Betrayal
Pete and Twilight entered the dining room that was already occupied by a few others in the room. Matt was discussing battle strategies with Armor with Rainbow listening in nearby. Elizabeth was talking with Rarity and Fluttershy enjoying finally being able to have a conversation with another girl. Jay was sitting at the table with Pinkie, both of them staring intently across the table at the other.
“What are you two doing?” Pete asked as he walked next to them.
“SHH!” Jay said raising a hand to Pete’s face. “We’re having a staring contest I need to concentrate.” Pete rolled his eyes and walked away leaving the two to their staring contest.
Pinkie sat across from Jay smiling her large smile, seemingly unaffected by her eyes being open for as long as they had been. A hoof tapped Jay on the shoulder. “Not now.” He said. The hoof kept tapping his shoulder. “I said not now.” He said getting slightly annoyed.
“Well fine you meany pants.” Pinkie said from behind Jay.
“Thank you Pin-” Jay started but stopped. He turned his head and saw Pinkie standing behind him, looking back he saw the other Pinkie still staring at him. “………. Wha-?”
The Pinkie behind Jay walked over to the other and pulled out a needle. She poked the other Pinkie and a loud pop was heard as the balloon Pinkie started to fly around the room deflating at the same time. The balloon’s remains landed on Jay’s head as he looked at the new Pinkie. “But I- You were-… Ah to hell with it, that was a good one.” He said his smile returning.
“I thought you’d like it.” Pinkie said with her signature smile.
On the sound of the door opening all the room’s occupants looked towards the door. Princess Luna walked through with a few Lunar Guard close behind.
“I agree that this does not bode well, thank you for the report Lieutenant, you’re dismissed.” Luna said to one of the guard who gave a salute and left the room.
“What’s going on now?” Jay asked. “Did the zombies finally grow brains and learn how to build tanks?”
“Or did they figure out how to use the sky chariots?” Pinkie continued.
“No wait! The must of figured out how to make sky tanks. We’re doomed I say, doomed.” Jay said with his joking attitude a smile, but as he looked towards Luna he lost both those. “Not the time for a joke is it?”
“No it’s not.” Luna told him here tone being slightly stern. Luna sighed. “I am sorry, I truly wish the news I got could be joked about, but this is a very serious matter.”
“What’s the news?” Pete asked.
“The guard that just gave me the report, was part of the contingent I sent to the Crystal Empire, he had some news about the Empire that was rather disconcerting.
“The Crystal Empire?” Shining Armor asked with concern. “What about Cadence, is she okay?”
“Cadence?” Jay asked.
“Yeah, she’s my wife.” Armor answered. “She’s the ruler of the Crystal Empire.”
“Worry not Captain. The guard reported that Cadence is well, but that may not be the case for long.” Luna told them. “The guard reports that there are large groups of infected around the city. Cadence has a barrier up, but as with the case with Sombra it cannot last forever.”
“Who’s Sombra?”
“Not the time Jay.”
“Sorry Pete.”
“So what are we going to do?” Shining Armor asked. “We have to go and do something.”
“Yes, but the question is what. With the distance to the Crystal Empire a sky chariot wouldn’t be able to get there soon enough.” Luna said.
“Well isn’t there another way to get there?” Jay asked
“Yes, before we used trains to get there, but with the infection the lines have become unusable. So unless anypony here actually knows how to work a train engine we are out of luck.”
“Well…” Both Pinkie and Pete said at the same time.
“Wait… do you both know how to work a train?” Twilight asked.
“Yeppers.” Pinkie said bouncing around.
“Kind of, yeah.” Pete added on.
“How?” Twilight asked.
“I have my ways.” Pete told her.
“Well, you see I already had my party cannon and then I thought. ‘Hmm, how can I make this even better?’ at first I thought of a party carriage, but that had been done before and then the idea just came to my head ‘a party train’. I realized how much fun it would be so to start off I learned how to drive a train. Currently the party train is only in toy stage though.” Pinkie answered Twilight speaking very quickly.
Everyone in the room just watched her. “I’d buy it.” Jay finally said.
“Well alright then, we have two capable of driving the train, but currently the only train line that goes all the way to the Crystal Empire is the Ponyville line.” Luna said.
