Fallout Girls: Devastated Desert

Chapters

The Jump
Welcome to the Wasteland
Angry Bear
Burning Sodom
Wasteland Wanderers
Harper's Shack
Learning of the Land
Pain
Death of Democracy and Innocence

The Jump

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 amulet 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 the surge needs to be big, 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, concerned that this might have been some sort of magic collection system.

“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 was 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 cell phone… 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 nickel-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.

Welcome to the Wasteland

The girls had never been the type to run from fights like this, but then again, they’d never fought anyone who used a real gun before. Even with their magic, they knew they were out of their league. Sunset especially was traumatized by what they’d just seen and wanted to be nowhere near the site, so they hightailed it out of the small town down the ridge as quick as they could.

The late-night air chilled the girls to the bone as they moved along the broken road out of town, but Twilight grew more and more concerned. “Sunset, we can’t keep this pace up for long.” she pointed out. “We need sleep.”

“An’ Ah know fer a fact we ain’t gon’ last an hour in the desert without water.” Applejack agreed.

“Our priority is to find a way back to our own world,” Sunset argued. “We can worry about water when we absolutely have to.”

“I don’t think we’ll have to worry for long.” Rainbow pointed out. “There’s a shack over there.” The girls looked and saw a small ramshackle shack on the far side of an intersection near a scorched road sign.

“Um, what if there’s someone home?” asked Fluttershy.

“I think we’ll have to risk that.” Sunset shrugged as she moved to the door and knocked on it. “Hello?! Is anyone in there?” No one answered, and the door appeared to be unlocked. She pushed it open, being sure to watch the rusty metal and splintering wood as she opened the shack… finding nothing inside but junk against the right wall, a ham radio and blown-out computer on a table in the middle of the room, and a bank of lockers against the far wall.

Twilight immediately turned on the ham radio and tried talking into it. “Hello? Hello, is anyone out there? Can anybody hear me?” No response, so Twilight just turned the radio off in annoyance. “Figures.”

“Check the lockers; there might be supplies in there,” Sunset ordered.

“Should we really do that?” Fluttershy asked in concern. “I mean, I don’t want to rob anyone.”

“I don’t think there’s anyone staying here to rob.” Twilight pointed out. “The latch is rusted away and I didn’t see any sign of anyone being here before us.”

“Guess the lockers are free pickin’s though.” Applejack shrugged as she opened all the lockers one after the other.

“Ain’t much here; just this,” she noted and retrieved a revolver, holding it cautiously by the cylinder like she didn’t want to touch the handle.

Twilight seemed a bit uncomfortable at the sight of the gun. “I want to say we won’t need that, but… we might run into those guys from that town again,” she said simply.

“Say no more.” Applejack nodded and slipped the barrel of the gun under her belt, pouring about ten bullets into her pocket.

“Hang on, there’s a key here,” Twilight noted, quickly finding a key behind the ham radio which she handed to Applejack. “Check the other locker.”

Applejack quickly did so and gave a surprised whistle. “Hot diggity, would ya look at this?” The locker was filled with ammunition and had a simple one-shot shotgun, which Applejack quickly secured.

“Two weapons,” Twilight noted. “Guess that leaves us with a question; who uses what?”

“Ah'll keep the pistol if no one minds," Applejack noted, holding the shotgun forward. “One of y'all can take this one.”

“I'll take it.” Sunset shrugged as she accepted the shotgun from Applejack and a few shells, one of which she promptly loaded into the shotgun’s chamber. She got some disconcerted looks from the other girls at that, but she just shrugged. “Just being cautious. We might need it.”

“I’m sorry; can we get back to the big question here?” Rainbow asked seriously. “Where are we? And how did we get here?”

“The magic tracker must’ve malfunctioned somehow.” Sunset theorized. “That’s the only explanation. The question is why?”

“Great. Yet another of my experiments gone wrong.” Twilight rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Darling.” Rarity assured. “You couldn’t have known what would happen when we turned on the machine.”

“Yeah, and we definitely don’t blame you,” Rainbow assured. “Trust me; if we held a grudge every time one of your experiments blew up in our faces – literally or figuratively – we wouldn’t hang out as much as we do.”

“Somehow I don’t think saying that helps.” Sunset pointed out.

“Hey, gimme a break; you’re the one holding the shotgun,” Rainbow remarked in seeming annoyance.

“I’m trying not to think about that.” Sunset shrugged, her hands obviously shaking as she held the weapon at the ready.

“Do you… want someone else to take it?” Twilight suggested.

“No. No, I… I should take it.” Sunset shrugged as she held the gun, her hands still shaking. “I don’t want anyone else to have to deal with this.”

“Yeah, we’ve got enough to deal with right now,” Rainbow remarked. “Like – again – where are we?”

“I don’t know. The tracker must’ve drawn on some of the portal’s magic somehow.” Sunset theorized.

“So you think it shot us into another world?” asked Rainbow.

“That would make sense.” Twilight shrugged. “What doesn’t is why we were sent to this world, whatever it is.”

“Are we really sure we can find something in that city to send us back?” asked Sunset.

“It’s our only lead. A city like that has to have some sort of technology that can get us home.” Twilight shrugged.

“Alright, we’ll camp here as best we can and head out for the city in the morning,” Applejack suggested.

“Not gonna be very comfortable,” Rainbow remarked, looking around at the absence of any beds. Then she saw an empty bottle on the table and smirked at the label. “Hey Sunset, check this out.” Sunset quickly caught the bottle when Rainbow tossed it her way and saw it was for something called Sunset Sarsaparilla. “All it needs is your face on the label.”

“Oh, ha-ha.” Sunset rolled her eyes as she tossed the bottle into the pile of junk in the corner, the glass shattering safely away from the group. She walked over to the desk in what looked like annoyance and grabbed up the bottlecap, which had a small blue star on the underside. She shook her head and slipped it into her jacket pocket.

Out of nowhere, Pinkie’s knee started pinching and she fell to the floor on her side. “Oh, that’s not good,” she remarked, confusingly calmly. Everyone at CHS knew about Pinkie’s infamous Pinkie Sense, and they weren’t about to distrust it now… especially not when Applejack heard someone’s footsteps in the sand outside.

Cautiously, Applejack pulled the revolver from her belt and held it at the ready, her own hand shaking as she held the gun at the ready and slowly cracked the door open… before she saw two large men outside in strange blue outfits holding rifles, which prompted Applejack to immediately slam the door shut. “Nope!” she announced and pulled a large crate over from the side of the shack, barring the shack door.

“Hey, what’s the big idea?” one of the men outside asked as he knocked on the door.

“What’s wrong, AJ?” asked Twilight.

“We’re trapped,” she said simply.

“What? No, you’re not.” the other man outside assured. “We ain’t gonna hurt ya.”

“Ya promise?” asked Applejack.

“Promise.” the first guy assured.

Sunset was less sure as she moved to the door. “Prove it. You drop your weapons, we’ll drop ours.”

“Deal.” the first guy nodded, followed by the sounds of two rifles dropping into the sand.

Sunset nodded to Applejack as she set her shotgun against the wall. Applejack wasn’t sure, but carefully moved the crate away from the door, setting the revolver on top of it as Sunset opened the door to see the two men… who appeared surprised.

“Whoa! What’n the holy world of fuck kinda mutants are you?” the first guy asked, making the girls all cringe at the foulness of his language.

“What’re you talking about?” asked Sunset.

“Well, ya ain’t ghouls or supermutants, but no one in the Mojave looks like that without bein’ some sort of mutant.” the first guy remarked.

“Mojave… is that what this place is called?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, where the hell have you been; California?” the second guy asked.

“No way, Matt; look at ‘em. Barely any dirt.” the first guy pointed out. “You think they could’ve made it all the way here from California lookin’ like that?”

“Look, we don’t want no trouble,” Applejack assured. “We’re just lookin’ to reach that city over yonder.” She pointed over her shoulder to the spire on the northeast horizon.

Matt glanced and appeared surprised. “You’re tryin’ to get to New Vegas? Pfft; good luck. You’d be lucky if you made it half a mile goin’ up that way.”

“Nah Matt, they’d be lucky if they got past us.” the other guy smirked.

“Gentlemen please, we’ve said we don’t want trouble.” Rarity argued.

“Well, you definitely ain’t from round here.” the second guy smirked, clearly referring to her accent. “But if you really wanna move on, you gotta pay the toll.”

“Toll?” asked Twilight.

“That shack? Everything from there to Scorpion Gulch out east is our territory.” Matt pointed out. “You wanna pass through our territory, you gotta pay a toll; simple as that.”

“We could always just… not go through your territory. Just a thought.” Rainbow shrugged.

“No-no, too late for that.” the second guy argued. “That shack’s on our land, and you passed through when you went in.”

“Oh come on, that’s the flimsiest excuse I’ve ever heard,” Sunset remarked in annoyance.

“Doesn’t matter; you still gotta pay.” the second guy smiled, his eyes obviously locking onto the geodes. “How about those shiny things you’re wearin’ there?”

“Over our dead bodies.” Rarity said pointedly… prompting the second thug to suddenly crack his knuckles threateningly.

“That’s fine by me” he assured.

“Ya had to say that, didn’t ya Rarity?” Applejack asked in annoyance.

“Whoa-whoa-whoa, calm down.” Twilight tried to negotiate. “I’m sure there’s something else we can pay you with.”

“Ooh! I know!” Pinkie smiled and reached into her hair, suddenly pulling out a small plastic box containing four fresh cupcakes. “I totally forgot those were in there.”

The thugs just looked at Pinkie Pie in confusion, but Rainbow leaned into their peripheral and shook her head. “Don’t question it,” she said simply.

Sunset didn’t seem to mind; if all it took to get the girls out of jams like this was Pinkie Pie bribing people with sweets to leave them alone, they would be on easy street. “It isn’t much, but…” Pinkie shrugged. “Well, I bet good food is hard to come by.”

Matt was still confused but accepted the box from Pinkie Pie without any further questions. He looked at the confections through the plastic and raised an eyebrow. “Alright, this oughtta square your toll. For now.”

“Thank you kindly.” Applejack nodded. “So why shouldn’t we go up that way to New Vegas?”

“The NCR’s up that way, and they don’t take too kindly to folks they don’t know.” the second guy pointed out. “Not to mention the Deathclaws.”

“D-D-Deathclaws?” Fluttershy stammered; even the name sounded terrifying to the girls.

“Nasty lizard motherfuckers almost as tall as this building that tear people apart if they get too close, even if they’re wearing armor,” Matt explained. “Believe me; I’ve seen it. A whole pack took over Quarry Junction up that way a few days ago; slaughtered a lot of the miners… and our friends.”

The girls appeared destroyed by that news; to see one’s own friends butchered in front of you… none of them could even imagine it. “I’m so sorry for your loss.” Sunset nodded.

“Appreciate it, kid.” Matt shrugged. “But yeah, if you wanna get to Vegas, you’re gonna have to go the long way around; follow the road south then loop northeast. There’s some of ours in Primm down that way; they’ll take care of ya.” He pointed down the highway to a town with what looked like a large roller coaster dominating the skyline.

“Thanks,” Applejack noted as she dipped back into the shack and grabbed the guns, handing Sunset the shotgun as she slipped the revolver into her belt.

The two thugs appeared surprised. “That’s all the weapons you have? Shit, you’re gonna get yourselves killed out there.” Matt remarked.

“Don’t worry; we can take care of ourselves,” Rainbow smirked. And though Sunset could tell she was putting on a brave face to try and seem tough to these two goons, she knew Rainbow was thinking the same thing as herself when she heard that; “Can we?”

“Alright, suit yourselves.” the other guy shrugged as he and Matt bent down to grab their rifles… letting the girls get a look at the lettering on the backs of their blue jackets.

“Hey, what’s that?” asked Rainbow.

“What?” Matt asked.

“That. On your jackets; NCRCF. What is that?” Rainbow asked.

Matt and his friend looked at each other cautiously, almost unsure of what to say. “Wait, NCR… you mentioned a minute ago that they were up the road,” Twilight remembered, pointing in the direction of New Vegas. “Who are they exactly?”

Matt glared up the ridge in annoyance. “New California Republic; big nation out west. Only out this far to find more resources and honest folks to exploit,” he remarked with an edge to his voice. “They’re the reason we both ended up with these outfits, courtesy of the NCR Correctional Facility.”

“‘Correctional’…” Rarity muttered before it struck her right between the eyes. “You’re… you’re criminals?!” The girls were more than surprised by that; this whole time, they’d been talking to two hardened criminals?

“Only as far as the NCR care.” Matt’s friend assured, though if he was trying to sound convincing, it wasn’t really working. “They brought us in from the west to work on the railroad lines as slaves to work off our sentences. Bunch of us busted out though, and we’re plannin’ on making this part of the wasteland our own.”

The girls grew worried as they looked at the convicts. On one hand, that did sound like Matt and his gang got the short end of the stick from the NCR, but on the other, they were still escaped criminals and the girls had no idea what they had been sent to prison for. For all they knew, these two could’ve been murderers or rapists; both things they wanted nothing to do with. “Well, we’ll uh… we’ll just let y’all get on with that then.” Applejack shrugged.

Matt seemed concerned and held his rifle ready. “Just one thing; if you tell the NCR where we are…”

“We won’t, I swear,” Sunset assured quickly, her nerves obvious in her voice. “Thank you for the directions, but we can handle things from here. Our lips are sealed, promise.” With that, the girls moved on down the road south toward Primm.

“We can’t seriously be letting them stay there.” Rarity objected.

“If we don’t, who knows what they’d do?” Sunset argued. “Besides, who knows how many of them there are?”

“More in Primm, that’s for sure.” Applejack pointed out.

“We’re not actually staying in that town, are we?” Twilight asked.

“Absolutely not.” Sunset agreed. “We’re looking for help we can trust not to hurt us in our sleep.”

“That’s if there is anyone in this desert we can trust like that,” Rainbow remarked.

“Hey, we got out of that fairly unscathed.” Twilight shrugged, pointing back at the shack.

Sunset couldn’t help but smirk and nod. “Okay yeah, that was a good move, Pinkie. Got anything else like that on you?”

“I think so.” Pinkie shrugged; even she barely knew what all she had in her hair.

“Well, make sure you have something on standby,” Sunset instructed. “If we can get out of trouble like that just by you throwing cupcakes at it, we’ll be just fine.”

That was when the girls heard a gun cock nearby. “That’s close enough!” a man bellowed, prompting all the girls to immediately stop in their tracks, seeing a man in some sort of uniform aiming an assault rifle at the girls.

“I don’t think cupcakes are gonna get us outta this one, Sunset.” Applejack pointed out. Sunset hated that she couldn’t argue with that.

Angry Bear

Sunset would later admit that she was more terrified now than she had been in a long time; she’d faced down a lot of things in her life, but never a gun. “Primm is off-limits, especially to mutants.” the soldier warned, leveling his gun at the girls.

“Please, don’t hurt us,” Sunset pled as she set the shotgun down and raised her hands. “We just wanna pass through on our way to New Vegas. We’re not mutants.”

The soldier didn’t seem convinced. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t take your word on that,” he said threateningly.

“Really? Simply judging us by our looks? How shallow can you be?” Rarity asked haughtily. “I admit this dirt isn’t exactly flattering, but it doesn’t make us slobs.” She cast a quick glance over at Rainbow Dash. “Well… not all of us.”

“Hey!” Rainbow snapped in annoyance.

The soldier seemed confused. “There’s an interesting accent. Where’re you comin’ from?”

“Canterlot City,” Twilight answered quickly. “We’re trying to get back there now.”

“Never heard of it.” the soldier remarked.

“It’s on the east coast,” Rainbow said simply.

“Bullshit. East coast died in the war.” the soldier countered.

