Suddenly, off in the distance, a still ecstatic as ever Pinkie Pie was bounding joyfully towards the train station. A fair distance behind her, Spike was struggling to keep up with the alacritous mare, needing to stop every so often to catch his breath before continuing after her.
"Hey, everypony!" she called out to her friends as she hopped right up to the trio of ponies. "What are you all a-doodily-doing?"
"We haven't been 'doodily-doing' anything all day," Rainbow irritably affirmed. "We didn't find anything cool, and I got a bunch of sand and old junk fall on top of me!"
"Welllll, I think that counts as something, but it's probably not what Twilight wants."
Rainbow clasped her face firmly, making a slight angry growl as she tried as hard as she could to hold back her increasing animus.
"Did you find anything?" Applejack asked Pinkie.
"Oh, yeah! We've really done a lot! Haven't we, Spike?" she looked to her right, but saw no one. "Spike?" she asked as she looked around. Just then, Spike came trudging up next to Pinkie Pie, grasping his chest and breathing heavily as he tried to keep himself from collapsing onto the ground. "Oh, there you are! I was just telling everypony about all the super amazing fun stuff we did while we were looking around the towers!" she exclaimed whilst bouncing up and down gleefully. Spike wanted to respond, but the fatigue overwhelming his form rendered him incapable of speech at the present moment.
The others watched with concern at the worn-out baby dragon before them.
"Spike looks rather tired, don't you think?"
Pinkie blew a raspberry in response to Fluttershy's statement. "He's not tired! He just can't decide on what fun thing to talk about first! Go ahead and tell 'em, Spike!" she said as she nudged Spike in the shoulder, which actually hurt a lot more than Pinkie meant to do, but she took no notice of this, as she remained in her own happy frame of mind during this whole happening.
Spike rubbed his arm a bit, and then lifted himself upright so as to look more apposite while speaking to everyone. But, prior to the beginning of his dialogue, he had to take a few more deep breaths, as he still very exhausted, but now had the energy to speak—albeit he had to take a breath every now and then.
"Well...we wandered around for a while...and we didn't really find anything...but then I tripped....on something in the sand...and I pulled it out...it was..." Spike then stopped for a bit while he took in a few more breaths. Regrettably, the others were not so patient in their anticipation for his response.
"What was it??" Rainbow implored.
"Was it something educational?"
"Some kind of weapon?"
"A skeleton??"
"Aww, c'mon, Rainbow Dash!" Applejack retorted in disgust.
"No, it wasn't any of those things...it was...a shield."
"A shield?" Rainbow responded, sounding both disappointed and irritated. "A shield?? That's it?!" she shouted heatedly.
"Oh, well, I'm sure that has something we can learn fro—"
"You made us wait all that time just to tell us it was a shield?? Rainbow interjected loudly.
"It was only 'bout 30 seconds, Rainbow Dash," said Applejack.
"That doesn't make it any less annoying!" Rainbow was growing more and more aggravated, pressing her hooves against the sides of her head in anger. "Errgh! I've been waiting and waiting since Twilight gave us that history lesson to find something cool, but nobody's found anything that's even the least bit cool!!" In a fit of rage and impatience. Rainbow flew over to the train station and started banging her head against the wall repeatedly. The others watched as Rainbow Dash carried out her frustration with her ceaseless butting against the wall.
"My, she really wanted to find something," said Fluttershy.
"Yeah—she's pretty darn impatient sometimes...sigh...it can sure get irritatin' havin' to put up with that so much."
"Oh, she just really wants to educate herself like Twilight wants us all to do."
"Yeah, sure," Applejack replies acerbically.
"Right!" Fluttershy agrees, not detecting Applejack's sarcasm. "Anyways, Twilight still hasn't come back, and I'm certain that somepony as dedicated as her will have found something by now."
"Yeah! Twilight's the number one best pony at knowledge-ing herself and others about knowledge-y things!" Pinkie exclaimed cheerfully. "She should be back here any second!" she promptly pulled her watch out of her mane and began staring at it intently.
As Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Spike were all looking at Pinkie's watch, Rarity had just walked out of the train station, sporting a flustered expression. "Excuse me?!" she called out, seizing the attention of everyone except Rainbow Dash. "But what is all this commotion? I was almost halfway to partially enjoying myself a bit when I started hearing all this yelling, and now this loud, obnoxious banging noise starts up!" She then turned her attention to the source of the banging(which she now heard after she finished yelling so loud), and saw the goaded Rainbow Dash still battering away. "Rainbow Dash! What do you think you are doing??"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" she responded through the pounding. "I'm trying to knock all the frustration over how not awesome this whole trip is going!"
"Well, could you do so in a more quiet way? Some of us are—specifically me—are trying their hardest to make the most out of the terrible situation this outing is."
Rainbow instantly ceased the hammering of her head against the wall after hearing Rarity's grievance. "Wait...you mean you're not having a good time, either?"
"Of course not!" she retorted, to which Fluttershy gasped in shock. "I may find the idea of a day outside enjoyable, but today's little venture could not be further from enjoyable! The blistering heat, the endless walking, the digging through filthy sand and old, dreary buildings! I don't see how anypony could possibly enjoy all that!" Everyone was speechless after hearing Rarity's intensely heated rant—especially Fluttershy, who had her jaw dropped during the entirety of the fumed unicorn's tirade. "Additionally, I'm quite certain that not too many of us are so keen as when we started this endeavor," she stated as she looked around at her other friends.
While Fluttershy was clearly not in the same boat as Rarity and Rainbow Dash, Rarity's previous statement did ring a bit of truth in some of the other members of their group, as did clearly show on the contrite face of Applejack.
"Yah know, ah hate to say it, but I'm just not feelin' like this trip is goin' all that well," the mare stated, to which Fluttershy let out a gasp of shock.
"Yeah," Spike appended. "I mean, I was as eager as Twilight was when this trip started, but things haven't really been going that great for me, either," he said sorrowfully, causing Fluttershy to gasp at that as well.
"Well, I think things have been going great!" Pinkie cheerfully exclaimed, with Fluttershy gasping yet again, albeit afterwards realizing she had no reason to gasp this time.
Despite all the negativity given off by (some)of her friends, Fluttershy aimed to keep everyone in a positive frame of mind while awaiting Twilight Sparkle's return.
"Well, even though things haven't been going the best for most of us, I still think we need to let Twilight believe that we have been having as good a time as she wanted us to have when she first brought us all here. After all, she did this not just for her, but for all of us, because she wanted what any friend would want: for their friends to have a good time; and we owe it to Twilight to let her see that what she had hoped for went just how she wanted...that is, if you all think so..." Silence followed the pegasus' extensive oration, with those who had spoken so ill about this trip now beginning to feel remorse for their hastily rancorous declarations. Fluttershy saw clearly their downtrodden expressions, and felt a tingle of delight in herself for being such a good motivational speaker.