With all of her friends out discovering(or not) in their own way, Twilight's method of gaining knowledge proved to be the most fruitful, which anypony else would easily agree to be true. Exploring the towers above rather than the mostly desolate terrain below was clearly the right way to go, although Twilight's friends' lack of knowledge(and interest) in this field showed in their inability to discover the proper approach to gaining knowledge, whereas Twilight's ability in this field gleamed brightly, as she marched onward, just as eager as ever to seek out new insight on the history of these antique watch towers.
Twilight had exited yet another tower building, and even though not much of the towers' past was revealed, she didn't give up in her hopes that this expedition would unearth something extraordinary that would excite her friends, amaze Equestrian historians, and impress Princess Celestia more than ever before—or maybe at the least something she hadn't already learned herself, so at least she would be excited. Still in this mindset of knowledge-seeking, Twilight started to search every inch of the tower tops, rather than just the rooms inside each building. Her examination of the building perimeter she was currently at did not yield any results, unfortunately, so that meant it was time to do another thorough examination of the next tower.
Twilight made her way across the connecting bridge, trying to keep herself invigorated with small, self-motivating speeches, "Don't give up, Twilight. With so many sentry posts, I'm bound to find something sooner or later. I mean, for all I know, something could come up right under my nose," then, Twilight heard a sudden crunching sound come from beneath her hoof. She halted her movement and lifted up her hoof to inspect the material she had trodden upon.
The matter clinging to her hoof was of a dark green color, and even though it had a crusty, hardened exterior, the interior of the hardened shell revealed a softer, more pulpous center. Twilight sat herself down on the bridge, so as to have both hooves free to provide a more facile means of observing her hoof in an enhanced proximity.
As she surveyed the substance closer, she saw only several small bits of the green material still stuck to her hoof. When she scratched the toughened surface of the substance, several flakes fluttered down onto the bridge, or were swept away by the ethereal breezes of the passing wind. "This is strange," she told herself. "I don't believe I've ever been witness to an element such as this before—I should regroup everyone so they can see what I've unearthed! Hee hee!" Twilight instantly covered her mouth. She then cleared her throat and started over, "I do believe they will all be quite intrigued by this fascinating discovery," she then placed the material inside a cloth bag and made her way back to the train station through use of teleportation.
As old and musty as the train station was, Rarity did indeed find it to be more refreshing after being exposed to such horrid conditions(horrid for her, at least).
Fluttershy had been searching alone throughout the diminutive building, and didn't find anything better than what was seen outside in the desert. "Ohhh...this is not going as well as Rarity made it sound..." she walked over to a cracked window and placed her legs upon the windowsill as she rested her head atop her legs. "I'm beginning to think that Rarity only wanted to come here so she wouldn't have to do any work herself—or maybe I'm just not good at finding anything..." Fluttershy sank her face into her legs, feeling so down that her own quest for knowledge had fallen short, and she couldn't bear to tell Twilight that she failed.
Fluttershy glanced out the window for a moment, and was astonished to witness Rainbow Dash and Applejack coming towards the station. She decided to go outside to see if they had discovered anything, so at least somepony would have succeeded in this expedition.
As they were walking towards the station, it showed that Rainbow and Applejack's exploration did not go any better than Fluttershy's—particularly due to the sullen expression present on Rainbow Dash's face.
"Well, this whole day has been one big bust,' Rainbow complained with a fully surly demeanor.
"Ah know we didn't find anything, but there's no need to be so dang cantankerous about it."
"That's easy for you to say—you didn't have a bunch of old junk fall on top of you!"
"Hey, I told yah to be careful! But you just had to go and be so rough and push stuff outta the way while lookin' around. You shoulda known that that place was a wreck that could fall apart any second!"
"Well, next time you can be the one to go digging through busted-up buildings!"
"Ah'm sure ah would do a better job of it than you!"
"Oh yeah??"
"Yeah!"
Rainbow Dash and Applejack butted their faces together, both steaming mad as they glared at one another. However, there squabble was cut short by the interjection of a timid pegasus.
"Umm...excuse me?" Rainbow and Applejack both looked to see Fluttershy standing next to them. "I hope I'm not interrupting, but I was just wondering if you found anything?"
"Only if junk counts as something!" Rainbow scoffed.
Fluttershy thought this over for a bit. "Well, I'm not sure...we'll have to ask Twilight," Rainbow simply slapped her face with her hoof in response to Fluttershy.
"Ah'm afraid that ain't gonna be necessary, 'cause I'm sure Twilight's not gonna consider junk tuh be somethin' worth learnin' about."
"Well, if that's what you think."
"What about you?" Rainbow inquired. "Did you find anything?
"Well, me and Rarity found a broken pole in the sand—although, actually, she was the one who found it, and I haven't been able to find anything myself, unfortunately," Fluttershy hung her head down in disappointment. "I haven't even been able to find anything in this train station, even though Rarity said we might find something here."
"Oh, she did, did she?" Applejack responded, sounding rather skeptical of Rarity's assertion.
"Yes, and I know she meant well, but it doesn't look like she was right," Fluttershy sighed again. "I hope she won't be as disappointed about this as I am."
"Ah don't think she will," Applejack responded with indifference.
"Really? Oh, that's good to hear. Thank you, Applejack," she replied, having received solace from Applejack's statement. Applejack then gave a deprecatory look to Rainbow Dash, who returned the same look right back at her.