“‘War’?” Applejack asked, earning only a shrug from Rarity and a scowl from the soldier.

“Sir… please…” Fluttershy shuddered in fear.

The soldier glanced at her and the frightened and battered expressions of the other girls and sighed, lowering his gun. “Sorry. Just… can’t be too careful, especially not around Primm.”

“Yeah, we heard.” Sunset nodded as she picked up her shotgun, making sure not to hold it threateningly. “So, can we go through?”

“Wouldn’t advise it; between the escaped convicts in town and the two tribes of raiders in this area, I’d say you’d be safer headin’ back up to Goodsprings.” the soldier advised.

“That may be, but if we don’t get to New Vegas, we might never find our way home,” Twilight assured.

“If there was a safe route to the east coast from New Vegas, I’m pretty sure the NCR would’ve heard about it by now.” the soldier shrugged.

Sunset’s eyes popped a bit when he said that, still thinking about what Matt and his buddy had said back at that shack. “It’s… sort of a secret route.” she shrugged vaguely. “People in Canterlot are the only ones who know about it.”

“Can we please discuss this in the morning?” Rarity pointed out; it was still very late at night.

“I’m with ya there, Rarity; Ah’m bushed.” Applejack agreed.

“Yeah, my watch is almost over anyways.” the soldier shrugged. “We have a camp down the road; I’ll talk to Lieutenant Hayes about letting you stay there for the night. Just stay on the west side of the overpass if you don’t wanna get shot.”

“Thanks for the advice.” Sunset nodded as she and the girls walked down the road, jumping a rusty crush barrier and passing a small bunker of galvanized metal… and half a bus.

“Jeez. What happened to this world?” Rainbow asked as she looked at the bus… and the blasted-out ruined buildings lining the road.

“Ah’m not sure Ah wanna know.” Applejack shrugged. Eventually, the road led to a small line of wooden barriers blocking the road before a few medium tents.

“Wait here; I’ll talk to the lieutenant.” the soldier ordered and walked past the barriers into the camp toward the larger tent.

Sunset looked around and saw a large flag above the camp; a two-headed bear against a simple background and familiar text on the bottom; New California Republic. “Well… at least we’re not with criminals anymore.” she shrugged.

“I wouldn’t exactly call this an improvement.” Rarity pointed out.

“At least we’ll have beds. Better than crashing on the floor in that shack.” Rainbow shrugged.

Twilight wasn’t sure; if that sentry mistook them for mutants, then this lieutenant might think the same. And when the sentry stepped from the tent with a man wearing a beret who looked at the girls quite curiously, it cemented that belief for her.

Eventually, the man strode over with a serious look on his face. “I’m Lieutenant Hayes of the New California Republic Army, 5th Battalion, 1st Company. Perez here says you want to take a pitstop in our camp on the way to Vegas.”

“If that’s alright with you, Lieutenant,” Sunset said nervously. “Honestly, we’ve… we’ve been on the move all night; we need somewhere to rest.”

Hayes glanced back at Perez, who just shrugged. The lieutenant sighed as he looked back at the girls. “One night,” he said, pointing at the other tent. “There’s open bunks in the other tent; just keep your hands on your gear and be ready to move by morning.”

“Thank you,” Sunset said truly as she and the girls slipped past the barricades.

“Just one question first.” Hayes stopped them with his statement. “What’s up with… this?” He gestured to the girls’ hair.

Sunset just glanced at the other girls and shrugged. “We were born like this. All of us.”

“Alright.” Hayes shrugged and let the girls go to the tent.

The bunks were crammed pretty close together and looked really filthy, but the girls didn’t have many options, so they grouped up in a few bunks in the corner and tried to keep their discussions quiet so as not to alert any of the other soldiers in the barracks. “Well, that could’ve gone worse.” Twilight shrugged.

“We’re not actually serious about New Vegas, are we?” Rainbow asked.

“It’s the only lead we have.” Twilight shrugged. “There has to be something there that can get us back to our world.”

“And if there isn’t?” asked Rainbow.

“Then we’ll figure something else out.” Sunset insisted. “For now, let’s just… try to get some sleep. We’re probably gonna need it.” She had no idea how right she was as the girls all bunked in for the night. The wasteland was about to get a lot worse than Sunset could’ve predicted.

Burning Sodom

Sunset was the first to wake up, rather suddenly as she’d had a nightmare about that man getting shot. She looked around and saw she and the others were still in the tent… and the shotgun was next to the ratty bedroll she was sleeping on. “So much for hoping all of that was just a bad dream.” she groaned as she stood up, carefully picking up the shotgun as she walked out of the tent.

Somehow the ruins of Primm looked worse to her in the early morning sun. As did the rest of the desert; scorched sand, broken roads, and damaged buildings as far as the eye could see. “What happened to this world?” she said quietly, looking around at the devastation.

“What didn’t happen?” a soldier shrugged as he walked past, heading toward one of the broken buildings.

Sunset was almost afraid to ask what that meant, so she just looked out of the ruins and tried to catch sight of the tower in Vegas the girls were heading toward.

It was hard to spot in the morning sun, but it was definitely there… much further than it was yesterday. It depressed Sunset to know they were so far from their objective, and that they would only get further from it before they got anywhere closer. The other girls came out in short order and all looked out at the destroyed town alongside her, no doubt thinking the same thing as her.

That was when Hayes and Perez walked over, Perez holding a small bag. “This should be enough supplies to get you to Nipton; it’s the closest independent settlement,” Perez explained.

“‘Independent’?” asked Rarity.

“As in not under the jurisdiction of the NCR or the Legion.” Hayes pointed out.

“Legion?” asked Twilight.

“Slavers,” Perez answered simply. “Whole nation of ‘em out east.” Sunset was disgusted; apart from King Sombra’s reign over the Crystal Empire, ponies in Equestria had never even thought about slavery since long before the age of Princess Platinum.

Hayes clearly saw the disgust in her eyes and raised his hand. “Relax, kid; you don’t have to worry. No Legion for miles out here; every flag with a bull is on the east side of the Colorado River, and those who follow it along with them.” He casually pointed east to make his point.

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that, Lieutenant.” a soldier nearby remarked. “I’ve heard a lot of guys up at the outpost say stuff about Legion scouting parties west of the river.”

“What have I told you boys about listening to rumors, Santiago?” Hayes said pointedly.

“Hey, don’t look at me, sir; it’s just merchants’ stories I heard from Lacey.” Santiago shrugged as he checked his rifle.

“Pfft. Lacey. Remind me to have a word with her if we ever get back up there.” Hayes rolled his eyes as he looked back at the girls. “Look, just head south ‘til you reach the intersection at the foot of the mountain. If you need any more supplies by then, head to the summit and tell the guys at the outpost I sent you. After that, head east from the intersection, and you should reach Nipton just fine but be careful all the same; there are raiders in the area, not to mention the wildlife. Good luck out there.”

“Thanks. Something tells me we might need it.” Sunset shrugged as the group left the ruins of Primm behind and wandered into the desert.

But they didn’t wander long; they only got near a small junction in the broken road before Applejack spoke up. “Better break here; see what kinda supplies we got,” she pointed out.

No one could argue with that, so they walked to the side of the road and opened up the bag Perez had given them… and found a strange mix of items; filthy boxes of preserved food, a few canteens of fresh water, strange ampules of medical-seeming equipment, and some boxes of ammo for their weapons. The girls were more than a bit put off by the reminder that they were carrying guns – not that they’d forgotten; they were heavy in their hands – but they knew Hayes and his men had given them this equipment to help them.

“So… are we gonna be okay out here?” Rainbow asked bluntly as she examined some of the food.

“What do you mean?” asked Twilight.

“I mean… this isn’t our world. We don’t know how things work here.” Rainbow shrugged.

“I normally hesitate to agree with Rainbow Dash, but she has a distinct point in this case.” Rarity agreed, trying to ignore the annoyed look Rainbow cast over at her. “After all, we saw a man get shot only last night, and we’ve almost been attacked ourselves twice. And with word of what’s ahead…”

“I get what you’re saying girls, but we can handle it,” Sunset assured. “Fluttershy can talk the wildlife into letting us pass safely, and as long as we’re careful, we can make sure to avoid the raiders and the Legion.”

“Sunset’s right; we’ll be fine.” Pinkie smiled. “Besides, we’ve dealt with worse than this before and come out on top, right?”

“Ah don’t think fightin’ the Sirens or Gloriosa really compares to this, Pinkie.” Applejack pointed out, indicating over her shoulder to the desert, where what sounded like gunfire resounded in the distance.

“Maybe not, but a little optimism goes a long way.” Sunset nodded. “And something tells me we’re gonna need a lot of optimism if we want to survive this and make it back to our world.” As much as she tried to hide it, Sunset was still a bit nervous about the mention of slavers in the East, but she didn’t want her friends to know she was just as scared as the others.

She had basically declared herself their group’s leader since they landed in the desert, but she wasn’t sure she was really capable of handling a responsibility like that with everything happening. Still, she knew she was right about the optimism at least, so she stood up and held her shotgun at the ready. “Let’s get going. If we’re quick, we can probably reach Nipton by midday.”

“That suits me fine.” Rarity noted as she looked up at the unforgiving desert sun. “One would think the lieutenant would’ve supplied us with some sunscreen for our trek across the desert.”

“Something tells me all the sunscreen out here was used up a long time ago,” Twilight noted as the group packed up, ready to move out.

The march along the broken highway through the desert was brutal as the sun glared down on them, and the broken asphalt burned under their simple shoes as they approached a scorched building with boarded-up windows and rusted-out cars parked outside. “Ah don’t like the look o’ that,” Applejack remarked as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

“Me neither,” Sunset noted and gestured for the girls to all get low. They all crouched down in the sand and slunk cautiously along the road, trying to stick to whatever shadows they could find as they saw a few people in tattered leather and rusted metal armor with what looked like crude melee weapons and simple guns.

“Well, those folks don’t look too friendly,” Pinkie remarked.

“I think they might be some of those raiders Hayes warned us about,” Twilight remarked.

“I bet we could take ‘em,” Rainbow smirked as she cracked her knuckles.

Sunset just held her hand out to hold Rainbow back. “Easy. Let’s not fight anyone we don’t have to.” she pointed out.

“Well, what are we supposed to do; just wait out here until they go away?” asked Rainbow.

“I doubt that’s likely.” Twilight pointed out. “It looks like they’ve taken this place as sort of a stronghold. We might have to try bypassing them somehow.”

“How do you suggest we do that?” asked Rarity. “I don’t fancy the idea of getting attacked if we’re spotted.”

“We’ll need a diversion,” Sunset remarked.

“Or a shortcut.” Twilight smiled as she looked out straight east, seeing nothing but barren sand with what looked like a small island in the middle of it all – not a human soul in sight. “There must be a reason no one’s out there.”

“Besides the lack of cover and visible water?” asked Rarity.

“Wildlife.” Applejack realized. “There’s gotta be a reason Hayes warned us about the varmints out here.”

“But we don’t have to worry about that. Do we, Fluttershy?” Rainbow smirked, earning a concerned look from Fluttershy.

“Oh. Um, I don’t know…” she said nervously. “I mean, what if the animals out here don’t like me? I mean, it’s certainly possible.”

“Maybe, but I think I’d rather take my chances with animals than raiders.” Sunset pointed out.

“Fair point. I suppose it’s worth a try.” Rarity shrugged, glancing back at their shyer friend. “Assuming you’re up to it, darling.”

Fluttershy was still worried but sighed. “Okay. I’ll try.” she nodded.

“Alright. Let’s get moving.” Sunset nodded as the girls started racing out to the desert. A few of the raiders at the building appeared to spot the girls as they yelled and gunfire erupted from the building, but it only lasted a few seconds as the girls ran further into the desert.

“Why’d they stop?” Rainbow wondered as they ran, right before the ground in front of them erupted, revealing… ants the size of dogs?! “Never mind!”

“Oh, good heavens; that’s so much worse than I was expecting.” Rarity screeched as she stepped back, only for the girls to find themselves surrounded by these giant ants.

“Now would be a good time, sugarcube.” Applejack pointed out to Fluttershy quickly.

Fluttershy was almost too petrified with fear to do anything, but she knew it was the only way she and the others would live through it as she fumbled for her geode. She finally grabbed it and held on for dear life as she approached – she’d never admitted it to her friends, but she was freaked out enough by normal insects, so she certainly didn’t want to deal with giant-sized ones like this, but she knew she had to, so she started talking… well, stammering. “P-p-please, d-d-don’t mind us; we- we just want to pass through. We don’t want to hurt you, and we especially don’t want you to hurt us.”

The ants didn’t appear convinced – not that it’s easy to read what ants are thinking anyway – but eventually, they receded back into the sand and the girls all breathed a collective sigh of relief. “Guess they weren’t hungry,” Rainbow remarked.

“Let’s get outta here before they change their minds,” Sunset ordered quickly and the girls all raced to the small island, finding what looked like a blasted-out car against a large rock. “Huh. Well, no need to ask if anyone already owns this thing.” With that in mind, Sunset peeked into the car and only spotted a suitcase in the back seat.

Wrenching the rusted latches open, she found… pretty much nothing; an old dirty men’s suit and a few heat-cooked banknotes. “Well, that was a letdown,” she muttered as she pocketed the money and walked away, finding the other girls had climbed a small crystal staircase from Rarity up to the top of the rock. Quickly she followed them up and saw they were looking out over the rest of the desert… passing around a pair of dirty binoculars. “Where’d you get those?”

“Toolbox next to the car,” Twilight noted as she looked at the mountain in the distance they’d just bypassed. “Okay, Hayes said to head east once we hit the foot of the mountain. With this early turn to avoid those raiders, we should be able to make it to Nipton fairly easily soon.”

“They seemed sure them ants would do us in,” Applejack noted as she looked back at the raider camp across the ruined highway. “Ah reckon if we stay off the beaten path, we can avoid a lot more trouble like that.”

“Perhaps, but there’s always the risk of other wildlife out here being less amicable than those ants.” Rarity pointed out.

“What’s the plan, then?” asked Rainbow.

Sunset quickly took a turn with the binoculars and looked out across the desert, seeing a few ruined walls in the distance with what looked like more raiders around them. “Looks like another raider camp out there near the highway,” she noted as she lowered the binoculars and looked at the rocky edges of this sandy area, which curved around and led to the highway well beyond the raiders’ camp. “If we stick to the edges, I think we’ll be okay.”

“How does a place like this form out here anyway?” asked Pinkie.

“Looks like a dry lakebed,” Twilight noted as she examined the sand from the girls’ perch.

“The ‘dry’ aspect is what I’m worried about.” Rarity noted as she looked back through the girls’ bags and examined the small canteens. “We only have so much water.”

“Well, we’ll just have to hope we can find shelter in Nipton.” Twilight shrugged. “Maybe we can barter for more water there.”

“With what?” Rainbow asked. “We don’t have much, and what we do have, I’m pretty sure we need for ourselves.”

“I found some money in that suitcase; maybe we can just buy more supplies.” Sunset shrugged as she walked toward the edge of the rock… only to spot a bicycle-sized scorpion skittering around near the car. “Oh whoa, that’s terrifying.”

The other girls shared that sentiment as they looked down at the large arthropod. “Huh, looks like a bark scorpion. Just much bigger.” Twilight noted scientifically before the scorpion hissed up at them. “And… much more aggressive.”

“Ugh, I don’t even wanna think about what getting stung by that thing could do to you,” Rainbow shuddered as she looked at the beast’s massive stinger.

“Can you understand what it’s saying, Fluttershy?” asked Sunset.

Fluttershy just nodded lowly. “I understand it just fine,” she said with a strange edge to her voice.

“Yeesh. That bad, huh?” Rainbow remarked.

“Well, we’re not getting down from here any time soon,” Sunset remarked.

