Bonds
Twilight stood still her eyes wide. “Your brother tried to kill you?” She asked quietly.
“Yeah he did.” Pete said continuing down the wall. Twilight recovered and started walking after him slowly. “When the outbreak started we only had us and we promised to protect each other.”
“You only had each other? What about your parents?”
“Never met em. My brother and I grew up on the streets. We were raised in a small orphanage. When we asked they said they found us together in a dumpster. When we were thirteen, my brother and I ran away from the orphanage and we started to fend for ourselves.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Twilight responded sadly.
“Don’t be.” Pete told her. “I don’t have any negative feelings towards my parents, don’t have any positive feelings either. I don’t really feel anything for them. Hard to hate someone you’ve never met.”
“How can you feel nothing for your parents?” Twilight asked. “They might’ve left you, but they’re still your parents.”
“Only biologically, to me the streets and alleys were more of a family to me than any other person out there, with the exception of my brother of course.”
“You two seemed close, so why did he…did he, um, well-”
“Try and kill me?” Pete finished for her. She nodded slightly. “Because humans are terrible and evil people at our base.” Twilight looked to him surprised. “When put in a bad situation we will elect to save our own hide over saving the lives of countless others. That’s basically what my brother did.” Pete said stopping and turning around to face Twilight. “When the infection started we traveled around scavenging and protecting each other, but when it came down to it and he was in a dangerous situation he chose to betray me and throw me to the dogs.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked moving next to him.
“We were trapped in a building, every side of the building was surrounded by infected. When they broke through the door my brother pushed me to the ground hoping that while the zombies ate me he would have time to escape. Unfortunately for him his plan backfired. The building we were in was falling apart and when he pushed me my weight broke the floor we were on and I fell through to the basement. With no other distractions my brother was the only thing that the zombies could see, so they ate him. I escaped out of the basement and ran off.”
Twilight sat speechless for a moment. “…Well, how do you know he wasn’t trying to save you. He could’ve tried to get you out by putting you in the basement.”
“Yeah, I tried to believe that for a while too. I hoped that he had done it to save me, but you tell me. ‘Sorry Pete, but only one of us can get out of here alive, and I’m not going to die here’, the last words my brother said to me. Does that sound like someone trying to save my life?” Pete asked her. She just sat there silently. “Thought so. That’s why I don’t just give out my trust anymore. Because the more you trust someone the harder it hurts when they betray you. That’s why I keep expectations low, and choose only a select few to travel with.”
“So when you met my brother-” Twilight started.
“All I could think about was my own brother betraying me.” Pete finished.
“But were not like that here!” Twilight told him. “We don’t just go around betraying ponies like that.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it, but until then I’m not just going to give out my trust to just anyone.”
Twilight just watched him. “So why then?” She asked. Pete turned to look at her. “Why tell me all this?”
“I don’t know.” Pete answered. “Maybe it’s because of your friends.” Twilight gave him a confused look. “You have an unconditional trust with them, I guess… I guess it’s just a little hope.”
“Hope?” Twilight questioned.
“Yeah, hope. Hope that maybe one day I’ll be able to have that type of trust again.” Pete said turning away. “Promise me one thing.”
“What?”
“Promise that you won’t tell anyone about this. I haven’t told my past to anyone even before the outbreak.”
Twilight gave a smile and a nod. “I promise, I won’t tell anyone until you’re ready to tell them yourself.”
Pete looked at her. “…Thanks.” He finally said turning away and jumping down off the wall using a tree to slow his fall. With a flash Twilight was on the ground next to him. “We should get back.” Twilight gave a nod and they started back towards the large castle.
The two walked up the stairs to the castle. As they did they received a few looks from the other three humans. They didn’t expect Twilight to come back with Pete in tow. Jay was the first to break the silence among the three.
“Did Twilight get Pete to open up to her?” He asked.
“I don’t know, but he sure seems like he’s back to his normal self again.” Liz responded.
