How It Used To Be

I wiped my brow of sweat and opened my eyes. The sun out here was unbearable, and I couldn't see how anyone could live in this place...

Except for Bill.

"RISE AND SHINE, SNOWBALL!" He yelled.

Scootaloo, who had been beside me, jumped up, now fully awake.

Bill ran towards me and put a hand on my shoulder. He pointed at some birds above our heads, circling us.

"Come on, now! Get up any later, and these birds'll be peckin' your eyes out before ya know it!"

Scootaloo yelped and hugged my arm. I gave Bill a stern look and he shrugged.

"Sorry."

I turned to her and petted her softly.

"It's fine, those vultures ain't coming near us. And I'm not taking any chances with them, so we're leaving."

"What? Already? It's only been a day!" Bill protested.

Scootaloo's ears perked up.

"Really?"

"Yup."

She stood up and started jumping around.

"When?! When?!"

"Gettin' outta here? How? When?" Bill smiled.

I picked up Scoots in my arms and nodded.

"Now. You've been nice and all, but I don't want to wake up one morning with guns or beaks pointed at our heads!"

I started walking down the hill when he spoke up again.

"You guys ain't gettin' anywhere unless you have a guy with uh, I dunno, maybe years of experience out in the wastes under his belt? Otherwise, you're gonna have a hard time making it out here."

I knew what he was implying. And he was right. I sighed and turned back.

"Will you help us get out of here?"

"My my, I am absolutely flattered you would want me on your team!...Yeah, I'll go. Bout time I ate something besides lizards and cactus." he smiled and started packing his stuff.

I rolled my eyes as me and Scootaloo waited for him to finish on the side of the hill.

"...Could you go any slower? I swear, Apple Bloom's grandma could pack faster than you." Scootaloo frowned.

I started snickering.

"I see what you did there."

"Ah, hold your damn horses!" Bill spat.

Seconds later, he came back with a backpack, filled almost completely to the brim. He walked past me and Scootaloo and took out a map.

"Alright, if we're gettin' outta here, we should go west."

"West?" I asked.

"West." he replied.

"West?" Scootaloo asked.

"West!" he glared at us.

West. It was extremely boring. Of course, though, if you call climbing tons of hills fun, you would've had a blast hearing about that. But eventually we ended up in the beaten up old town of El Paso. It was not at all how I remembered it. I had used to live here as a child and I had loved it; but this, it had looked like a bomb had hit it.

A bomb.

"W-what's that?" Scootaloo asked, pointing a hoof at the broken down city.

"That there, little missy, is El Paso! Now known to us survivors as, 'No Paso'! That's 256.3 square miles of broken down houses, factories, stores and many, MANY Mexican restaurants." Bill grinned.

"That's also where me and my parents used to live."

Bill frowned.

"Still there?"

I shook my head.

"Nope, they moved to Chicago."

"Chicago? Haven't heard of that place in forever! I heard they had a city still standing there."

I perked up.

"Then that's where we're going!"

Bill looked at me like I was stupid.

"Are you stupid?"

Scootaloo snickered.

"NO!"

"Well if you aren't stupid then you'd know how far Chicago is from here, and the odds of actually finding a car that's intact, the odds of gas, rust-"

"Well then why don't we fly there?" Scootaloo squeaked.

"....Fly there? No offense hun, but those wings o' yours are way to small to carry-"

"Not me, you dodo! A plane!" she turned to me, "I remember you told us that planes could carry TONS of people and could go super fast! We could get one we could go there!"

"...Y'know, I do remember there being an airport around here-" I said.

"Okay, hold up, hold up, hold up. First, let's say out of some miracle, we find a plane full of gas and completely untouched...who's gonna fly it?"

"...Well I could!" Scootaloo said.

Bill sighed.

"I'm not sure you've noticed before, but you're missing a big requirement for that job." Bill clapped once, "Hands."

Scootaloo pouted.

"The plane idea is pretty smart though. I'm sure the planes would've had a better chance at surviving than the cars." I said.

"What about gas? What if we can't find one? What do we do then?" he asked.

"We'll deal with it when it comes." I said.

"Welp, I'm the minority here, so there's no hope of changin' your minds, but all I can say is: this is a stupid idea."

"Well aware. So stupid it might work."

"Or get us killed." Bill muttered.

"Alright, let's get moving!" I smiled.

Bill nodded reluctantly and pulled out his revolvers as we walked down the hill. He inspected both of them in front of us and made sure they were loaded to the brim. I looked at the town again nervously and pulled my gun out too, making sure it was loaded and ready to fire. I'd never shot a gun before, and they actually scared me a bit, but I knew anything was possible in a big town like this.

And I knew this trip wouldn't be easy.