“Good news is it doesn’t look like this feller wants to come up here,” Applejack noted as she looked down at the scorpion.

“As much as I enjoy sunbathing, darlings, I’d rather do it in a more controlled environment.” Rarity pointed out. “And certainly not when there’s a massive and apparently rather rude scorpion skulking around me.”

“Well, he’s gotta get bored eventually.” Rainbow shrugged as she lay down on the rock. “Let’s just wait him out and then make a run for it.”

That gave Sunset an idea as she looked through the binoculars again. “Maybe we can skip ahead a bit in that plan.” she smiled, earning confused looks from the group before she looked down at Rainbow Dash. “How fast do you think you can carry us to that turn in the road with your superspeed?”

Rainbow sat up and looked through the binoculars at the turn Sunset was talking about; it was probably a few yards away from the raider camp, and certainly a decent run from their current position. “If I push it? Probably a minute or two.” Rainbow shrugged as she looked between her friends. “Might have to take you one at a time though; I don’t think I can carry much more than that.”

“What about the raiders?” Fluttershy asked in worry. “Won’t they see us?”

“They’ll see Rainbow’s contrail.” Twilight corrected. “And out here, it could very easily be dismissed as a mirage.”

“Well, we’ve already used some of our powers.” Rarity shrugged. “May as well go all the way.”

“Let’s just make sure to use them sparingly, and only when people can’t clearly see what we’re doing,” Sunset advised. “We already got mistaken for mutants by those convicts and Hayes’ men; we don’t want to freak anyone out.”

“Alright then, who’s goin’ first?” Rainbow asked as she stood up and stretched.

The Jackal Camp at the Nipton Road pit stop was fairly quiet in the morning – just the camp leader and a few guys awake at this hour in the morning still at camp while the others were out on morning patrol along their little stretch of road. The boss was just checking the sights on his repeater rifle by looking out across the old Ivanpah dry lake when he saw what looked like a rainbow-colored blur shooting across the lakebed. “What the fuck…?” he muttered and pinched his eyes to try and clear them before he returned his gaze to the desert, where he saw the blur racing across the sands a few more times. “Grub!”

“What?” one of the other thugs asked, clearly annoyed.

“How many times do we have to have this conversation, Grub? Don’t fuckin’ spike the food with Psycho.” the boss scowled.

“Fuck are you talkin’ about?” Grub asked as he looked up at the boss. “I haven’t had any Psycho on me all week.”

“Yeah? Then why the fuck am I seein’ that?” the boss asked as he pointed out into the desert… at nothing? “What the-?” He looked hard, but still couldn’t see the blur no matter what.

Grub looked and just shrugged. “Think the heat’s finally getting to ya, boss.” he shook his head as he returned to his makeshift bunk. And the boss couldn’t help but wonder if he was onto something.

Rainbow was more than a bit winded as she bent over at the curve in the road; running back and forth six times across the lakebed in this searing desert sun carrying one of her friends had been more tiring than she’d expected, even with her super speed. “Whew…” she panted. “Think they saw us?”

“Don’t think so,” Pinkie smiled. “Nice work, Dashie.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Rainbow panted in exhaustion, her sweat cooking through her shirt. Applejack saw this clearly and handed her one of the canteens, letting her get a powerful swig that left her gasping for air when she handed it back. “So what now?”

“Well, that shortcut made us up some good time,” Twilight noted as she adjusted her glasses and looked up the small slope that clearly led to the town. “We can probably make it into Nipton in a few minutes if we’re quick.”

Just then, the wind shifted to blow toward the girls and Sunset smelled something. Something foul. “Ugh! Guh, what’s burning?” she asked, more repulsed than ever.

The other girls smelled it as well and were equally disgusted. “Phoo-wee!” Applejack remarked as she fanned her face with her hat. “Smells like tires and overdone barbecue. And bad meat at that.”

“Where’s it coming from?” Rainbow asked as she pinched her nose.

Twilight wiped the tears of disgust from her eyes and followed the wind direction to where the stench was coming from… and her eyes went wide. “Nipton…” she whispered in fear.

The other girls quickly forgot about the stench on the wind and followed Twilight’s gaze, all seeing the same dark clouds of smoke rising from the town in the distance. “The town is burning…” Rarity said in fear.

“We should search for survivors,” Sunset said quickly and moved to start running.

“Whoa-whoa-whoa, simmer down there, Sally.” Applejack stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “What happened to bein’ careful about how folks see us?”

“That was before we saw that the town we’re heading to was on fire.” Sunset corrected. “Come on, there are people who need help – are we just gonna leave them?”

“Certainly not.” Rarity countered. “But even so, I must suggest we approach with a sense of subtlety.”

Suddenly Rainbow Dash was knocked to the ground, rubbing her butt. “OW! What the heck, Pinkie?!” she asked in annoyance.

“Pinchy knee, pinchy knee!” It wasn’t just pinchy this time – she was kicking so much, it looked like her shin was about to fly off.

“That’s a bad sign,” Twilight noted in worry.

“Still, the survivors might need our help. We’ll tread carefully.” Sunset insisted as she led the group toward Nipton. As they approached, the stench got worse and the source became clear – there was a large pile of burning tires with what looked like a scarecrow in the middle on the left side of the road as they walked toward the sign… and they were forced to drop into the dirt to avoid eye contact with a few soldiers wearing what looked like desiccated football pads.

“Gonna guess these guys ain’t NCR,” Applejack remarked in worry.

The screams from within the town helped make that clear. “What tipped you off?” Rainbow asked sarcastically as she cracked her knuckles. “C’mon, let’s go kick some butt.”

“Wait,” Twilight said quickly, stopping Rainbow with a hand on her shoulder. “Look.”

The girls followed her finger… and were frightened; there atop one of the buildings behind the tire fire was a bright red banner with a gold bull dead-center. “The Legion…” Sunset said in fear… which only got worse when she looked closer at the scarecrow in the fire and immediately felt like puking.

It wasn’t a scarecrow; it was a skeleton crucified on what looked like a dismantled electrical pole. “We have to go. We have to go right now,” she said firmly. “Make for the next nearest town.”

“What about the survivors?” asked Fluttershy.

“I doubt there are any survivors, and we don’t want to join them.” Sunset insisted, quickly scrambling to her feet with her friends close behind her.

Quickly, they snuck along the right side of the main road hiding behind junk and blasted fences, only chancing glances to make sure they were still safe… only to see the Legion soldiers crucifying or burning more people, all of which only made them feel sicker and sicker. Sunset was especially repulsed; slavery was abolished in Equestria, but this sort of barbarism was completely unheard of and made her wretch just thinking about it. And as much as she wanted to do something about it, she knew the Legion outnumbered their group.

Eventually, the girls came to another large tire fire at the end of the main road, piled up on a toppled tree along with more fresh burning bodies. “Rarity, quick,” Sunset ordered.

Rarity almost didn’t want to, but it was the fastest and easiest way past so she conjured a small bridge of her gems over the fire. Once it was set, the girls all held their breath and pinched their noses as they ran over the bridge, the stench of the burning rubber and flesh burning their eyes and stinging their skin.

Once they were clear, Rarity quickly dispelled the bridge and they ran along the road, praying they didn’t run into any more Legion soldiers and leaving the screams of whatever damned souls were behind them to their fates as they ran into the sun-blasted desert.

Wasteland Wanderers

The retreat from Nipton was a rough one for the Rainbooms as they learned that not even supposedly secure towns were safe with the Legion attacking. And while they all detested the idea of going any further east – any closer to where the Legion had come from, for fear they may run into more of their forces – it was far too late to turn back; they had to get to New Vegas and find some way of getting home.

Thankfully, just as they were leaving Nipton and passing a rusted sign that read “Welcome to Nevada”, Applejack spotted some small godsend. “Train tracks.” Sure enough, a railroad crossing stood just beyond the sign with the rail line running north to south across the road. “That’s gotta go somewhere.”

“And anywhere is better than that.” Rarity remarked as she looked back at Nipton, and the Legion flags flying over town amid the smoke… and the pained screams of those poor unfortunate souls left to die in the town.

“I still say we should’ve helped them,” Fluttershy noted as the girls walked along the tracks.

“I’m with Fluttershy; we could’ve handled them.” Rainbow pointed out.

“With only two guns and a fistful of ammo for each?” Applejack countered, a hand on her revolver. “Naw, I doubt we would’ve stood a chance.”

“We have our superpowers, don’t we?” Rainbow argued. “I could run rings around those guys before they even knew what was going on.”

“And maybe gotten hurt in the process.” Sunset pointed out. “I don’t want us to risk getting into fights unless we’re positive we can win. And if we can avoid fighting altogether, then that’s just a bonus in my book.”

“I can’t but agree Darling.” Rarity nodded, wiping her brow with a small handkerchief. “Still, I hope we find civilization soon. Anything for a reprieve from this blasted sun.”

“You’re not wrong there.” Twilight agreed, looking tentatively up toward the sun which glared down on the scorched desert as they hiked along the tracks. “If we can’t at least find some safe shade, I’d say major sunburns are the least of our concerns. Heatstroke also springs to mind, and none of us want that.”

That was when the girls heard high-pitched yipping howls further up the canyon, instantly prompting Sunset to ready her shotgun. “As opposed to gettin’ mauled by coyotes?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that.” Pinkie smiled across at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy swallowed nervously as she strode to the front of the group as they approached what looked like a small den-like cave in the cliff face, surrounded by a small pack of scruffy-looking coyotes. Fluttershy grasped her Geode and felt her magic activate as she approached, hearing the coyotes growl lowly. “Shh. It’s okay; we’re not going to hurt you,” she assured. “We’re just passing through to find somewhere safe.” One of the coyotes growled lowly and yapped at Fluttershy, before it moved aside and let her see a small litter of pups behind it. “Ohh. You poor babies.” She quickly stood up and turned back to her friends. “He says they were forced out of their den by some sort of… monster. They’ve been too scared to go back inside in days; the pups are hungry.”

“Think we can spare some food?” Sunset asked.

“Ah think so.” Applejack shrugged as she checked their supply bag, finding a very curious-looking cut of cooked meat. “Don’t know what kinda critter this came from, but if it’ll help…” With little ceremony, she tossed the meat into the sand in front of the coyotes, who all voraciously tore in.

The large leader of the coyote pack yapped happily at this gift and rubbed its head up against Fluttershy’s leg in gratitude. “Oh, you’re welcome. Is there anything else?” The coyote immediately yapped in acknowledgment, but Fluttershy appeared a bit nervous by what it apparently said. “Oh. Um… o-okay.”

“What is it?” asked Sunset.

“He… wants us to deal with the monster in the den,” Fluttershy answered. “And drag the…d-dead person out.”

“Dead person?” Rarity asked in surprise. “Goodness, someone died down there?”

“B-But he swears they didn’t do it. The monster did.” Fluttershy assured.

“Well, we may as well.” Twilight shrugged, looking at her friends. “I hate to say this Sunset, but I think it might be best if you and Applejack took the lead. You’re the only ones with weapons.”

“Actually, I was gonna suggest you and Rarity go first. You’ve got the best defensive powers.” Sunset pointed out. “AJ and I will be right behind you.”

“Mm, good point.” Twilight nodded, glancing over at Rarity. “You for it?”

“I suppose so.” Rarity shrugged, glancing back at the others. “You three stay here and keep watch. If anyone or anything comes down the line, I for one expect a warning.”

“Relax; we got your backs.” Rainbow nodded as she leaned against the rocks.

Cautiously, the four crept down into the den and looked around. Almost immediately, they saw a person’s body just inside the cave crumpled near a cow skeleton… and he looked rancid. “Ugh. Good gracious, how long has he been here?” Rarity asked in disgust.

“If those coyotes are to be believed, only a few days,” Twilight noted as she examined the body. The robes were intriguing and felt like they were made from some kind of old leather, but his flesh was what was really intriguing; it looked decayed somehow, with patchy hair around his damaged scalp… and his nose appeared to have rotted off, which was particularly gross. As she searched his body, she found something near his hand; a strange boxy assembly with a trigger and unusual foregrip, almost like a gun of some description. “Hmm…”

As she was examining the device, the group heard a strange guttural growl from deeper in the cave. “What was that?” Sunset asked, quickly holding her shotgun at the ready despite her hands shaking. Immediately, Rarity conjured a wall of diamond shields in front of the group as Applejack drew her revolver, steadying it in her hands. Despite never firing a gun before, she stood confidently as she looked down the sights… until the group saw their quarry; some sort of four-legged monstrosity with legs that looked like arms and feet that looked like hands, and an upper torso of a tortured-looking person with what looked like teeth or broken ribs sticking out the sides of its abs, and three large tentacle-like tongues where its mouth should be.

As soon as this monstrosity made eye contact with the girls, it let out another burbling snarl that made all four girls scream in terror. “Kill it, kill it, kill it!” Rarity demanded in disgust. Almost immediately, Sunset aimed for the monster’s face and pulled the trigger. The shotgun kicked hard into her shoulder, and the slug missed its mark by a mile. Applejack took a few shots, but with her hands shaking in fear, her bullets only hit the beast in its shoulder as it returned fire by spitting out some sort of disgusting green glop from its middle tongue. “For the love of everything, kill this demon!”

Twilight’s hands were quaking almost more than Sunset and Applejack’s as she aimed her strange weapon at the monster, but as soon as she pulled the trigger, a bright red blast of energy shot forth from the muzzle and hit the beast right in the side of its head before it turned its attention to the nerd. Looking at her hand and realizing exactly what she was holding, Twilight suddenly stood up and held her weapon forward, firing a few more shots at the beast which impacted it in the torso… before it simply clicked and nothing happened. “I’m out!” she said.

“Hold it steady; I’ll finish it!” Sunset ordered as she reloaded her shotgun. Twilight quickly activated her magic and held the monster still as if it were frozen, allowing Sunset to get up close and personal with it, putting the muzzle of her gun flush to its head. “Smile, freak.” One twitch on the trigger and the creature’s brains were splattered all over the wall, gore splashing from the hole as Twilight dropped it. “Well… that was disgusting.”

“Enough so that I believe we need never speak of this again.” Rarity pointed out succinctly.

“You ain’t gonna get any argument from me,” Applejack noted as she slipped her revolver back into her belt. Then she noticed Twilight looking at her weapon. “Whatcha doin’ there, sugarcube?”

“Trying to figure out how to reload this stupid thing,” Twilight noted as she examined her gun, finding a catch on the back of the gun. She pulled it and found what looked like the ammo slot… and what appeared to be three double-A batteries wrapped in heavy-duty electrical banding of some sort. “Hmm…” Curious, Twilight did her best to distance herself as she started searching the unfortunate corpse she’d taken the weapon from for more of these devices.

“What in heaven’s name, Twilight; you’re looting?!” Rarity asked in disgust.

“I don’t like that I’m doing this any more than you do Rarity, but I need more ammunition for this thing.” Twilight pointed out, retrieving about four more of these battery packs, which she quickly put into her pockets along with a few other things. “And either way, as much as I hate to sound cruel by saying this… he’s not using them.”

“Even so…” Rarity remarked; she was disgusted her friend was driven to such extremes.

Sunset sighed and shook her head. “I hate to say this, but Twilight’s onto something; we don’t know how scarce resources out here could be. If our only way to resupply between towns is scavenging and looting the dead, then… we might as well.”

“Well, we should at least make sure this feller’s laid to rest right and proper,” Applejack noted. “Dunno who he is, but he deserves that much, especially if we’re takin’ his stuff.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Sunset nodded as she dragged the man’s body into a laying position, crossing his arms in repose as she closed his eyes, shuddering in quiet disgust at the feel of his almost decayed eyelids. “Wherever you’re bound now, I hope you find happiness there.” She stood up and held her shotgun at the ready. “C'mon, let’s go.” With that in mind, the group slipped out of the cave and joined the others.