The two who had come from the wall were at the top of the stairs and approached the three. “So what I miss?” Pete asked.
“Some strange stuff man, some strange stuff.” Jay answered.
“What do you mean?” Pete responded.
“Well we were just sitting her then out of nowhere this rainbow just blasts past us.” Jay said.
“A rainbow?”
“Yeah, a moving rainbow just shot past us and flew straight into the castle.” Jay told him.
Pete turned to Twilight. “Could this have anything to do with your friend… what was her name? Rainbow Flash?”
“It’s Rainbow Dash, and yes most likely.” Twilight answered perking up slightly.
“I suppose that means we should probably go and see what’s up.” Pete said.
“Probably.” Was Twilight’s response.
With a nod Pete started into the castle followed by the other four. Twilight soon took the lead and directed them to the meeting room where the Princess most likely was. They soon found their way to the large double doors and entered the room. In the room already was Princess Luna and another pony who by the color of her mane the four humans assumed was Rainbow Dash.
“Rainbow!” Twilight said happily confirming the four’s suspicions.
“Twilight!” The new pony said flying over quickly and embracing the purple unicorn. “It sure has been awhile since we last saw each other.”
“Yeah, you’ve been good I hope.” Twilight said to her friend.
“Yeah I’ve been doing-” Rainbow started but stopped as she saw the other four in the room. She moved defensively in front of Twilight. “Who are you four?” she asked.
Pete sighed. “Do we really look that suspicious?” He asked plainly.
Twilight then stepped out from behind Rainbow. “It’s okay Rainbow, they’re friends.”
Rainbow got back into a normal standing position, but didn’t take her eyes off of the four. “If you say so.” She then turned around to the Princess. “Back to what I was saying. We’ve found a small group of ponies hiding out in Ponyville. The rest of the Wonderbolts are waiting there for orders.” She said with a salute.
“How many?” the princess asked.
“We’ve confirmed at least four, but they are inside so total is unknown.” Rainbow answered.
The princess thought for a moment. “I’m not able to spare that many troops. I’ll send a sky chariot and a small squad to help in retrieval.”
Pete looked back to his three. Matt gave him a stare. “Your thinking about volunteering us aren’t you?” Matt whispered to Pete.
“It will give us a good idea of what the rest of this world is like and what the infected of this world act like. It gives us a strategic advantage.” Pete responded.
“You’re just saying that to try and convince me. You really just want to try and save those ponies don’t you?” Matt said to him. Pete gave a small smile and Matt sighed. “But I will admit what you said is true. Fine I’m in.”
Pete looked to Jay and Liz, who both nodded. Pete smiled and turned to the Princess. “Excuse me, but perhaps we could be of assistance.” He said.
The three mares in the room looked to them. “You’re volunteering to go?” the Princess asked.
“That’s right.” Pete answered.
The Princess nodded. “All right I’ll send a few guards with you.” She said turning to one of the guards in the room. “Send word to Shining Armor to form a small group and prepare for departure.”
Pete grimaced a little but got over it quickly enough that only one mare in the room noticed.
Matt nudged Pete. “So how do we play this? We don’t exactly have that much ammo to spare.”
Pete thought for a second. “Princess do you have a blacksmith in town?” He asked.
“Yes we have an entire guild dedicated to blacksmithing.” She responded.
Pete extended a hand and Matt put a small bag of bullets in Pete’s hand. “Do you think they’d be able to reverse engineer these so they could make more of them?” he asked.
“That depends on what they’re made of.” Luna answerd.
Pete turned to Matt on this one. “The main component is lead and gunpowder or black powder. There’s the actual bullet and then there’s a case containing a pocket of powder at the back for propulsion.” Matt explained in the simplest way he knew.
Luna nodded encasing the bag in her magic and floating it away. "I’ll give this to the smiths and see what they can do. In the mean time there should be a chariot in front of the castle. I would like you to take it along with the guards and go to Ponyville.”
Pete nodded and started out of the room with the other three of his group.