“It’s good idea to wear protection against sun.” Chalk said while Twilight was looking around the building for anything of use while chalk was holding an old park ranger’s hat in his hands, green hard fabric with a wide brim and a small golden badge on the front reading ‘Zion National Park’
“I can’t my horn wouldn’t let me put it on my head along with my ears.” Twilight said as she looked through a small metal footlocker, the thin iron it was made from dented and bent in multiple places. “But I appreciate you’re showing some care for my wellbe-“
‘RIIIP, RIIP RIIP’
“Or you can do that…” Twilight said flatly, turning to look as Chalk cut out three rough holes on the hat, two for her ears on either side and one for where her horn was.
The man approached Twilight and put the cut up hat onto the pony’s head, fitting snuggly with it being held in place by her horn and ears out of the holes.
“There, sun burn is bad, hurt skin and make it hard to move.” He said with a smile and stepping back.
“Thank you.” Twilight said, feeling the hat on her head.
“Don’t mention it little horsey.” Chalk said with his smile widening.
“I’m a pony actually.”
“Isn’t pony a small horse?”
“Sort of, we’re both equines.”
“So you little horsey.” He joked, starting to walk out of the building.
They found, or more like Twilight found, a number of items including two other guns, one the same type as Chalk’s and one that looked like Lucky but a bit bigger with larger bullets but Twilight put them both into her bag for later, neither having holsters.
“What are we even looking for?” Twilight asks as they walked off.
“Joshua thinks there’s things we need in an old ruined cart in a stream, we need to go there.” He said pointing down the road, not too far away.”
Just like her guard said they soon reached a cliff, Chalk approaching the edge and pointing down at the bottom where Twilight could see what looked like one of the large metal husks that she saw along the roads to Zion and in the Mojave.
“That’s why your own two feet are better than any carriage, be it pulled by critters or on its own.” He said, going to the edge before stating to climb down along the rock face.
Twilight just stretched out her wings, jumping off the edge and gliding down to the bottom and landing in the shallow stream the carriage was in.
She could see that it was broken right down the middle, probably from the fall from the cliff up high with all the metal rusted and scorched black. She could see a burnt skeleton laying on the bank of the stream, it’s clothing long since rotted away along with all its flesh.
Getting closer the pony froze. Littered all along the inside of the metal husk were more skeletons, but they were different. Instead of being the size of Anne or Chalk they small, smaller than her and Twilight realized that they were children.
Old metal lunchboxes, their paint still in flakes on the surface were all around along with leather bags that hadn’t rotted away yet. Toys of different kinds were either sat at the bottom of the clear water or scattered around with the bodies.
“By Celestia…” Twilight looked around in horror.
“Selestria? Is that a god from your lands?” Chalk asked as he finally reached the bottom but didn’t seem fazed by the dead.
“Celestia.” Twilight corrected. “She’s my teacher and a princess like me.” She said.
“Well did you find the things?” Chalk asked walking though the water into the metal beast and stepping into it.
Shaking her head Twilight shakes her head, trying to clear her mind of the young lives lost, wondering if one of them might have become a great inventor, or a lifesaving doctor, or-
She shakes her head again, steeping inside.
She tries her hardest to ignore the children and look around for what she needs. Almost instantly she notices a compass on the ground and approaches it, pressing the button for the top to open up and expose it. Twilight mutters annoyance under her breath seeing that the compass hand was bent and not moving when she spun it around.
Cracking it open with her magic she starts to fiddle around with the internal workings, seeing that a major part inside it was electrical like the laser rifles and was all worn away and the wires frayed.
Staring at it for a few moments she sighed, looking around for anything she could use to try and fix it.
Seeing another compass nearby she picked it up and hoped that it was still working but was dismayed to find that the cover on it was ripped off and the face of it was burnt to a crisp. Crossing her hooves she popped it open and peered inside,
Sighing she pulled out the barely damaged internal parts and switched them around with the ones inside the okay quality case, hoping she arranged all the small wires properly before shutting it and peering at the straightened needle.
“Yes!” She cheered to herself, seeing whenever she twisted the compass the needle would point in the same direction.
“You find thing?” Chalk asked.
“Yes, I got the compass working.” She said with a grin.