“Sounded kinda crazy in there. What happened?” Rainbow asked.

“Well, good news and bad news.” Twilight shrugged, holding up her pistol. “Good news; looks like this world has laser weaponry.”

“Aw what? Why do you get a laser gun?” Rainbow asked in annoyance.

“What’s the bad news?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well… we’ve figured out a quick way to get fresh gear.” Applejack shrugged. “And it’s… lootin’.”

“Looting? That’s messed up.” Rainbow remarked, before looking back down the tracks the way they came. “But… if it’s either that or choose how we die out here…”

“Exactly.” Sunset nodded. “None of us like it either, but it’s our only option.”

“Well, hopefully we won’t have to rely solely on plundering.” Rarity remarked. “If we can find somewhere to trade like civilized people, I’d much prefer it.”

“You and me both.” Sunset nodded. “Either way, the monster’s dead so the coyotes have their den back.”

Fluttershy smiled as she looked at the coyotes. “You hear that? Your home is safe; you can go back in.” The large coyote yapped happily and licked Fluttershy’s face, making her giggle.

That made Twilight realize something. “Oh no, Spike. I forgot we left him back at school. I hope he’s okay.”

“Oh, I’m sure your brother can take care of him until we get back, Darling.” Rarity assured.

“I just hope we can take care of ourselves to get back.” Sunset pointed out. “Let’s keep moving.” With that in mind, the girls left the coyote den behind them as they kept walking down the tracks, hopeful they would be okay.

After what felt like hours, especially with the sun bearing down on their heads, the Rainbooms finally staggered – exhausted, dehydrated, and hungry – to what looked like an abandoned railyard, with a busted handcar in the sand next to the track at the foot of a water tower. “What do you think the odds are there’s still water in there?” Sunset asked, only partly joking as she was dying of thirst.

“I wouldn’t bet on it.” Applejack shrugged as she handed Sunset a canteen from her pack. Sunset knew her body needed more than the small swig she took, but she also knew she had to think about her friends just as much as herself.

Her attention was then captured by the bare mattresses on the right-hand platform surrounded by bottle caps and empty bottles. “Looks like someone else set camp here before us,” she remarked as she clambered up onto the platform, helping her friends up behind her.

“Dun’ look like they’re ‘round anymore,” Applejack wasn’t wrong; the area around this railyard was just further empty desert as far as she could see – not a soul in sight.

“Well, that’s kind of a relief.” Rainbow sighed as she set her gear down. “I’ve had to pee for like half an hour now.”

“I don’t think the bathrooms are a good bet, even if the building weren’t barricaded,” Twilight noted, pointing to the boarded-up door behind the mattresses.

“I’ll just go in the sand; no one’s around to see.” Rainbow shrugged and simply walked off the platform, rounding a corner before she unzipped her skirt.

“Charming.” Rarity remarked offhandedly at the sound.

“Until we find an actual bathroom, I think that’s our only option,” Sunset noted.

“I must say, I’m not entirely fond of the ‘options’ we’ve been lumped with,” said Rarity. “Plundering the dead, doing our… ladies’ business… out in the open.”

“Here’s hopin’ we won’t have to get used to it.” Applejack shrugged as she sat down on one of the mattresses, kicking her boots off. “Either way, Ah think it’s ‘bout time we got a plan together before we keep movin’.”

“Agreed.” Twilight nodded, seeing a few containers on the shelves next to the mattresses. “Well… as long as no one else is using them…” She shrugged before she opened the two stacked metal boxes next to the shelf, but found they were both empty. The first aid box on the shelf only had a bottle of what looked like clean water in it along with an IV bag filled with a strange amber chemical with a crude name scrawled on the label: RadAway. “Hm…” She wasn’t sure what this stuff was, but it was probably worth hanging onto, so she pocketed it and handed the water to Applejack as she checked the toolbox next to the first aid kit. “Not much in the way of equipment.”

Applejack shrugged as she took the water bottle. Then she looked past the water tower and smiled. “Bet Ah could get that handcar back on the tracks.” It wasn’t much of a bet; with Applejack’s strength, she could easily rerail the thing.

“Maybe. But I don’t think we should go any further north.” Sunset suggested. “Not until we can hit a town and get some more supplies.”

“I think I saw a pass over there.” Pinkie smiled, pointing to a small opening in the rock not far from the railyard. “Maybe it’s a shortcut to somewhere.”

“Definitely worth checking out.” Twilight nodded. “But first…” She allowed herself to fall back onto one of the mattresses. “I think we could all use a breather.”

“You’ll get no argument from me on that, Darling.” Rarity agreed as she laid down on the other mattress.

Rainbow rejoined the girls quite satisfied as she laid down on the platform, her feet dangling off the edge. “You sure we shouldn’t keep going north, Sunset? Could be an easy way to get to Vegas,” she suggested.

“Yeah, or a trap. We don’t know what’s up that track, and until we do, I don’t think we should risk it.” Sunset noted.

“I guess. I just hope we can get some more good food before too long.” Rainbow shrugged.

“Well, I think I read somewhere that certain cacti are edible if we want to risk it.” Twilight pointed out.

“Hm. Well, that does sound rather interesting and exotic.” Rarity shrugged.

“Little desert foragin’ sounds like fun.” Applejack agreed.

“We’ll see what luck we have in that regard.” Sunset nodded. “For now… I’m a bit more worried about that pass. I’ve seen enough movies to know what usually happens in places like that.”

“Yeah, but how many people in those movies had superpowers?” asked Rainbow.

“Fair enough.” Sunset shrugged. “So you think we should risk it?”

“If it turns out bad, I can just run us away until we reach safety.” Rainbow shrugged.

“Perhaps we save the further adventure and madness until after we rest.” Rarity pointed out. No one argued with her as they all relaxed on the platform, simultaneously dreading and looking forward to what would come next for them.

Harper's Shack

It took some time to build up the nerve to actually enter the pass – and a good deal more time to scramble up the fallen radio tower that the girls saw was really the only entrance to the pass – but once they were in the ravine, they all got a very bad feeling. Sunset was right; this was exactly the kind of place for easy ambushes in movies, particularly Westerns. “Are you sure we should be going this way?” Twilight asked. “The tracks feel safer.”

“Honestly? I don’t know.” Sunset shrugged. “All I know is we’ve gotta find some shelter between here and Vegas. And some town to get supplies.”

“We ain’t got much to trade for ‘em though.” Applejack wasn’t wrong; the group barely had enough supplies to get them through the next few days. “Unless Pinkie can pull some valuable junk or more food out of her hair or something.”

“I don’t even know what I have in here.” Pinkie shrugged as she reached into her hair… the sound it made like metal junk clattering around in a bag alarming the other girls.

“Let’s… try to keep the noise down, shall we Darling? Just to be safe.” Rarity noted.

“Yeah, Ah don’t fancy the idea of anythin’ hearin’ us down here any more than anyone else.” Applejack agreed before she accidentally stepped on a rock the wrong way and turned her ankle, stumbling into a larger pointed rock next to her surrounded by what looked like sun-bleached bones. “Gah! Sweet and salty apple fudge!”

“Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked as she immediately moved to her friend’s side, checking her ankle.

“Yeah. Yeah, just… Ah think it’s just a sprain.” Applejack shrugged, leaning against the rock as Fluttershy took her boot off to examine it. Suddenly Applejack felt something in the rock shift against her shoulder. “Huh.” Curious, she examined the part of the rock she felt move and found a small cavity, which she opened to see… “Well, Ah’ll be. Someone hollowed this here rock out.”

This drew the girls’ intrigue. “Is anything in there?” Rainbow asked.

Applejack carefully reached in and smiled as she felt something. “Ah should think so.” With a grin, she pulled out a fistful of narrow bullets in long brass casings – nine by Sunset’s count.

Twilight examined the bullets with a discerning eye. “5.56s. Wrong caliber for both your guns.” she noted.

“You can tell that just by looking at them?” Sunset asked in confusion.

“It’s on the bottom of the casing,” Twilight noted, pointing to the tiny numbers inscribed on the bottom of each bullet casing – 5.56x45.

“Might as well hang onto ‘em anyway,” Rainbow remarked. “You never know.”

“S’pose so.” Applejack shrugged as she pocketed the bullets. Just then, the girls heard some sort of low reptilian growling from further down the pass, which made Fluttershy squeak in fear.

“Sh…” Sunset quietly shushed her team and gestured for them to walk lower, creeping along the pass past the rock… until they saw another rotten-like body lying on a rock up ahead. Tentatively – still feeling reasonably dirty about doing this – Twilight examined his body and found seven more of the battery packs her laser pistol used, carefully slipping them into her pocket as the girls crept onward, doing their best to ignore the bones around the body.

As they were about to leave the pass, they saw… something they could only describe as something resembling a demon stalking the small gully at the end of the pass; a massive bipedal reptilian beast easily twice Sunset’s height with large teeth in its maw, huge horns twisting from its temples, and five razor-sharp claws on each of its large hands.

The sight of the monster was enough to make the Rainbooms freeze in terror, holding their breath and praying it didn’t see them as they ducked behind a large rock… but the loud roar they heard from the beast terrified them beyond words. As it bore down on them, Rarity reflexively used her powers to conjure a large dome-like gemstone shield around the group, letting the beast angrily slash its claws and slam its heavy horns against the gems. “I can’t hold this forever!” Rarity said in fear.

“What is that thing?!” Fluttershy screamed in terror.

“Shot in the dark? One of those Deathclaw things those convicts told us about.” Sunset remarked.

“Well, how do we stop it?!” asked Rainbow.

“Fluttershy, can you try to talk it down?” Pinkie asked, but Fluttershy didn’t respond; she was too busy shuddering in terror at the sight of the beast, and even if she did try to use her magic, it looked almost too unnatural for her to communicate with. “Okay, Fluttershy’s broken; anyone else?”

“I have an idea! Rarity; spikes!” Rarity quickly followed Twilight’s instructions and conjured a large array of spikes on the outside of her shield, skewering the Deathclaw in several places, making it roar in pain. Once it was vulnerable, Twilight quickly drew her laser pistol and pointed it at the beast’s head through the shield. Rarity took the hint and slid the gem in front of the gun out of the way, giving Twilight a clear shot which she took vigorously, firing at least three blasts of plasma straight into the Deathclaw’s forehead as it thrashed, the third shot finally doing the trick as it crumpled against the shield.

With a strain, Rarity pushed the beast off the shield and let it fall on the ground in front of the group. “Whew. Well, that was nothing short of terrifying,” she remarked.

Applejack walked up to the beast’s head, trying not to think about what its massive claws or teeth could do to the girls’ flesh as she examined it, rather surprised by what she saw. “Ah think I just noticed somethin’ that makes it worse,” she noted as she looked at the Deathclaw’s crooked and milky eyes. “Dadburn thing was blind as a bat.”

“What?! How’d it find us then?” Rainbow asked seriously.

“W-W-Well, a-a-animals that are b-b-blind… usually have th-th-their other senses enhanced to m-m-make up for it.” Fluttershy stammered, still terrified by the beast.

“Well, I can’t believe I’m saying this about anything, but… at least it’s dead.” Sunset shrugged.

“I don’t think this is the end of it,” Twilight remembered. “Matt said a pack of Deathclaws took over Quarry Junction. If they travel in packs…”

“Then there could be more around here somewhere.” Rainbow realized in fear. Immediately everyone circled up, looking around in fear as they carefully walked over the rocky wall at the end of the gully.

They didn’t see any more Deathclaws but didn’t let their guard down until they crested the rocky wall and Sunset saw a ramshackle shack made of what looked like rusty corrugated metal on the ridge under them. “Whew. Looks like we’ve got shelter for the moment, girls.” she smiled.

“Hardly the Manefair Hotel, but I suppose it’s better than nothing.” Rarity shrugged as the girls carefully slid down the ridge, landing next to the shack.

A small cinderblock campfire sat near the western wall they landed next to, and as they rounded the house’s corner, Rainbow’s eyes immediately locked on the motorcycle parked in front of the building. “Yowza, now that’s a ride.” she smiled as she quickly walked over to it, climbing onto the worn and weathered leather seat… which she quickly stood up from, rubbing her butt. “Ow! Hot seat.” She did her best to ignore it as she mounted the vehicle again. “Man, imagine how awesome I’d look tearing around the Mojave on this thing.”

“Don’t think that’s awful likely, sugarcube,” Applejack noted as she looked at the bike. “Looks long dead and useless to me.”

“Just like all the other vehicles we’ve seen so far.” Sunset agreed. “We’d better just leave it for now and see about bunking down here for the night.

“All right, fine.” Rainbow shrugged as she dismounted from the bike, accidentally kicking over the three metal boxes stacked behind the bike. Curiously, she looked into them… but found they were all empty. “Well, that was a letdown.”

“Perhaps we’ll have better luck with the rest of the property.” Rarity suggested.

“I’d say so. Look at this.” Twilight noted as she looked at the small yard of cactus on the other side of the house. “This is some of that cactus I was telling you guys about.”

“Well, looks mighty tasty.” Applejack smiled as she examined the plants. “Gonna have to do somethin’ about them spikes though.”

“We’ll worry about that later. Right now, let’s get inside and lock the door before any more Deathclaws show up.” Sunset instructed. No one argued as they entered the house… and saw a gold mine; two different types of workbenches against the left wall as they walked in, numerous empty boxes and lockers in the main room around a large table in the middle of the room, and an adjoining bedroom to the left.

“Huh. Nice place.” Rainbow smiled as she walked into the bedroom… her eyes immediately locking on the bunk beds. “I call top bunk!” Before anyone could stop her, she jumped up onto the bunk and relaxed. “Aw yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.”

Applejack just rolled her eyes as she looked around the room. The lockers were all empty, but there were three green ammunition boxes on either side of the third one, filled with an abundance of assorted ammo; bullets that looked a bit too small for her revolver, more of those 5.56 rounds, and some larger batteries, probably for larger laser weapons – some colored yellow, others red. Then she saw something else: a very nice-looking bolt-action rifle on a shelf. “Hm…” Curious yet tentative as ever, she picked up the rifle and looked at it. From the looks of things, it appeared to be chambered for 5.56 bullets so she took the magazine from the bottom and slowly loaded the bullets into it by hand. The mag only fit five bullets so she just locked it back into the rifle and held the remaining two in her hand… before handing them both to Rainbow. “Here.”

Rainbow appeared surprised and nervous as she was handed the weapons. “Seriously?”

“You’re the one who was whinin’ about not gettin’ a weapon.” Applejack pointed out.

“Hey c’mon, I just bluffing with that.” Rainbow pointed out. “I mean, you know I talk a big game but that’s all.”

“Take the rifle, Dash.” Sunset pointed out bluntly as she examined her shotgun, still nervous about actually holding it, even after blowing the head off that abomination in the cave earlier. “The more weapons we have, the better. In case our magic doesn’t cut it.”

Rainbow was still nervous but sighed as she accepted the rifle. “Okay,” she said with a sigh, the gun feeling heavy in her hands. It was somewhat sobering; she wasn’t lying when she said she talked big – she wasn’t actually comfortable with holding an actual weapon.

“Concerning our magic…” Rarity remarked as Applejack handed Twilight the batteries. “I’ve no qualms with using it in self-defense against monsters like that Deathclaw or… whatever that thing was in the coyote den, but… what of people?”

That was actually a good discussion to have, and one Sunset kicked herself for not bringing up sooner. Still, there was no time like the present so she decided to talk to the girls about it now. “We keep our magic to ourselves for now,” she instructed. “If we run into any more monsters, we use it with no questions asked. As for people, we only use it in self-defense. Like, if anyone tries to shoot at us, Rarity throws up a shield and Twilight takes their weapons, then we try and talk them down.”

