way first," Lee said.
Kenny went on about how the boat was lacking two essential components in order to actually power up the vehicle. Gas and a new battery, to which he stated as good news.
"Yeah, good luck with that," Molly commented sarcastically. "Everything in Savannah has been stripped bare. The only place you'll be able to find those is at Crawford."
"Crawford?" Applejack gave her a unsure look.
"It's the worst place y'all are gonna come across. They're the type of people to use you all-" she gestured to all the ponies. -"As food."
The four ponies all shared a look of anguish. Fluttershy audibly gasped, Rainbow and Applejack felt their blood run cold and Twilight's stomach turned.
"Be glad y'all didn't stumble across them first," the old man, introduced as Vernon threw in his input.
"Since you said this place was 'stripped bare'. We don't exactly have much choice, do we?" Christa asked, looking at Molly who had her arms folded.
"No, I suppose not."
The group began to discuss where they should acquire the supplies. Lee suggested going to Crawford to Vernon's dismay. Everyone in the group was starting to agree with his decision, Molly's input on the city being stripped of supplies had majorly helped.
"Everyone, before you can continue I just wanted to say that I won't be coming along," Twilight said.
"But we'll need you," Kenny said, a frown on his face.
"If we get into trouble, your magic will give us an advantage." Christa walked over to her.
"And if they capture her, she'll be dead."
Twilight flinched at Molly's statement. As much as it pained her to do, she still needed to get Rarity back to them. "I'm sorry, really but Rarity's still out there and I'm gonna go out and try to find her."
"They could've just taken shelter somewhere," Chuck suggested.
"Well, we don't know that. For all we know, they could be in trouble, I mean why would they do that? Unless if they had no other choice?"
"You gonna go out there alone?" Lee asked.
Fluttershy, Applejack and Rainbow Dash all exchanged a knowing look between themselves.
"Y'sure you won't need any help?" Chuck asked.
"I'm more than capable of handling myself. Besides, if you're gonna do this, you're gonna need all the help you can get but I won't be going," Twilight reasonably explained.
Kenny gave a low sigh. "Alright, fine. If that's what you wanna do."
After Twilight had told the group what she was going to do, she had decided that it was a good time to go. The sun was still glaring over the horizon, the sky still filled with an orange haze. It was better to leave as soon as possible, considering the unicorn didn't want to go searching through the city at night in complete darkness.
Twilight stood at the front entrance where Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were. The fact that she was going out onto the streets had become a catalyst for tightness that was forming in her chest. The last thing she wanted was to go out into the city alone with no one watching her back. She would have to be extra cautious.
"Don't go doin' anythin' stupid. Okay, sugarcube?" Applejack said as she brang the unicorn in for a hug.
"I won't, Applejack." Twilight returned the hug which shortly lasted and she was released only to be engulfed into another hug.
"Please be safe." Fluttershy said, squeezing the air out of the unicorn.
"I-I F-flutters, I-I can't..."
"Oh!" The yellow pegasus quickly released her from the lung-crushing hug. "Sorry." An embarrassed smile on her face.
Rainbow walked up to the unicorn and gave her hug. "You stay safe, okay?"
"I will, don't worry."
Rainbow pulled back from the hug and looked at her with a stern look. "If you're in trouble, you get back here as soon as possible. Okay?"
"Don't worry, Rainbow. I'll be fine, I-I'll just teleport away if anything happens." Twilight gave her a reassuring smile.
"Good." Rainbow smiled back.
The unicorn glanced back at the front door. "Well..." She trailed off, another pony coming into her head.
Pinkie.
The unicorn suddenly found it hard to leave without getting any sort of closure with her. Even though she had taken the brunt of the pony's anger, she still didn't want to leave without saying goodbye.
It wasn't like she was going on a suicide mission. It was the "what if" scenarios that were stopping her. Twilight was certain that she would get back in one piece but that fact alone, didn't stop the thoughts that were playing in her head.
What if she never made it back? What if she got critically hurt? Twilight couldn't leave unless they were on good terms. The unicorn turned and glanced toward the staircase. "Hold on for a sec, I'm gonna go talk to Pinkie."
"You sure that's a good idea?" Applejack gave her an unsure look.
"Good idea or not. I wanna go talk to her."
Applejack gave a sigh. "Alright."
Twilight stood at the top of the stairs. To her right was a white four-paneled door, in front of her was a hallway where the attic was and to the north-west of her was two glass paneled doors.
The glass doors were fairly clean. She could faintly see a ball of pink fluff laying by a window seat on the left side of the room. The unicorn walked closer to the room and stopped right in front of the doors when she saw that the pony inside the room, was asleep.
Pinkie's eyes were closed, her back moving up and down slowly in rhythm with her breathing. She looked so peaceful, which was the most the unicorn had seen her in and suddenly she didn't have the courage to wake her up. If Pinkie was in a state full of bliss where she didn't have to deal with this world for at least a few hours, the last thing she wanted to do was bring her out of it.
"H-how'd it go?" Fluttershy asked, a nervous look on her face as if she was expecting it to go badly.
"We didn't talk, she was asleep. I-I didn't wanna wake her up." Twilight walked past the three ponies and over to the front doors.