“What’s compass?”
“It tells you what direction you’re headed in, north south east or wet.” She stated.
Chalk looked at the pony in surprise. “So it can tell you where you’re going, even without seeing the stars?”
“Yeah, that’s why they were made so it was so much easier to tell which direction you are going without having to look at a dozen different things.” Twilight explained as she put the device into one of the pockets on her. “Where to next?”
“An old fishing shack.” He stated.
After a few more hours of walking, taking a small break between then for some food and water which Twilight was pleasantly surprised to find that the streams and lakes weren’t dangerous in anyway and greedily drunk it, the two reached the medium sized wooden building, white paint with red hand prints all over it in warning.
Upon going to the door and opening it a high pitched screech filled the building and a large looking gecko was stood on its two hind leg with its mouth wide open in a snarl.
Twilight looked confused for a few moments before it charged at them, followed by half a dozen more.
Pulling out Benny’s gun the pony took aim at the closest lizard and pulled the trigger, the bullet that hit its head instantly killing it and throwing it back.
Others were rushing were rushing towards them, a few well aimed shots stopping them in their tracks.
The interior was filled with small entertainment things, a pool table, couches around small chairs with empty beer bottles on them, a bar top with stools and a fireplace, the stone inside covered with a thick layer of soot from when it used to be used.
Behind the rotting bar was a large cabinet which Twilight approached and tried to open but found it was locked. “What are we looking for in here?” The pony asked focusing her magic on the lock.
“I think Joshua called them Talkie-Walkies.”
“Walkie-Talkies” Twilight corrected. “You can talk into one and the other can hear you, helps if you want to talk with someone at a distance.”
Chalk looked dumb fuddled by that. “What?”
Sighing tiredly Twilight clicked open the cabinet and peered in, finding it filled with all different types of alcohol along with two large brick sized objects with antenna and tuner nobs.
Grabbing the two objects she put them into the larger pockets on her sides before grabbing a bottle of whisky, guessing Anne should have a get well soon gift for when she woke up.
“Now we got them, what are we getting now?” Twilight asked.
“A store, we need to get lunch box, a few lunch box.” He said.
Twilight’s legs were starting to ache, her hoofs feeling sore from the coarse dirt they have been walking on. It also didn’t help when a small pack of wild dogs attacked them but that was easily dealt with using aim and a few bullets.
Upon arriving at the small wooden building Twilight spotted the red warning hands across it again, wondering why everyone felt so scared about the buildings. “So we’re getting lunch boxes?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, at least five.” Chalk said. “There also might be food.”
Opening the door and peeking in Twilight instantly close it again, eyes widened in fear and hooves shaking slightly. “Can we skip this one?” Twilight asked Chalk, looking at him hopefully.
“What’s in there that has you riled up little horsey?”
“I’m riled up because I just saw a fly in there that’s almost half the size of me along with a mantis that is almost as big as you!” Twilight exclaimed.
“You have big gun, just stand back and shoot inside.” He said pointing at Twilight’s laser rifle. “I open the door and you shoot.”
“Alright.” Twilight said taking a few deep breaths. “Sounds like a plan.”
Opening her wings she jumped up and pulled the laser rifle off her back, holding it in her hooves as she flew backwards and aimed at the door Chalk was still stood near.
With a small nod he grabbed the door handle and threw it open, jumping out of the way as Twilight let loose, not even aiming for anything particular but just hoping she hit anything alive inside the building.
Once she ran empty she realized that she had her eyes closed the entire time and open them back up.
There was nothing but burns and sickly colored green blood across the floors and ground. Reloading the rifle and putting it back onto her back she steps inside with Lucky at the ready.
Chalk followed in with his .45 at the ready as well, pointing around in case there were any more bugs inside.
“I think it’s clear.” The man said putting the gun away.
Inside the building was a large set of wooden shelving, a few broken from the main frame and hanging uselessly from the screws that used to hold them in. A few boxes of different things such as Insta-Mash and Bubble Gum were still on a few of the shelves or the floor but most of the place was stripped clean of useful things. A counter was by the right wall and a door leading to a back room along the far wall.
Stepping in Twilight almost instantly notices two metal boxes with latches on the main counter, a rusted and peeled picture of the valley painted on the face of it. Approaching it Twilight picked it up with her magic and held it before Chalk.