“Good plan.” Twilight nodded. “Maybe while we’re here, we should at least try to make it feel homey.”

“Well, in that case, unless anyone minds, I’ll clean up that clutter in the main room.” Rarity wasn’t wrong; the floor in the main room was littered with scrap paper and there were small amounts of scrap metal on the rusty table.

“Be my guest.” Sunset shrugged as Rarity quickly set to work. “Meantime, we should probably scout around the area. See if there’s any way to find civilization. A town, more people, something.”

“I think I saw a train track lead into the mountain.” Fluttershy pointed out. “Maybe it leads somewhere?”

“Ah saw it too; tunnel into the mountain’s blocked up.” Applejack shrugged as she checked her revolver. “Only real choice is to follow the tracks into the desert, and hope we run into something.”

“And I really wanna see if I can get that bike outside running.” Rainbow nodded, setting her new rifle aside.

“And above all, we should be wary of this area. There could be more Deathclaws.” Twilight pointed out.

“Right. And we don’t really wanna have to deal with any more of them if we don’t have to.” Sunset agreed as she sat at the table near the beds… and saw a small box with three bottles of Sunset sarsaparilla next to it. Two of the bottles were empty, but she could see one that was still sealed and full. Out of nothing more than an odd sense of ironic curiosity, she plucked it from the box and snickered at it. “Hey, anyone got a bottle opener?”

“Right here.” Applejack nodded as she passed Sunset a small pocketknife.

Sunset flipped out the bottle opener and popped the top on the bottle, surprised to hear it was still fizzy after God knows how long, but as she took a sip and was hit by a rather pleasant root beer-like taste, she didn’t really care. “Oh, that’s nice.” she smiled. Curiously, she looked at the bottlecaps and found only one other with a blue star on the underside of it. She looked at the other three bottlecaps she had on hand – the one from the other empty bottle, the one from the bottle she just opened, and the one from the shack outside the first town the girls had fled – and looked at them curiously. “What do you think they use for money in this world?”

“Why do you ask?” Twilight asked.

“Well, if we can’t trade anything with people out there, then we’re gonna need to know what they use for money so we can buy equipment.” Sunset pointed out.

Twilight knew that was a good point, and something easily occurred to her on that front. “Well… I wasn’t going to bring it up because it still feels… kinda messed up for me to think of… but when I was checking those two rotten-looking guys for ammunition, I also found these.” She reached into her pockets and retrieved two small pouches, which she set on the table in front of Sunset.

The other girls gathered around as Sunset opened one of them… and they were all rather confused by the contents. “Bottlecaps?” Rarity asked in confusion – indeed, both pouches held a combined number of almost 35 bottlecaps.

Sunset was confused for a minute, but eventually shrugged in what seemed like understanding. “Makes sense, I guess. When you think about it, they’re similar to Bits back in Equestria; small, durable, and… well, I can’t really think of any other use they might have out here.”

“Okay, so what’s the deal with the stars?” Rainbow pointed out, looking at the blue stars on the two caps with stars on them.

“I dunno; maybe they’re worth more.” Sunset shrugged. “I mean… there can’t be that many out here if we’ve only found two so far.”

“I think there’s more to it than that,” Pinkie remarked… before she randomly started bouncing in place violently.

“Ohh, great Granny Smith’s apple chips. That’s the sign for a doozy.” Applejack recognized in worry.

“And if it’s anything like the last one, we won’t know what it is until the very last minute.” Fluttershy shuddered. That thought alone scared the whole group.

But if they knew exactly what this doozy was, they’d be even more terrified.

Learning of the Land

The Rainbooms’ concern about Pinkie Pie’s impending “doozy” was palpable even as they all fell asleep in their makeshift camp in this shack. Rainbow Dash had been kind enough to zip back to the trainyard and steal the mattresses off the platform just so the girls could get some extra beds for the night, which she set on the bedroom floor so a few girls could double up.

As she called dibs on it, Rainbow took the top bunk of the bunk bed while Pinkie took the bottom bunk – she’d wanted to double-up with one of the others, but no one wanted to be directly next to her if she doozy-shook in her sleep. She did a bit, but it was a lot more minor than they were expecting, only lightly rattling the rusty bunk bed frame as she slept.

Applejack had been offered a spot in one of the mattresses, but she said she was fine with just sleeping in the chair near the table in the bedroom; she’d done it before without complaint, and she wasn’t about to deprive any of her friends of any comfort. Rarity found that arrangement perfectly agreeable as she bunked with Fluttershy on one of the mattresses while Twilight and Sunset took the other one.

But Sunset found herself unable to sleep – not that anyone could blame her; she knew she’d told her friends that they were outmatched against the Legion forces in Nipton, but… the guilt of leaving the townspeople there to face untold depraved brutality at the Legion’s hands gnawed at her conscience like an angry Parasprite – she felt like her friends were right and that they should’ve done something to help the townsfolk, even if they did end up getting hurt. But at the same time, even if it was for the sake of helping those in danger, the thought of her friends getting hurt in any way – especially some way that could’ve easily been avoided – scared her almost more than the Legion and whatever they could’ve done to her.

Not to mention the fauna they had encountered so far in the desert – aside from the coyotes Fluttershy had managed to negotiate the group past and the ants that apparently didn’t seem to care either way what happened to them, all the other animals the girls had encountered since arriving to this world had almost explicitly wanted to kill them, and the risk of running across more of this hostile wildlife was ever-present.

And there was also the worry she had about running into those men from Goodsprings who shot that man when they arrived in this world. The fear of running into them – or at the very least more raiders or soldiers who might kill her or the others – almost overwhelmed her when bundled with everything else she was thinking about.

With those thoughts in her mind, Sunset barely got any sleep that night. She woke up the next morning bleary-eyed and drowsy as she stumbled out the door, her eyes burning from the sun. “Mmm… turn down the sun…” she moaned drowsily.

“Man, you are really not a morning person,” Rainbow remarked as she and the others joined her outside.

“Ya think?” Sunset pointed out. “So what’s the plan now?”

“Well, I think we should scout down these train tracks and see if they lead anywhere,” Twilight suggested, pointing to the tracks that led from the blocked-up tunnel.

“Well, if we wanna make sure whoever goes out there gets out of trouble fast, I think I’m our best bet.” Rainbow shrugged as she stretched, ready to run.

Sunset was almost immediately worried by the thought of that, seemingly forgetting to be drowsy. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said, trying hard not to make her worry too major. “If we’re going anywhere, we should go together.”

Applejack appeared a bit suspicious of Sunset’s mannerisms but tried not to dwell on it as Twilight walked over. “That’s some valid concern Sunset, but Rainbow’s right. At least to start, it would probably be for the best if she went alone.”

Sunset hated it, but she had to concede that point. “All right.” she sighed before looking Rainbow dead in her eye. “But keep your rifle handy just in case. Only attack in self-defense and just generally… be careful.”

“Relax, Mom,” Rainbow assured as she grasped her Geode, her magic flowing through her body. “I got this.” Before Sunset could object, Rainbow raced out into the desert along the train tracks, a multi-colored contrail glimmering behind her as she ran.

She was gone for a while, so the girls used the time to do all they could to prepare to move out when she returned; securing what other weapons and equipment they could from around the shack while Twilight guided Applejack on safely harvesting some prickly pears from the cactus, which were then prepared and packed for the girls to use as food later. Finally, Rainbow returned and skidded to a stop near the shack… though her shoes looked a bit crispy. “Whoa. Are you okay?” Sunset asked in concern.

“What took ya so long?” Applejack smirked.

“Well, the good news is the train tracks lead to some sort of outpost near a highway,” Rainbow explained as she brushed sand and soot from her clothes. “Safe bet it’s a path to a town; somewhere we can bunker down for a while.”

“And the bad news?” Rarity asked.

“Is that I almost got blown up on the way back by some nutbar with a grenade launcher,” Rainbow answered.

“Oh my goodness, are you okay?!” Fluttershy asked in alarm as she rushed to her friend’s side, looking her over for any injuries.

“I’m fine; wasn’t even grazed,” Rainbow assured.

“Why did he shoot at you at all?” Sunset asked.

“Well, I doubt super-fast teenage girls who leave rainbow-colored contrails are common out here.” Applejack pointed out, sounding almost sarcastic. “He probably just panicked before he could see her clearly.”

“Can we at least get to this outpost safely?” Rarity asked.

“Maybe. But it’s a long way, and I doubt that guy was alone.” Rainbow remarked. “Especially not anymore.”

“Then we prioritize stealth over speed,” Twilight suggested. “If there really is an ambush waiting for us out there somewhere, we should move past it as quietly as possible. They won’t realize we’ve passed them then.”

Sunset knew these were good ideas, but she had a strange feeling it wouldn’t be enough. “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” Pinkie said loudly, bouncing around as she explained her plan. “Applejack drags the handcar up here from the trainyard and sets it on the tracks over there, and we ride it down to where Rainbow Dash was ambushed, then Rarity puts a shield around us to save us from the ambush and let us roll on to safety! I’ll wear this mustache…!” She popped a black fake mustache on her lip with a weird grin.

Everyone just looked at her rather blankly as if they weren’t convinced about that plan, but Sunset nodded. “Actually, I kinda like that. Let’s do it,” she smiled, earning surprised gasps from the others.

Pinkie zipped over to her side. “Does that mean I can wear the mustache?” she asked hopefully.

“Mm, no. That’s the one part I gotta say no to.” Sunset remarked, swiftly yanking the fake mustache from Pinkie’s lip.

It was actually a lot harder for Applejack to carry the handcar up from the service yard than Pinkie had made it sound – for one thing, she needed Twilight’s help to actually safely carry the handcar up through the pass, while Rainbow and Rarity stood guard in case any more Deathclaws came down the mountain. And for another, actually getting the handcar set on the tracks near the boarded-up tunnel in the mountain was difficult as the wheels seemed like they were going to fall off at any moment and the tracks were partly buried in patches down the mountain. “Looks like it’s gonna be a bumpy ride,” Twilight remarked.

“Can we set some substitute rails or something over the dirt?” Rainbow suggested.

“Don’t think we got time for that,” Applejack argued as she set her hands on the back of the cart. “We’re just gonna have to cross our fingers and hope for the best.”

“Does that include hoping the brake works?” Rarity asked in worry.

“I think it’s more about hoping we don’t jump the track as soon as we hit the dirt.” Sunset pointed out as she gripped the rusty side railing tightly.

The others did the same as Applejack pushed, starting the handcar rolling before she quickly jumped on and held on tight to the handrail.

Just in time too, as the cart reached the slope and started rolling faster. Seeing the first dirt patch in their path, Rarity quickly used her powers to create small diamond rails to crest it. “Now would be a good time to find the brake.” she pointed out as the cart rolled over the bump, picking up more speed as the diamonds faded behind the wagon.

“Got it,” Rainbow noted as she reached for a rusty handbrake lever on the central column… which snapped off in her hand when she tried to pull it. “Well, that’s not good.” It got worse as the handcar started speeding up further, racing down the slope and bouncing over Rarity’s diamond rails.

Suddenly Rainbow saw something. “This is where the guy was!” she called over the wind. And sure enough, the handcar raced through the valley, it passed a small gang of raiders who all looked astounded to see the handcar race past.

“Looks like we left them in the dust!” Pinkie smiled.

“Ah think we’re gonna wish we didn’t leave so much dust!” Applejack yelled, pointing at the curve in the track up ahead near what looked like a fortified trailer park. And at the speed the handcar was going, it was sure to derail and crash straight onto the highway.

Naturally not wanting to onboard when that happened, Rarity gave the order: “Abandon ship!” That was more than enough to prompt the Rainbooms to quickly leap off the handcar and tumble to a safe stop in the sand as the handcar’s wheels snapped off and the cart smashed hard into the crunched asphalt of the road, crushing it even more before it came to rest against the ridge on the other side of the road.

Sunset groaned and coughed on the dust as she stood up and brushed herself off. “Well, that was fun,” she remarked sarcastically. “Everyone okay?” Everyone groaned in agreement as they sat up… except Pinkie who hopped to her feet with a grin.

“That was fun! Can we do it again?!” she asked.

“Not unless you’ve got a spare handcar on ya somewhere,” Applejack remarked.

That was about the time a man in an NCR uniform came out of the trailer park with a revolver in hand, clearly drawn by the noise. “What the hell’s goin’ on out here?” he yelled, suddenly freezing when he saw the destruction. “What’n the…?”

“It would take too long to explain,” Sunset assured as she approached. The soldier suddenly raised his pistol and pointed at her, prompting her and the others to raise their hands in surrender. “Whoa-whoa-whoa; friendly, friendly!”

“What the hell kinda mutants are you?” the soldier asked.

“No mutants here, sir; just a bunch a’ wayward gals lookin’ for somewhere safe to hang their hats,” Applejack assured quickly.

“And your… entrance?” the soldier asked, gesturing to the handcar. “Pretty absurd, especially considering no one’s used that track in about 200 years.”

“Wait-wait-wait, 200 years?!” Rainbow asked in shock, which was obviously mirrored by the others.

“Yeah? What; did you all stumble out of a Vault or somethin’?” the soldier asked in confusion.

“Uh, ‘or something’,” Sunset answered vaguely, hoping that vague answer would be enough to satiate him.

“Right…” the soldier noted as he holstered his pistol. “Well, you’d better get inside. Vipers have set up shop in those mountains and trust me; you do not wanna deal with them.”

“Thanks. Seriously.” Sunset nodded as the girls all filed into the compound and into a small office in the middle of the yard.

“Welcome to Ranger Station Charlie; I’m Comms Officer Stepinac,” he noted.

“Thanks for letting us in. And… y’know, not shooting us.” Twilight nodded.

“Don’t mention it.” Stepinac shrugged. “If you’re lookin’ for somewhere to lay down for a while, you might wanna try Novac; it’s a ways up the highway to the north at the crossroads. Look for the big dinosaur statue – can’t miss it. Motel up there’s always got rooms for rent.”

“Well, thank you kindly. But…before we go… if it’s not too much trouble…?” Rarity asked nervously, not quite sure how to broach this topic.

“You wanna know what happened 200 years ago.” Stepinac surmised. “Figured everyone knew, but I guess that shows what I know. Not really much to say though; far as anyone knows, the end of the world happened pretty much exactly how people thought it would – too many humans, not enough resources or space to go around. Doesn’t really matter one way or the other, and who shot first matters even less ‘cause 200 years ago, they let loose just about every nuke they had. The result… well, just look out the window.”

This astounded the girls beyond words; they had imagined the war had been destructive, but to hear now that they had been stumbling around in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust…?

Rarity couldn’t help but lightly faint into Applejack’s arms at the knowledge, but it wasn’t like her overly dramatic faints; this was for real. As was how Fluttershy went rigid as a board and just tipped back into Rainbow Dash’s arms, clearly mid-freak-out. No one could blame her for that; they were all freaking out at the news as well.

Stepinac appeared a bit surprised at their reactions but didn’t think too much of it – he’d probably seen that same sort of reaction from a lot of other kids about their age when they first learned of the war. “Anyway, like I said, if you want shelter, Novac’s your best bet. Highway up there’s safe as can be out here.”

“Thanks…” Sunset said breathlessly as the girls all stumbled out of the office, barely able to stand at the news.

As soon as they left the building, Pinkie suddenly started doozy-bouncing like crazy before she sprang up, her head shrinking and then growing in relation to her body, before her hair followed suit and her body swelled up like a balloon, sending her bouncing back to her feet. “Well… I guess we found the doozy…” she said simply.

“No two ways about it,” Applejack said carefully as she pulled her hat from her head, looking around the valley as they walked down the street in the morning sun.

