Wasteland Wanderers

Sunset Shimmer was never entirely sure what went through Twilight Sparkle’s mind when she went on an inventing frenzy, and right now was no exception; whatever she was working on in the school science lab as she and their other friends watched her, it looked almost like an old-fashioned radio. “Okay Twilight, I enjoy a good mystery as much as the next girl, but this is getting annoying; what are you working on?” she asked finally.

“Something that will make our job a lot easier.” Twilight smiled as she finished a final adjustment.

“I’ve already got a computer at my place to help me study and it looks a lot less ridiculous than this thing.” Rainbow Dash remarked.

“Oh, I-I dunno; I think it looks nice.” Fluttershy shrugged.

“Thanks Fluttershy, but it’s not a computer.” Twilight countered as she moved away from the device. “It’s a variation on the pendant I made for the Friendship Games, designed to track and analyze magic signatures.”

“So what, it’s a… magic radar?” Applejack asked.

“Eh, if you wanna call it that; sure.” Twilight shrugged. “If it works, it’ll help us track down possible magic events around town before they happen.”

“‘If’?” Rainbow asked.

“Well, I haven’t exactly had time to test it.” Twilight replied.

Rarity just smiled as she stepped forward. “No time like the present.”

“Guess that’s one way of saying it.” Sunset shrugged.

“Great.” Twilight smiled. “Now it’s specially designed to activate after a surge of magical energy, but it needs to be a big surge, so we’ll all need to channel the power from our geodes into this main receptor here.” She tapped the small dish on the center of the device’s main console.

“Alright, let’s light it up, ladies!” Pinkie smiled as the girls grouped around the device.

They all focused hard on the geodes strung around their necks and channeled the energy within into small glowing beams that shot into the dish, slowly powering it up with a low whirring whine that slowly grew louder as various relays on the device started blinking and beeping to life. “Alright, I think it’s working.” Twilight smiled. “Everyone stop.” The girls tried to stop their beams, but the magic just kept pouring on. Twilight started to get worried as she watched the power levels rise higher and higher. “Okay seriously, stop.”

“We’re trying; it’s not working.” Sunset assured as she struggled to step away from the device, but the beam seemingly anchored her in place.

“Twilight, is the detection system all you carried over from your amulet when you built this thing?” Rarity asked seriously.

“I swear it was. I don’t know what could be causing this.” Twilight was starting to panic now; the device was sparking in a way it really shouldn’t be and the beams seemed to be drawing the girls closer than they would like.

“Uh, Twilight? What’s happenin’ here?” Applejack asked seriously, trying to hide the fear in her voice.

“I don’t know!” Twilight yelled… though she quickly got the answer when the scanner seemed to self-destruct and in its place, appeared a strange wormhole that swiftly drew the girls straight through.

When they fell out the other side of the strange wormhole, the girls landed face-first into what felt like rough desert sand. “Ow!” Sunset groaned as she pulled herself up. When she opened her eyes, she was more than a bit surprised; the group were somewhere out in the desert in the middle of the night. “What the…?”

“What happened?” asked Rainbow.

“I don’t know. Maybe the machine interacted with the portal’s magic somehow and dropped us here?” Twilight suggested.

“Question is where is here?” Applejack asked and reached for her cellphone… which was when she remembered the girls had all left their phones on the table in the science room. “Great.”

“Okay, so we don’t know what happened or where we are. That’s just perfect.” Rainbow remarked.

“Indeed. I swear this sand is going to be a nightmare to wash out of my outfit.” Rarity grumbled as she looked around.

“Ooh, pretty lights!” Pinkie remarked as she looked across the desert. The others looked and saw what looked like a massive glimmering city in the distance.

“Well, that looks like as good a place to go as any.” Rainbow shrugged as she moved to stand up.

“Wait.” Sunset instructed and held her hand on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Up there.” She pointed up the nearby ridge and the group saw a group of people nearby who appeared to be doing something… with a person down on his knees.

Marty Barron groaned as he strained to wake up. Up until what must’ve been a few hours ago, he was just another courier for the Mojave Express running a package to New Vegas; all he wanted was to deliver his package and go home… and maybe hit a bar for a drink on the way. But he’d barely gotten to Primm when someone put a knot on the back of his head. He didn’t know who and he didn’t know why, but he got a few answers when he woke up. “You got what you were after, so pay up.” one voice ordered.

“You’re cryin’ in the rain, pally.” That voice seemed a lot smoother to Marty, but what had him occupied at the moment was that his wrists were tied. He struggled to try and break free, but his bonds wouldn’t budge.

“Heh. Guess who’s wakin’ up over here.” another voice smirked. Marty looked up and saw three guys surrounding him. The two on the sides were Great Khans judging by their outfits, but the guy in the middle… Marty wasn’t sure, but he was wearing a flashy checkered suit and smoking a cigarette.

He let out one last puff as he stomped out the cigarette in the sand. “Time to cash out.” he smirked as he approached Marty.

“Will you get it over with?” the Khan on his right asked impatiently before the guy in the suit raised his finger.

“Maybe Khans kill people without lookin’ ‘em in the face, but I ain’t a fink. Dig?” he insisted. The Khans seemed annoyed by this, but Marty was just confused.

“Who are you?” he asked.

The guy in the suit just reached into his jacket and reached out a small poker chip. “You’ve made your last delivery, kid.” Marty recognized that chip easily as his package, but he couldn’t do much to struggle against his bonds… which sucked because he really wanted to punch this guy and take that chip back. “Sorry you got twisted up in this scene.” The guy put the chip back in his jacket and pulled out a glimmering silver-plated 9-mil pistol. “From where you’re kneeling, must seem like an 18-karat run of bad luck.” He leveled his pistol at Marty’s brow and smiled. “Truth is… the game was rigged from the start.” With a twitch on the trigger, a bullet flew from the gun and hit Marty square in the face.

The gunshot terrified the girls beyond belief as they watched from their hiding space behind some nearby rocks as the kneeling form crumpled into the sand, unmoving. Then the two men to the sides of the man with the gun grabbed the form and tossed it into a hole nearby. “No,” Sunset realized slowly. “Not a hole… a grave.”

“We’ve gotta get out of here.” Twilight said simply, prompting agreement from the rest of the girls as they raced down the slope as quickly and quietly as possible, trying their best not to be seen by the men on the ridge. Wherever they were now, they knew one thing; they already didn’t like it. But what they didn’t know was… their time in this hell was only going to get worse from here.