“Why does it always come back to that place?” Jay asked. The three other humans nodded, but the ponies in the room looked confused. “I mean so far from what’s happened and what I’ve gathered from eavesdropping on conversations everything only happens in Ponyville, I’m pretty sure that it isn’t the only town in the entire world, so why do things only seem to happen there?” He questioned. All the ponies in the room were silent. There really was no way to answer that, everything did only seem to happen in Ponyville.
“Back to the point though. How long will it take to get to the Crystal Empire by train?” Pete asked.
“Depending on conditions it could take a little as a day and a half to three days” Luna answered.
“Alright” Pete said looking up at the others. “We should leave tomorrow morning, at first light.”
“Why wait that long?” Rainbow asked. “Shouldn’t we go as soon as possible?”
“Bad idea.” Jay said. “Zombies are nocturnal.”
“They are?” Twilight asked.
“In a way.” Pete told them. “We have noticed that they do become more active at night, so it’s best to avoid going out into infected territory during the nighttime.”
“So that’s why we are going to leave tomorrow morning so they have time to become less active?”
“Precisely… Wait we?!” Pete responded.
“Yeah, I’m going with.”
“No, you’re not.” Both Pete and Armor said at the same time.
“And why not, I need to do something. Cadence is my sister-in-law. I can handle myself.” Twilight argued back.
Armor was about to continue, but Pete stopped him. “Twilight tell me. What happened the last time you thought you could handle yourself?”
“What-what do you mean?” Twilight asked.
“If I remember correctly it was the day we met. The day that you almost got killed.” Pete continued.
“Well- I-”
“The day that if Matt hadn’t put a bullet through that zombie’s skull you would’ve been its next meal.” Pete told her bluntly.
‘I- I just-” Twilight started, looking towards the ground.
With a sigh Pete walked over and bent down to Twilight’s height. “I know Twilight, I know. You just don’t want to feel useless.” Pete said with Twilight still looked to the ground. “Twilight you need to understand that this doesn’t just affect you. How do you think your friends would feel if you didn’t come back?”
“That goes two ways, you know?” Twilight responded.
“Huh?” Pete said.
“I’m pretty sure I can speak for everypony when I say that we consider you our friend.” Twilight said with a slight nod from everypony around her. “The same can be said of you. How do you think we would feel if any of you didn’t come back?”
“I wouldn’t know, I haven’t had a friend since this outbreak started.” Pete told her.
“Well what about us? We’re your friends aren’t we?” Twilight asked.
“Maybe to you, but to me. I still don’t have any friends.” The mares all looked to each other in surprise.
“You mean you don’t consider any of us your friend?” Twilight questioned.
“Put bluntly, no not really.” Pete said standing back up. “I worry about you and I want to help you, but like I said. I don’t have any friends.”
“And why not?!” Twilight asked getting slightly angry. “Isn’t that exactly what a friend would do?!”
“Listen, I don’t want any friends. It puts a burden on my when I have to start worrying about coming back.” Pete told her.
“You-you don’t even want to come back?!”
“No, I do want to come back, it’s just that without friends I don’t have to worry about how my actions affect others. I don’t have to focus on keeping myself alive, because I don’t have anything to come back to.”
“How can you say that?!” Twilight asked. “Why would you just ignore the fact that all of us care about what happens to you?!”
“You know my reason Twilight.” Pete told here. “Please just stay here and-”
“No!” Twilight shouted, completely furious now. “I’m not going to let you go and get yourself killed because you don’t consider any of us friends!” She said angrily. “I’m not going to let you ignore what we think just because of your trust issues! You can’t just ignore everypony else, because I think we’ve proven already that no pony here will try to kill you like your brother!!” Twilight finished her rant still furious, every eye in the room was wide, even Pete’s. However his soon turned into a glare at Twilight who was just realizing what she had said. “Pete, I- I’m sorry, I just-”
“Twilight.” Pete interrupted with a bit a malice. “You are going to stay here, that is final. You four.” He said forcefully indicating to Pinkie, Jay, Liz, and Matt. “Gather up everything you need tonight, we leave early tomorrow. Armor, you’re going to stay here and guard Canterlot. If you want any guards to come with us tell them to meet us at the gate before sun up. This conversation is over, there will be no more arguments.” He said as he turned around and started to walk over to the doors. “Every time I start to trust someone.” He muttered under his breath barely audible before leaving the room and slamming the door behind him.
All eyes looked back to Twilight who had fallen onto her haunches and had the beginnings of tears in her eyes. Shaking her head quickly she regained some composure and left the room quickly hoping to catch up to Pete.