It all made sense to the girls now: the cracked and broken streets, the rusted power lines and railroad tracks, the wildlife and raiders… all aftermath of the apocalypse. Twilight’s mind raced with questions about their health and safety, how much radiation they’d been exposed to just by walking around the desert, whether any of the food and water they’d gotten was exposed, what other effects the radiation might have had on this world…

But the one question on all the girls’ minds, even as they crested a hill ahead and saw the dinosaur statue Stepinac had pointed them toward… how long could they hope to survive after the end of the world?

Pain

It was hard to really put into words what the Rainbooms were feeling as they trudged into Novac – a small shanty-town built around a motel… another remnant of the nuclear war they had just heard about. The revelation of the war itself still weighed heavily on the girls’ minds as they walked, especially Sunset; all the fears she’d had just this morning of the Legion, raiders, wildlife, and the men from Goodsprings were quite firmly reinforced as she realized that they – along with who knew what other manners of hellish forces – were nothing more than the byproduct of the apocalypse. An apocalypse that her and Twilight’s mad tinkering had gotten them tied up in.

Even so, as they stumbled toward the door of the motel office, all they could do was pray that all they’d seen so far was just a monumentally bad dream. But finally, just before they reached the door to what was undoubtedly the motel office, Fluttershy fell to her knees and just started whimpering. Not that any of her friends could blame her – they were wandering around in a nuclear apocalypse and had no idea if they could even survive. Rainbow Dash gladly knelt at her friend’s side and tried to think of words to offer her some sort of comfort, but nothing came to her. Or to any of the others, for that matter.

It was this crying that drew a shrewish old lady out of the office, who – like everyone else in the desert – appeared quite surprised at the look of the girls. “Well now. That’s certainly an interesting mutation,” she remarked. “Hope you’re not fixin’ to cause any trouble.”

Sunset barely even acknowledged her – her eyes were fixed on Fluttershy and her other friends, trying to find some way to inspire them that things would get better, but she couldn’t. Her gaze shifted upward to look out at the desert beyond the town – a ruin of a world scorched by nuclear weapons in a war that had apparently been started purely by greed with knowledge of who fired first lost to time. Suddenly she found herself thinking that the Bone Dry Desert south of Equestria was better than this… which it probably was.

The old lady could see the gaunt concern on Sunset’s face and cleared her throat. “Uh… sorry about that mutant crack; I’m sure you’re fine folks. Uh, can I get you something?”

“Water. Provisions. A map to New Vegas. And a place to rest.” Sunset answered absently, not even looking at the old lady as she unconsciously fiddled with her Geode.

“Certainly.” she nodded and walked back into the office. She returned quite quickly with a room key. “Enjoy your stay; you can pay whenever you’re ready.”

“Thanks,” Sunset said simply, turning her hand to accept the key… brushing it against the old lady’s hand. She didn’t expect her powers to activate from the touch – she hadn’t intended to activate her geode’s magic, but her eyes went white as she peered into the old woman’s mind. She learned her name was Jeannie May Crawford and she was apparently the leader of the town of Novac… and that she had sold a resident’s wife to the Legion as a slave just for perceived ingratitude.

The vision faded as the woman stepped back into the office, leaving Sunset clutching the room key… which she clenched in her fist in rage, which boiled in her eyes with her tears.

The other Rainbooms looked up from trying – and failing – to console Fluttershy and themselves as Sunset walked past them to an abandoned gas station on the other side of the road. The fuel pumps and large model rockets around the building – like everything else in this forsaken desert – were left to rust and decay in the aftermath of a war that had lost all meaning, in a world replete with suffering.

Sunset didn’t care. She just wanted to hit something. Anything. Just to make the pain and anger stop.

And hit something she did – Sunset gritted her teeth and let the angry tears flow as she just started hitting the wall of the gas station; punching it, kicking it, beating it with her shotgun, everything she could do as her friends looked on in horrified morbid awe, which was mirrored by other residents of the town as they all came out and watched Sunset let out what must’ve been untold amounts of aggression on a concrete wall.

Finally, Sunset stepped back to seemingly admire her handiwork, out of breath, her knuckles gashed and bloody, her arms and legs sore, and tears of rage pouring down her face. She fell limply to her knees and took a deep breath before, under the watch of her friends and the entire town of Novac, she turned her face to the sky and let out an anguished scream at the top of her lungs, which echoed through the desert – probably for miles.

As her scream faded, Sunset weakly strained to her feet and staggered back toward the motel past the frightened and alarmed looks of her friends and the townspeople. She would’ve apologized for frightening everyone if she wasn’t so angry with this world for everything it had done, so she just took a medical ampule apparently referred to as a Stimpak, and jabbed it into her arm, the blood coagulants and painkillers immediately working their magic and making her feel much better… physically, anyway. She was still mentally and spiritually broken after what she’d learned and just dropped the empty Stimpak in the dirt.

One man – who had apparently stepped down from the dinosaur statue – shakily offered her a bag of supplies which she took with no questions. “I-If you’re interested, I’d be more than happy to throw in a Dinky the T-Rex souvenir.” he stammered in worry. “S- Something to remember the town by. Free of charge.”

Sunset just glared over at Jeannie May, who recoiled in worry as if she was afraid Sunset knew something… which she did. “Why would I want to remember this place?” she asked, poison on her tongue as she walked up to Jeannie May who was quite clearly visibly sweating now, and not just from the heat. Sunset raised her clenched fist and slowly opened it, letting the room key – now drenched in her angry blood – drop to the ground. “We won’t be staying.” With that and nothing further to say, she walked out of the motel and down the road out of town.

Only now – definitely not wanting to argue with Sunset’s decision – did the other Rainbooms stand up and move after her. “H- Hey Sunset, wait up.” Rainbow stammered in worry as they all raced out of town after their friend.

As the blood dried on the wall of the gas station and on the road, the citizens of Novac all watched as these mysterious children wandered to the highway, disappearing into the desert… hopefully never to return – a hope Jeannie May Crawford had in particular as she eyed the bloody key in the dirt.

On the highway out of town, the Rainbooms were still more than a bit worried about what Sunset had done and if she would be okay, though this concern started to fall aside as they saw a small band of Legion soldiers on the road ahead. They appeared more than ready to do some damage to these random passers-by until they saw Sunset – the blood drying on her hands and the fire of rage in her eyes was enough to alarm them into stepping aside to allow the girls to pass.

As soon as the Legion party was out of sight, Sunset felt a hand on her shoulder. She whirled around with a look of rage as if ready to yell at whoever it was to leave her alone… until she saw it was Fluttershy, tears streaking down her own face. Sunset froze and looked around, seeing similar looks of terror on the faces of all the others. That was what finally snapped her out of her rage; the knowledge that her tantrum must have terrified her friends. “I-” She didn’t even get a chance to speak as Rarity raised a hand to cut her off.

Rarity only said five simple words: “When you’re ready. No sooner.” That was all there was to say before Fluttershy reached into the group’s medical equipment and bandaged Sunset’s hands.

Finally, once her hands were wrapped, Sunset couldn’t hold it back any longer – she broke down crying and fell to her knees in front of her friends, almost worse than the aftermath of the Fall Formal. “I’m sorry!” she sobbed out loud on the broken road. Her tears fell fast and thick on the scorching asphalt as her friends crowded around her and held her close to comfort her, despite knowing that very little would help her after that.

Author's Note

So... in case it wasn't obvious... Sunset just unintentionally took her first perk.

Death of Democracy and Innocence

The Rainbooms were still a bit wary about the decision to leave Novac behind, but they knew that if whatever Sunset had seen to make her… do that… was really that bad, they didn’t want to argue. And as friends, they knew it would be a while before she was willing to talk about it, so they just kept walking north up the ruined highway, which they wisely decided was the fastest way to New Vegas after leaving town.

It was a long hike through the desert and while the girls had left Novac well and truly far behind and Sunset had gotten at least somewhat past the trauma she’d felt and inflicted, she still had a look in her eye that would’ve made just about anyone thinking about messing with her turn around and walk the other way.

As they walked down the highway, Applejack decided to look through the equipment they’d received, apparently free of charge from the townsfolk. It was some pretty good stuff – more food, water, and medicine, a ton of ammo for their various weapons, and the weapons themselves, including another bolt-action rifle, but this one appeared to be in much better condition than the one Rainbow had at the moment and had some manner of flag wrapped around the stock. “Hey Dash, trade ya.” she pointed out, handing her the new rifle.

“Deal.” Rainbow smiled as she took the new rifle, handing Applejack the other. She looked it over and appeared surprised as she saw writing on the chamber. “Hm. ‘Paciencia’. Cool name.”

“I think it’s Spanish for ‘patience’.” Twilight pointed out.

“Not really my style,” Rainbow remarked. Unfortunately, it looked like she would have to change that as she checked the rifle’s magazine capacity. “Looks like this thing only gets three shots.”

“Hence the name, no doubt.” Rarity remarked with a flip of her hair.

“Well, we won’t have to worry about ammo for a while,” Applejack noted, making her point as she reloaded her revolver.

“How much farther to Vegas?” Sunset asked.

Twilight adjusted her glasses as she examined her tattered road map with marks on it made by the townsfolk. “Well, uh, lemme see; we just passed that gas station with the Vipers…” she noted, still a bit impressed Sunset had managed to intimidate the Viper raiders at the station into backing down with just an angry glance. Disregarding that for now (mostly so she wouldn’t anger Sunset with the reminder), she looked to the group’s left at the dry lakebed next to the highway. “The abandoned army convoy should be just up ahead at the lake’s northern beach. There should be a trading post at the interchange; we can resupply there if we have to.”

“We might have to.” Rarity assured as she put an empty bottle of water into the bag. “We’re running short of water again.”

“Well, maybe there’s somewhere between here and the trading post where we can find more,” Twilight suggested, but she doubted it – the map looked pretty well filled in and there wasn’t anywhere in the area.

Pinkie looked across the dry lakebed and perked up. “What about up there?” she asked, pointing to the mountain across the lake… at what looked like a small canyon.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow as she loaded her rifle. “I doubt we’re gonna find a freshwater spring out here, Pinkie. And as much as I love rock climbing, I don’t think we’re in the condition to climb up that.”

“Maybe we won’t have to,” Twilight remarked scientifically. “There might be a cave or something at the foot of the mountain and if we’re lucky, it could lead to an aquifer.”

“Somehow I doubt we’ll get that lucky, Twilight.” Sunset pointed out seriously.

“What happened to optimism?” Rainbow asked with a smirk.

Sunset’s answer was a single, blunt word: “Nipton.”

“Oh. Right.” The color left Rainbow’s face in embarrassed sorrow. “Sorry, I just meant that-”

“I know what you meant,” Sunset interrupted before she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. “Sorry, I just… I wanna get to Vegas and go home as soon as we can. And yeah, you’re right; we’re not going to make it if we don’t have water.”

“I suppose it’s worth checking the mountain. If for no other reason than to make sure there’s nothing there.” Rarity shrugged.

With that in mind, the group turned on a crossing road on the highway and followed the side of the mountain until they reached the canyon. It was a fairly narrow and short pass, and it led to a small wooden shack door in the rock face. “Looks like someone’s already been here,” Rainbow noted.

“Let’s check it out anyway. You never know.” Twilight pointed out.

Pinkie didn’t hesitate as she flung the door open wide and skipped into the tunnel. The others quickly followed her in… just in time to see several praying mantises the size of Spike scampering menacingly toward them. “Oh, that is just wrong!” Rainbow remarked and raised her rifle.

“Wait!” Fluttershy said quickly, stopping her as she stepped forward, activating her powers. She was shaking in worry as she looked at the approaching bugs, but as she quickly whispered something toward them, they appeared to stand down and skitter away back into the cavern wall.

“Whew. Thanks, that would’ve been bad.” Rainbow noted, holding Paciencia at her side.

“Uh, guys?” Pinkie noted as she looked further down the cave. The girls followed Pinkie’s gaze and were surprised; the natural cavern gave way to a massive concrete wall with what looked like an open doorway that looked like a massive gear.

“What the…?” Sunset asked breathlessly.

Twilight looked and saw a filthy control panel next to the door and quickly examined it, blowing some dust and sand from it before she found an apparent name for this structure. “‘Vault 11 Door Controls’. Huh. So this is one of those Vaults that Stepinac mentioned.” she noted – she remembered the NCR soldier they’d met outside Novac had mentioned the existence of these Vaults, but she didn’t think they would encounter one so soon.

“I can hardly see the appeal of living in a hole in the ground.” Rarity pointed out.

“I think I can. It’s a bomb shelter.” Rainbow saying that aloud frightened the others as they had somehow forgotten they were wandering a post-apocalyptic radioactive wasteland.

“Makes sense. Buried under a mountain surrounded by concrete – short of a direct shot, these vaults were probably havens.” Twilight noted breathlessly. “Especially if they had food stores, underground farming, water recycling, things like that.”

“Then why’s the door open?” Rainbow pointed out.

“They were probably designed to open once the radiation levels outside were within survivable levels.” Twilight theorized.

“Doesn’t look like these people had to worry about that.” Sunset pointed out as she walked into the Vault. The others followed her in and were more than a bit alarmed by what they saw – four human skeletons huddled at the foot of the stairs, and next to one was a blocky pistol.

“What happened here?” Rarity asked in disgust.

“I don’t know. But I think there’s only one way to find out.” Twilight remarked.

“HELLOOO…!!!” Pinkie’s voice suddenly screeched over the Vault’s p.a. system, forcing the others to cover their ears. “IS ANYBODY HOME…?!?”

“That’s not what I meant!” Twilight yelled at Pinkie as she approached her at the computer terminal on the table. “You might’ve just woken up some sort of security system deeper in the Vault.”

“Not to mention damaged our hearing.” Rarity pointed out as she pointed to her still-ringing ears.

“Sorry.” Pinkie shrugged jovially.

Twilight’s attention was suddenly brought back to the terminal which blinked with life. “Wait a minute. How did you access this?” she asked.

“I just pushed a button. Didn’t even ask me for a password.” Pinkie shrugged.

“What’re ya thinkin’, Twi?” Applejack asked.

“I’m thinking we might be able to find out what happened here by going through whatever records we find on the computer system,” Twilight noted as she looked through the terminal. “A place this big wouldn’t be able to operate properly without people keeping some sort of records.” Lo and behold, the first thing Twilight found on the terminal was an entry regarding a security recording of the Vault entrance. “Got it.” She clicked the option and the screen said it was downloading the data… before the terminal ejected a strange object that resembled a VHS tape.

Rainbow Dash just raised an eyebrow at the device. “What are we supposed to do with that?” she asked.

“I have an idea,” Twilight noted and pushed the tape back into the terminal, finding an option to play it.

Unfortunately, the tape was audio-only so the girls all listened as the first voice – who sounded like an older man – came on. “Are we really gonna do this? It’s open. We could just leave.”

“I couldn’t. Not after that.” The second voice was a woman, and she had a sense of defeat in her voice.

“We don’t deserve to leave.” a third voice noted – a young man, clearly more than melancholy.

“‘A shining example’. That’s what it called us.” a fourth voice – another man – said almost sarcastically.

“But we were! We did what we were supposed to.” the first voice argued.

“Not by a long shot.” the fifth voice – another man – countered.

“Anybody would’ve done what we did.” the first man pointed out.

“Ya ask me, that’s exactly the problem.” the second voice argued, the sound of a gun chambering in the background. “Now let’s get on with this.”

“I’ll go first.” the third voice volunteered.

“Wait. Wait. People should know what happened. They could learn from it.” the first voice argued.

“If there’s anyone out there at all, I hope they never have to find out.” the fifth voice countered. “Ready, Harry?”

“Yeah.” the third voice – now identified as Harry – nodded.