“Is this the type of things he wanted?” She asked.
“Yes, those are the box.” He said with a smile and a nod.
The other boxes were a lot harder to find, one hidden behind a broom in a cupboard or one in the drawer of the locked desk but one good thing that came out of it was Twilight found a small snow globe, one showing a happy smiling cartoon person in hiking gear stood at the valley with ‘Zion National Park’ under it.
She had to ask Chalk to carry the boxes because she was starting to run out of room on herself, filled with all sorts of things.
“Can we head back now?” Twilight asked.
“We can’t yet, one more thing we need get.” Chalk said. “Healing things to help us and to help heal your friend.”
Twilight felt a rush of energy at that, hearing that she could actually do something to help her wounded friend. “Alright then, let’s go!”
Twilight was pleasantly surprised when it turned out the place they needed to go was right next door, just on a small ledge with the road going to it. It was bigger than the store and like the other buildings had the handprints on them along with the signs of rot and decay on the wood.
Opening the door Twilight took in a single step before a small hissing sound could be heard and from under a metal desk inside crawled out a large tan brown scorpion, not as big as the black on when she first set out but still rather large.
“AHHHHH!” She screamed. “NO!”
A filing cabinet against the wall suddenly flew up and crushed the bug under it, covered in a soft purple glow and sticky green blood seeped from under the object.
Another little his and the pony spotted another one crawling underneath another metal desk and soon that desk collapsed in on itself and speared the arachnid with torn bits of metal.
One last one was scuttling towards Twilight before one of the broken metal legs from the just collapsed table speared right through its top and into the ground, pinning it there as it let out a screech as it writhed on the ground before it went limp.
Twilight was panting heavily, sweat dripping down her forehead with her right eye twitching slightly.
“Why did it have to be scorpions?” She growled to herself.
Chalk heard this and let out a small chuckle. “Because it would be no fun otherwise.” He said tapping the carapace of impaled one. “Bark scorpions are very deadly, one sting hurts a lot and if it gets enough you’ll die.” He stated.
“I’m not planning on getting close to any of them, don’t worry.” Twilight stated, looking around at the internal part of the building.
There were a few tables in the middle, one just a hunk of bent and broken metal and a filing cabinet having cracked the wooden planks near another one from why Twilight threw it down. There was a fridge and a few normal looking round tables, one of them having a burnt skeleton with a bottle of bleach in front of it spilt on the table along with an empty bottle of beer.
Heading into a back room the pony saw that there were a pair of bunk beds along with a table, a brown leather bag on it with two snakes curled around a sword.
Smiling at the sight of the medical bag she opened it up before that smile fell as soon as it came back. The sterile bandage packets have been ripped open and she didn’t know how long and to make it worse the bottle of disinfectant had leaked and had barely any left inside it.
“Oh no, this is useless!” She yelled, letting her head fall onto the desk.
“What’s wrong?” Chalk asked walking into the back room.
“It’s all dirty, if anyone tried to use this they’d get an infection and it’d do more harm than good!” She exclaimed. “Ughh… I feel like I need something to dri- wait, that’s it, something to drink!” She said a smile instantly coming back.
She raced out of the room and to the broken fridge, throwing it open and grabbing all the bottles that looked like they held alcohol.
“You think it best idea to drink?”
“That’s not what I mean, alcohol is known to cleans things really well, it’s used in hoof sanitizer to kill germs.”
“What?”
“It means it can clean the bandages and tools so they’re safe to use!” Twilight said, grabbing a dented metal bucket from the back room and pouring all the bottles into it. Soon it was a quarter filled with mixed drinks. Grabbing the bandages she tore them open the rest of the way and dropped them all in, making sure that they all got soaked.
“Great!” We just need to give them a few minutes and it’ll be all fine!” She said with a grin.
“Then I’m going to eat, you want?” Chalk asked.
“Sure, what do we have?”
Chalk smirked. “There scorpion.”
“Do you wanted to be filed away like the pancake over there?” Twilight said with a flat look, pointing over at the blood seeping from under the large metal object.
“…I think chips sound better come to think.”
“Yes, I have to agree.”