"Maybe you can talk to her when you get back," Applejack suggested.
"Maybe." Using her magic, Twilight pulled open the right door. There was a brick fence with an opening in the middle. Beyond that was the street, bathing in the orange haze.
She turned back to her friends. "I'll try to be back as quick as possible."
"Alright, good luck 'Twi." And with that, Applejack hesitantly closed the door.
The unicorn let out a sigh. "Okay, okay. First things first." She teleported herself on top of the mansion, nearly falling off before she regained her balance. Her first plan was to make sure she knew where she was. Some type of landmark that would tell her where she was in the city. If she were ever to get lost, she'd use a landmark that would her figure out where she was. It may not be accurate but it was better than nothing.
Then she spotted her landmark. In front of her in the distance, to her north-east was a large bridge that stretched across the river to the otherside of the city. "Perfect," she muttered to herself and she began her search.
"Y'all don't let anyone in, all right?" Kenny said, standing by the gate in the backyard. In had been a couple of hours since Twilight left in search of Rarity and now the others were getting ready to leave.
By now, the sun was already gone and the moon's aura shined across the landscape. The backyard was coated in a deep haze of blue.
"Got it," Applejack replied to the man.
"Good." Kenny then turned to look at the rest of the group. "Are y'all ready?"
"Just a minute." Lee knelt down to Clementine. "You ready?"
"Yup."
"W-wait, she's going?" Fluttershy reluctantly asked.
"Yeah, why?" Lee asked.
"I-it's just... you know, don't you think i-it's a bit dangerous?"
"She's right." Vernon interrupted, who was standing near the gate. "If you take her with us and they find her..." he trailed off, not really needing to explain what would happen.
Applejack walked over to Lee. "Sorry but ah have to agree with 'em on this one. Ah think it's too dangerous for her to go to a place like that."
They had a point. Lee couldn't help but agree with them. Based on what they were told, Crawford wasn't a good place and if they were caught, it wouldn't end well for each of them. If he was to leave her alone in the house with no one but Omid, he would have disagreed by default and not to mention the man on the radio but with the ponies were there.
They could look after her for the time being. Even though they had little experience dealing with walkers, it was better leaving Clementine with them then bringing her to a place filled with dangerous people where she could potentially get hurt... or worse. The kid wanted to find her parents and he very much doubted they would be there.
Clementine saw the conflicting look on his face and tugged on his arm. "Lee, my parents could be there."
The man sighed. "I'm sorry, sweet pea but they're right."
"B-but, you said we were a team."
"We are." He gently layed a hand on her shoulder. "It's just this place, it's too dangerous for you Clementine."
"My parents could be there," Clementine practically begged.
"Hey kid, don't worry. If your parents are there, Lee will bring them back here. Right, Lee?" Rainbow looked at the man with a confident grin.
"Yeah, if they're there I'll bring them back." Lee gave the child a reassuring smile, even though he knew he wasn't going to find them there.
"Okay," Clementine said, defeatedly.
After a few more minutes of going over the plan to infiltrate Crawford, the group finally left and Clementine stayed back at the house with the ponies.
Fluttershy closed the gate shut. The backyard was riddled with sounds of chirping crickets.
"Let's go back inside, y'all," Applejack said. She walked back into the house with the others following her.
Twilight groaned frustratedly, collapsing against the air duct on the rooftop. Below, she could hear the streets flooded with walkers. Snarling and growling as one.
She had searched for hours and hours, she left when the sun was still ablaze over on the sky. Now, it was gone and the fact that she was alone in the city at night with nobody but the dead keeping her company was more than enough to get her on edge.
It made everything harder to see, the moon wasn't exactly a good light source.
She felt like she scouted every inch of the city. If she had been on hooves during it, she probably would've searched only a quarter of it but she had teleported herself from rooftop to rooftop and even then still found no sign of Rarity. Not even the humans that she went with were found. No sign of Lilly, Carley or even David.
Then she couldn't help but feel the bottle of emotions beginning to break again. She felt a lump forming in her throat. She quickly shook her head and began focusing on her breathing. Deep breaths, in and out. When her emotions started to die down, she got back up off the air duct and walked over to the ledge.
Below, she watched as the walkers bumped into each other. Just roaming around with no purpose. No sense of direction. They migrate-no, actually not even that. They're just there, they don't do anything. They're completely mindless until something or someone comes along and suddenly they found a new purpose.
She decided to get one more good look around, giving herself twenty minutes until she would ultimately give up the search.
Twilight scanned the church in front of her, to her left. She was on another rooftop, it was better being on the ground. She glanced at the giant clock in the middle of it, it's numbers in roman numerals. The church looked to be made out of white wood and it had a parking lot with a whole herd inside it.
The building was completely surrounded. The front doors were busted open, walkers either trailing in or out. The unicorn sighed, she had promised herself that she'd give it twenty more minutes but in truth; she had searched longer than that.
With no choice but to go back, Twilight took one last glance at the church before she teleported to another rooftop further away and began making her way back to the mansion.
She didn't know that it was the same church that Rarity and her group had sought shelter in away from the herd.