“No! No, no! Wait!” The first voice was suddenly cut off by the sounds of four gunshots in rapid succession that startled the girls into stepping back from the terminal. The voice let out a whimper as the gun clattered to the ground. That was where the tape ended.

The Rainbooms looked back at the skeletons – the apparent perpetrators of some terrible crime in this Vault who committed suicide for what they did – and immediately felt sick to their stomachs. “What happened here?” Rainbow asked hoarsely.

“I’m not sure I wanna know,” Applejack remarked as she took her hat off and raked her hair with her hand, holding her hat to her chest to pay her respects to the dead before them.

“We’ll probably find out anyway as we go through the Vault,” Twilight noted. “We’d better start looking.”

“Look at this,” Fluttershy muttered. The others saw she had moved over to a concrete column in the wall where there was an interesting political-style poster pasted.

Sunset walked over and examined it with a raised eyebrow. “‘Rumors about Haley are baseless. Vote Stone for Overseer’.” she read aloud.

“So they were electing the guy who ran the place,” Rainbow noted.

“Well, I suppose that’s one good thing; democracy survived the end of the world.” Applejack shrugged.

“But what ‘rumors’ are they talking about?” Pinkie asked in confusion.

“Here’s another one.” Rarity pointed to an adjacent column with another poster… but the message on this one was much darker than the other. “‘Don’t vote Glover… his family needs him’?”

That prompted some serious confusion from the Rainbooms as they looked at each other. “Why do I get the distinct feeling that Overseer wasn’t a very stable job in this Vault?” Applejack asked tentatively.

“Let’s fan out. Maybe we can find out more about these elections.” Sunset instructed. Doing so, the girls spread out around the Vault entryway and searched.

Sunset found a box of bullets under the table with the terminal… before she looked at the gun in the midst of the dead. She felt dirty taking a weapon that had been used for suicide, but she had a feeling she could use a sidearm, so – trying hard not to think about the skeleton clutching the gun who was presumably Harry – she picked it up by the stone-cold barrel and examined it. She saw from the writing on the side that it was chambered for 10mm bullets, ten of which were still in the box she’d found… with 12 empty slots, no doubt loaded into the gun for the suicide. She fiddled with the gun until the clip dropped out and indeed, there were only eight rounds left, which made a grim sort of sense considering the four gunshots on the tape.

She tried hard not to think about that as she snuck the gun under her jacket just in time to hear Rainbow let out an impressed whistle from the large pod on the eastern wall. “I think I found out what those rumors about Haley are,” she called out to the other girls, an impressed tone in her voice. “Listen to this; ‘Haley is a known adulterer & communist sympathizer. Elect Haley for Overseer’.”

“Yikes. That sounds a little harsh.” Applejack remarked.

“Sounds like propaganda.” Twilight pointed out. “Communism is a political philosophy where everything is public property and everyone only gets paid according to what they can do or need.”

“Doesn’t sound like the kind of society you’d want in a concrete box buried underground with maybe hundreds of other people for who knows how long,” Rainbow noted.

“Yes, this Haley certainly doesn’t sound like someone I’d want to have in charge.” Rarity agreed.

“That’s only if the rumors aren’t baseless.” Twilight pointed out. “Propaganda rarely has any real basis in reality, especially slander like this.”

“This one’s pretty succinct; ‘I hate Nate’.” Rainbow read another poster, confusion in her voice. “Who is Nate?”

“I have a feeling we’ll find out,” Sunset noted. “Any more posters in there?”

“Yeah, a few. Another of those ‘his family needs him’ ones and… huh; ‘Glover has done nothing wrong. Vote for Stone!’” Rainbow read.

“Well, it certainly sounds like Glover was loved.” Rarity noted. “Makes me wonder what these people did to their leadership.”

“Search the Vault; let’s find out,” Sunset instructed. Applejack quickly opened a rusty door that led out of the main entrance into a hallway junction. There was a large rat in the room that appeared to have lost nearly all its fur except for a head-to-tail mohawk, but it was still reasonable as Fluttershy was able to talk it into leaving.

With the rat gone, Sunset looked around. “Suggestions?” she asked.

Twilight pointed to the sign above one door first. “Let’s check the clinic first; you can never have enough medical supplies out here,” she suggested.

No one argued so they entered the clinic… after Fluttershy asked the giant mantises to leave. Upon entering the clinic, they were greeted by… dismembered skeletons on operating tables and dried blood splatter on the floor. “I’m kinda painting a bad-looking picture here, girls,” Twilight noted grimly. “I get the feeling something… catastrophic happened here.”

“Tell us something we don’t know,” Rainbow remarked as she looked around.

“The people were treated like in any normal society, but… then that society collapsed. Suddenly,” Twilight said nervously. The girls all looked at each other nervously, as if they didn’t want to know how this society collapsed, but there was nothing they could do except move on, emptying the contents of two small medical cases into their gear bags before they left the clinic.

They searched the restrooms but didn’t find anything of note… until Rainbow spotted a poster someone had apparently painted on after it was put up. “Huh. ‘I hate Kate’. Wonder if there’s a relation.” she said to herself.

The search yielded a staircase down, but Sunset insisted on scouring the first level first. The only room left was a classroom, which was mostly empty save for one active terminal. Twilight quickly booted it up, taking note of the text at the top. “‘RobCo Industries Unified Operating System. Copyright 2075-2077 RobCo Industries’.” she read, making sure to remember the name RobCo, in case it meant anything as the girls gathered around. “Okay, there are three entries.”

“First things first, I say.” Rarity noted.

“All right. First up, Vault 11 Election Guide.” Twilight nodded and opened the entry. “‘Dear Fellow Vault Dweller: Congratulations! Your dedication to the democratic process is the bedrock upon which the continued stability of Vault 11 is based. Now, to help you make your decision for this year’s election, the Coalition of Vault 11 Voting Blocs has put together this handy Dweller’s Official Guide to Obtaining Overseers Democratically, or D.O. G.O.O.D.’” Everyone cringed unanimously at that pun as Twilight kept reading. “…‘that contains a summary of the leading candidates for Overseer, as well as their statements, key positions, and most importantly, endorsements. Sincerely, Roy Gottlieb. Chairman, Coalition of Vault 11 Voting Blocs. President, Justice Bloc’.”

“Why would endorsements be more important than statements?” Rainbow asked.

“Politicians don’t get their power out of nowhere; they need support.” Sunset shrugged – she remembered hearing that from nobles in Canterlot when she was Celestia’s student. Of course, the way she saw it, Prince Blueblood mostly just bought all the support he ever got.

“We may as well see who’s up for the office no one seems to want.” Applejack shrugged.

Twilight clicked through and found a familiar name for the first of the candidates. “‘Candidate: Henry Glover’,” she noted as she looked at the first entry. “Endorsements from the Utilitarian Bloc, Divine Will Bloc, and Allied Service Workers Bloc.” The group raised their eyebrows at that second one, but Twilight moved on to read the statement. “‘I’m a devoted husband and father of six beautiful children. My oldest, Sam, was on the honor roll this quarter, and I couldn’t be prouder of him. My youngest, Henry Jr., just said his first word, and it was ‘Da-da’. We’ve got this bond already and he’s just a baby’.” The girls couldn’t help but find that absolutely adorable as Twilight read on. “‘Friends, when you go to the polls this election, I want you to think of your own children. Then I want you to think of Sam and Henry Jr. Picture their faces. Nate Stone should be overseer, not me’.”

“Huh. That makes sense with that poster I found; his family does seem to need him.” Rarity noted.

“Yeah, but six kids? Who does that?” Rainbow asked seriously.

“I got family who’ve done it.” Applejack shrugged, turning back to Twilight. “Who else is up?”

Twilight pulled up the next entry and found another familiar name. “‘Candidate: Donna Haley’. Endorsements from the Human Dignity Bloc and United Vault Technicians Bloc.” she read and read out the statement. “‘I’m aware of the rumors circulating about me. I want everyone to know that they are vicious lies being spread by the other candidates in a desperate smear campaign. I have never in my life done anything so depraved, let alone four such things’.” She had to stop as she read this. “‘Four’?”

“‘Depraved’ is an excellent choice of words in that regard.” Rarity agreed, her ladylike sensibilities winning through. “I mean, really…!”

“Seriously.” Rainbow nodded.

Twilight kept reading. “‘But even if I had, that still wouldn’t mean you should vote for me. Consider the fact that I am grossly underqualified for the position and that both of my opponents are far more deserving. I know nothing about governance. You would be hard-pressed to find a worse candidate than me. I can promise you my administration would be a disaster’.”

“Well, from the looks of things, I’d say she was right; some sort of disaster happened here,” Rainbow noted.

“Wh- What about the last candidate?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight quickly pulled that page up. “Nathan Stone. Only one endorsement; from the Justice Bloc.” she read.

“Oh, Nate. What’s he got to say?” Rainbow asked and looked over Twilight’s shoulder… and seemed to regret it as she read the statement. “‘This is ridiculous. I shouldn’t even be a candidate. And I wouldn’t be if it weren’t for all the dirty backroom politics going on around here. It’s sickening. You should all be ashamed’.” She stood up with a raised eyebrow. “Man, no one wants to be overseer. Why?”

“Well, we’ve still got two more entries here; let’s see what they say.” Twilight shrugged and pulled up the second entry on the terminal, labeled as a notice of postponement. “‘Fellow citizens, Due to the tragic events of the past few days, the Coalition of Vault 11 Voting Blocs has unanimously decided to postpone the election for overseer pending further investigation into the… murders’?” This sent a chill down the girls’ spines – first there was this highly unusual political intrigue going on and now a murderer?

Twilight took a breath to try to calm down and kept reading. “‘Your security team wishes you to know that they are working tirelessly day and night to find the perpetrator and are already following up on a number of promising leads. God willing, if the killer is apprehended swiftly, we may have found… a promising new candidate for Overseer’- what is happening in this Vault?!”

“Who in their right minds would want a murderer in charge of their society?” Rarity agreed seriously.

“I have a bad feeling we’re going to find out. Who sent this message?” Sunset asked.

Twilight checked and nodded at the name. “Terry Hart, president of the Human Dignity Bloc.”

“Okay, hopefully, we’ll get some answers in the next entry,” Rainbow said seriously.

Twilight shared Sunset’s bad feeling – they would get answers, but they wouldn’t like them. “Last entry: Overseer Order 745,” she noted and opened the message, reading it. “‘Effective immediately, the traditional selection process for overseer is hereby ended. In lieu of a yearly election, a citizen will be chosen one month prior to the start of his or her term with our mainframe’s random number generator, ensuring complete impartiality and fairness. Katherine Stone, Overseer’.”

“That would be Kate. But a random number generator? That sounds stupid.” Rainbow noted as she walked out of the room.

“I’m sure she had good reason.” Rarity pointed out. “Perhaps – and I can’t believe I’m even going to suggest this – perhaps the rumors about Ms. Haley were simply… scapegoating and deflection?”

“So that would make Kate the communist?” Twilight rationalized. “No, I doubt it. There has to be more to it than that.”

“I’d say there is. If Katherine was made overseer, does that mean she was the murderer Hart mentioned?” Rarity asked. “The one he suggested they name Overseer?”

“If that’s the case, then becoming overseer must be… some sort of punishment,” Sunset noted, turning back to this third entry. “Or at least it was until Katherine made it into a lottery.”

“But what could’ve motivated her to become a murderer?” Rarity asked.

“Well, this Nathan guy is related to her in some way and he wasn’t exactly jazzed about the ‘dirty backroom politics’ going on here.” Pinkie pointed out. “Maybe Kate decided to do something about that.”

“Well, either way, I think I speak for all of us when I say we need to find out exactly what happened in this Vault.” Rarity nodded.

“No argument here. For one thing, I wanna know who made these places in the first place.” Applejack nodded.

Twilight pulled out the drawer of the desk and found a small pamphlet with a company name and logo emblazoned on the front. “Look no further; Vault-Tec.”

“My, what a clever name.” Rarity remarked sarcastically.

“Guess they weren’t on top of what was goin’ on in their Vaults if this was happenin’.” Applejack shrugged.

“Well, there probably was a nuclear war to worry about when they were building these places.” Sunset pointed out.

That was when Rainbow walked back in. “Nothing else on this floor except a lounge down the hall. Let’s get moving,” she reported.

With that in mind, the girls hiked down the stairs to the second level. Down the left hallway upon arrival, they found a room full of terminals, most of which were blasted out but two were still functional. Twilight accessed one but sighed. “Just the same three messages,” she reported.

Sunset accessed the other terminal… which started to violently spark. Rainbow’s reflexes kicked into overdrive as she zipped in and grabbed them both, pulling them out of the computer room right before the terminal exploded, suddenly making Rainbow double-over in pain. “Gah!” she yelled as she stumbled out the door.

“Rainbow! Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked in concern.

“Agh, I think something just caught me right in the butt.” Rainbow groaned in pain. Fluttershy looked and indeed saw a small scrap of shrapnel sticking out of her left butt cheek.

Sunset barely managed to suppress a snort at the sight of it. Applejack and Rarity, on the other hand, both failed miserably and started laughing tremendously. “I hate you both.” Rainbow scowled.

“I’m sorry, Darling.” Rarity tittered with laughter. “But be reasonable; if it had happened to one of us, you’d be laughing as well.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Rainbow shrugged, glancing back at the shrapnel in her butt, chuckling a bit at it. “It is kinda funny. But man, it hurts. Can we get it out?”

“I can’t guarantee it won’t hurt.” Twilight shrugged as she activated her power.

“You mean more than it already does?” Rainbow pointed out.

“Touché.” Twilight relented, surrounding the shrapnel with her telekinesis and giving a sharp yank.

“OW!” Rainbow gasped in pain as she shot a hand to her butt to hold back any blood, promptly followed by Fluttershy jabbing a Stimpak into her leg to heal it.

Twilight floated the shrapnel toward her hand and raised an impressed eyebrow. “Whew. Ouch,” she remarked.

“Guh. What happened to that computer?” Rainbow asked, now with a very distinct limp.

“If I had to guess? Must’ve been booby-trapped.” Applejack remarked. “I think I saw the back-plate of it stickin’ out a bit.”

“Someone must’ve jammed a grenade or something back there.” Sunset nodded. “Well, hopefully we won’t run into any more trouble while we’re here.” With that in mind, they kept searching – the only other terminal was in a chemistry lab and it had the same three entries as the other two, so they went down another flight of stairs to the third level.

The third level appeared to be living quarters for the residents, as they found doors to dormitory wings. Searching the men's dorm first, the girls found several blue jumpsuits with yellow trim and the vault number on the backs – which Rarity found quite garish – and in one room, they found another functional terminal. Twilight tried to open it but stopped when she saw the opening screen. “Password protected,” she said in annoyance.

“Can you hack it?” Sunset asked.

“Maybe, but I’ve probably only got a few tries before the computer locks me out,” Twilight theorized.

Rarity looked around at the posters and raised an eyebrow. “Well, no need to ask which faction called this area home.” She wasn’t wrong; the posters all said “Play for the winning team – enlist with the Justice Bloc” with a baseball player on them.

Below the posters on one wall, under a broken shelving unit, was a footlocker. “Hmm…” Rainbow lifted the shelf to access the footlocker and found a small scrap of paper. “Think I found the password.” She handed it to Twilight, who quickly punched it in.

“Got it.” she smiled before looking at the User ID in interest. “‘Welcome, Mr. Gottlieb’. So this was Gottlieb’s terminal.”

“The head of the Justice Bloc?” Fluttershy asked.

“Let’s see what he had to say.” Sunset smiled as Twilight pressed a button to deploy another tape from the computer.

“Must be a security recording,” Twilight noted, pushing the tape back into the terminal.

The tape started playing a man’s irate voice. “She can’t do this.” he scowled.

“It’s done. We’re done.” another voice said in defeat.

“Nothing’s done.”

“She’s got the authority. The only thing she can’t do is change her own fate. Nothing says she can’t change the selection process for future overseers.” The girls could clearly tell these voices were talking about Katherine.

“I say she can’t.” the first voice argued.

“You shouldn’t have toyed with her like that, Roy.” So the first voice was Roy Gottlieb, but… toy with her how?

“We still have the majority.”

“We don’t vote for anything anymore.”

“I’m not talking about voting.”

“What then? You want to have a sit-in? A hunger strike?”

“Not exactly.”

“Maybe march into her office with torches and pitchforks?”

“Yes.”

“Come on.”

“I mean it.”

“What, start a revolution?”

“Laws don’t outlast their governments.”

“Roy, all we have to do is wait until someone from Justice Bloc gets picked for overseer. Then we have them change the law back.”

“There won’t be any blocs after the new overseer is picked tomorrow. Everyone’s going to move on. By the time we’ve reformed, who knows if we’ll still be in the majority.”

“We can hold the bloc together.”

“You don’t know that. Besides what if the computer picks you? What if it picks me?”

“And your solution is to start shootin’?”

“Not if we don’t have to. Look, we arm up. We go to the lower floors, take some strategic targets. Power, food, water. Just until she turns authority over to us.”

“The other blocs won’t support it. They’re tired of us having the power.”

“We have the majority. We don’t need them.”

“This isn’t a vote, Roy. They’ll fight back.”

“They’ve never had the nerve.”

“Hell of a way to test it.” The tape timed out, leaving the girls with more questions.

“So the Justice Bloc nominated Nathan because they had the majority and felt like they could throw their weight around however they liked.” Applejack rationalized.

“Nominating whomever they liked to become overseer so none of their own would have to.” Rarity added. “Which included Katherine herself after her killing spree.”

“And they lost that power when Katherine turned the selection process for overseer over to the Vault’s computer,” Twilight finished. “But Roy’s friend is right: an armed coup? Just to win back power so they can choose who runs the Vault?”

“And how did Roy ‘toy’ with Katherine? What did they mean by that?” Fluttershy asked.

“And how did it turn her into a murderer?” asked Rainbow.

“We’ll have to hope we find out.” Sunset shrugged as they moved on, searching the adjoining women’s dorms. They didn’t find anything, so they went back upstairs and passed through the door to the admin section. They went down the left hallway to find the security section… and an arsenal of ammunition and grenades, all of which the girls knew they’d need.

On the counter was an open terminal, which Twilight accessed and found a new entry labeled as Deposition. As it was opened, the girls saw it was an excerpt of Katherine’s deposition to the Vault’s attorney. In it, the girls learned that Nathan was apparently Katherine’s husband and had only been endorsed as overseer because he’d been beating several members of the Justice Bloc – including Roy – in poker. And that Gottlieb had told Katherine that he was willing to prevent Nathan’s endorsement if she performed sexual favors for the leadership of the Justice Bloc for an entire month. This news disgusted the girls and Rarity had to choke down her vomit at the thought of such a suggestion – though Fluttershy wasn’t so steely in the stomach and had to puke in the nearest trash can – and the rage only boiled up within the girls further when they learned that Gottlieb had endorsed Nathan anyway. That was when Katherine had gone on a killing spree, wiping out the Justice Bloc’s leadership to eliminate their apparently slim majority in the hopes someone other than her husband would be elected.

And as it turned out, she had been planning for herself to be that someone, exclusively to become the overseer and abolish the elections. “But one thing doesn’t make sense.” Rainbow pointed out, still feeling sick to her stomach. “No one wants to be overseer, but they keep electing a new one every year. Why? What happens to the old ones?”

“Well, we’ve determined that being overseer is tantamount to a punishment here.” Rarity shrugged, still feeling her stomach turning. “I suppose the only thing left is to determine exactly what that punishment is and what purpose it serves.”

“At this point, I’m not sure how much more of this Vault I can take,” Sunset remarked in disgust as she moved on with the others.

It took some work to get the adjacent door open – which apparently led to an armory which the girls quickly looted for its ammo before heading down the hallway to the overseer’s office. They nearly entered but Rainbow Dash stopped them, pointing to a tripwire just through the door, leading to a rigged shotgun. Carefully – especially considering her wounded butt – she knelt down and disarmed the tripwire, removing the shell from the gun and giving it to Sunset before they entered the room properly.

Twilight quickly tried to access the terminal but stepped back just as quickly. “Locked. Looks like it needs some sort of key.” she shrugged.

“Looks like we ain’t spoilin’ for places to look.” Applejack wasn’t wrong – looking through the window in the office, the girls saw a massive atrium area outside.

“I’ll see if I can find a way down there.” Rainbow nodded and quickly zipped down the hall to the right, surprising the girls that she was still so fast with her butt wound… though she returned in short order. “So that way’s a dead end; must’ve been a cave-in or something. There’s another hall down here.”

The girls gladly followed Rainbow down the hall just around the corner from the Overseer’s office. The tunnel to the atrium was blocked in by what looked like another cave-in, so the girls journeyed down the adjacent stairs to the utility area.

The storage room looked unassuming enough… except for the massive iron door with a strange gear-like latch in the back of the room. “Where’s this lead?” Rainbow asked in curiosity.

“Only one way to find out.” Pinkie smiled and gave the latches a hearty twist. Twilight watched in curiosity as the red and white lines in the small panes next to the top latch rotated, exposing different panels that read Open on the left and “Stand Clear” on the right. She could see why the latter was important – the door swung pretty wide as it opened, revealing a long corridor.

After Fluttershy shooed the mantises out of the hall, the Rainbooms walked tentatively down the hall to open a similar door, leading to a simple room. There were a few ammo boxes in the corner and through one door in the northern wall, Rarity saw a small pile of sandbags. “Over here,” she said and called the girls over… but quickly stopped them with her arms across the doorway.

Rainbow could easily see why; there was a low level of water on the floor. “Really? We’re wandering through a forsaken bomb shelter and you’re worried about getting your shoes wet?” she asked in annoyance.

“That’s the least of our concerns right now,” Sunset noted as she stepped into the shallow water, finding the sensation of water up around her ankles rather pleasant… but that pleasantness rapidly deteriorated as she looked behind one of the sandbag piles in the room and found several skeletons in the water. “I think I just found a bigger one anyway.”

The other girls entered the room and looked around, quickly understanding what had happened here. “Looks like Roy did what he said he would: he went after the Vault’s power source,” Rainbow noted as she retrieved a handful of ammo from a box behind one of the barricades.

Twilight suddenly realized what this meant and retreated out of the water. “Rarity’s got the right idea here; we shouldn’t be in the water,” she said quickly.

“Why? Since when are you afraid to get wet?” Applejack asked as she grabbed a pile of shotgun-shell boxes off the top of a console.

“Since the water was irradiated – this Vault is powered by a nuclear reactor.” That was more than enough motivation for the other girls to follow Twilight’s lead and get out of the water as well, greatly worried.

“That wasn’t too much radiation, right?” Rainbow asked seriously.

“I don’t know. Probably won’t without a Gieger counter.” Twilight shrugged.

“Well, what do we do now? There’s nowhere else to go.” Applejack pointed out.

“We haven’t gone through there yet.” Pinkie pointed to another heavy reactor door on the western wall.

“Definitely worth checking,” Sunset noted. “Rarity, think you can bridge us over the water?”

“I can certainly try.” Rarity shrugged, summoning a platform of gems over the irradiated water. The girls stepped onto it and Rarity floated them over to the door, which Pinkie jiggled.

“Locked,” she noted. “Think you can force it, AJ?”

“A bomb bunker reactor door? Not sure I wanna try.” Applejack remarked.

Rainbow suddenly perked up and smiled. “I’ve got an idea. Rarity, you got any extra bobby pins on you?”

Rarity appeared confused by this question, even as she reached into her pocket, retrieving a few bobby pins. “W- Well yes, but-”

“Awesome.” Rainbow smiled and took the pins, unbending one of them a bit before she pulled a screwdriver out of her gear bag. “I read in a Daring Do book once that this works, and I’ve always wanted to try it.” She slid the pin into the lock and started twisting it, listening to the tumblers inside with every movement. Finally, she smiled and pushed the side of the lock with the screwdriver, turning the lock open. “Got it.”

“Shut up,” Sunset said in disbelief, watching as the door swung open. “You gotta teach us that trick.”

“Maybe once we’re out of here,” Applejack noted as Rarity floated the group to the stairwell, which led out of the water. The turn to the left at the top of the stairs led to the atrium, which the girls quickly raced towards the atrium – which was apparently used for assemblies and speeches, judging by all the chairs and posters, and the lectern at the front of the room – which they quickly scoured until they found a terminal on the upper floor.

Thankfully this one wasn’t locked and Twilight easily accessed it, finding only one entry. “‘Prepared Speech of Gus Olson, Ombudsman, for the Annual Overseer Election’.”

“Ombu-wha?” Rainbow asked.

“Public mediator.” Sunset translated. “Let’s hear the speech.”

Twilight didn’t hesitate and started reading the speech herself. “‘Good afternoon. Each year, it is the appointed task of the ombudsman not only to officiate the election but to chronicle it in hopes that after the last overseer has finished his term and… walked to his death in the chamber beneath his office’- WHAT?!?”

“They kill the overseer every year!?” Rainbow asked in fury – she knew this answered their questions about what happened to the past overseers and why the office was considered a punishment, but to kill them every year? “Why? Wh- What is the reasoning?!”

“I can only guess that when yer trapped in a sardine can like this, ya lose all yer sense for ‘reasoning’.” Applejack surmised.

“There has to be more to it than that – keep reading, Twilight,” Sunset instructed.

“R-Right.” Twilight wasn’t sure she wanted to, but she picked up where she left off anyway. “…‘and the Vault has become still, that one day some excavator from humanity or perhaps some yet-unknown race of super beings might find our records and incorporate them into historical canon. But lately it’s occurred to me that that’s not really why. I think the real reason we do it is because we want to believe that somewhere in the archives, there’s an answer to all of this, or perhaps there will be one when the historical records are completed and the whole story is told. We want it to make sense’.”

The girls wanted it to make sense as well, and when they found out in the next sentence Twilight read, they all went pale as sheets. “…‘To understand why the Vault’s mainframe will… kill us if we … do not offer one of our own as a yearly sacrifice. To fully comprehend why we continue to have these elections despite the unfettered corruption that has plagued it for what must be… decades by now’.”

The girls grew more and more disgusted with every sentence – especially with the knowledge that this sacrificial practice had apparently been going on for decades – but Twilight couldn’t stop; she was too morbidly intrigued. “‘There was a simpler time when elections meant shaking hands and kissing babies. But now with the rise of the voting blocs and this infestation of bribery, drug trafficking, smuggling, and God knows what else, we want to know why’.”

Rarity and Fluttershy had to sit down as they listened, also wanting to know why just as much as their friends but unsure if they could take it as Twilight kept going. “‘Well, I’ve been through the archives, and I can tell you you won’t find the answer there. You’ll find an account of the first overseer, who entered the Vault as the… only citizen aware of the sacrifices that would have to take place. But he didn’t have the answers either’.” More and more, the girls grew disgusted and stunned by what they were hearing and had to sit down one after the other – not even the first overseer knew why this was happening? “‘If he did, surely he would’ve foreseen the citizens’ anger when he broke the news. Surely he would’ve guessed that they would choose a sacrifice democratically, in the way that we citizens are accustomed to washing our hands of terrible deeds, and that his name would be at the top of the polls, and that the simultaneous vacancy of overseer and martyr would forever fuse the two positions here in Vault 11. But he didn’t. He had the answers no more than any of us, and the records state that after the citizens discovered that the sacrificial chamber’s password was his wife Betty’s first name, and its door was unsealed so he could be offered as the first sacrifice, he walked down into that room crying like a child’.”

None of the girls blamed the first overseer’s reaction, but that didn’t help – they were still in stunned silence, except for Twilight who kept reading as if she couldn’t stop herself and her thundering curiosity. “‘I can only wonder if there are no answers to be found, and we are just going along with this because we don’t see another choice. Nevertheless, I still hold onto hope that we can find one. I urge you all to take the journey I took – to remember that it wasn’t so long ago that we were ruled by our civility and our dignity, and that those were times when we didn’t have to be quite so ashamed. Thank you’.”

With that, Twilight numbly turned off the terminal and fell leaning against the computer, weak in the knees. Most of the questions that had followed them throughout their exploration of the Vault were answered, but none in ways that they had expected or were particularly happy to hear about – something within them… broke.

As they stood up and walked silently back up toward the Overseer’s office, they put the pieces together for what happened at the last – truly last – election for Overseer; Katherine allowed the Justice Bloc’s leadership to… use her… to keep her husband from being elected and thereby executed, but when he was chosen for election anyway, she went on a killing spree and was voted as a convenient Overseer, only for her to turn the selection process over to the Vault’s computer, stripping all the voting blocs of their power and painting targets on all their backs. Roy was enraged by this action and staged a revolt within the Vault to reinstate the voting process, which undoubtedly killed off most of the Vault’s population.

But there were still some unanswered questions – if the Vault’s computer would have killed off the entire population anyway if there was no sacrifice, why did they resort to a bloody coup just as a power grab? And why did those four people in the foyer choose suicide over leaving like their companion suggested?

Those questions were in their minds as they wandered back to the Overseer’s office and Twilight entered the password into the terminal, opening the terminal so she could press a control to open the sacrificial chamber. Just as they had heard from the speech, the desk in the office lifted up on large hydraulic cylinders and revealed a hidden stairway, which the Rainbooms numbly staggered down.

The heavy door at the bottom of the doorway was easily opened, and it revealed a dramatically long corridor. Rainbow almost made a crack about this never being a good sign, but after all she had learned with her friends about this Vault – this societal tomb – she wasn’t in the mood. And it only got worse as they walked down the hallway and a clearly automated voice played over the loudspeaker in the hallway. “Congratulations, martyr! Your fantastic journey is just beginning. Please proceed to the light.” Indeed, there was a bright light at the end of the long corridor which the girls couldn’t help but walk toward, only to find it came from a bank of bright construction light tripods set up just beyond the door.

Through the opposite door, there was an empty room with only a single chair and what looked like a slide projector. “Welcome. Please sit in the chair. The show is about to begin.”

None of the Rainbooms really wanted to do it, but Twilight’s morbid curiosity won ahead as she stepped forward and sat down, seemingly tripping a pressure plate under the cushion that started the projector, bringing up a compilation of cartoony slides, the first of which simply read Happy Trails, as happy, almost patriotic, music started playing.

“Greetings, martyr, and welcome! If you’re here now, it means you’ve been offered up as a sacrifice so that your Vault can continue to thrive.” the automated voice said simply. “Currently, you may be feeling sad or angry. Perhaps you never got to have grandkids, or to enjoy the pleasures of a fresh cigar. But march with your chin held high, soldier, and remember that each of us has an important role to play. For some people, their role might be to heal the sick. For others, it might mean they will drive a racecar or fly a rocket ship. And some of us are meant to forfeit our lives for the good of the people. Sure, it might not be as fun as driving a racecar, but it’s every bit as important.”

As the slide show continued and the voice droned on like this was nothing, the girls started growing angrier – even the typically timid Fluttershy had veins of rage popping from her forehead. “Let’s take a moment to reflect on the moments that made your life worth living. Think about that time you kissed your steady girl for the first time under the bleachers at the big game. Or when you snuck out after curfew to catch that new flick that your parents wouldn’t let you see because it was too scary. Boy, were they right! And who could forget when you met the love of your life? What a looker! These are just examples.”

“Do you feel that feeling stirring in your chest as you think of these things? Good. What you are feeling is peace.” If it were a real person saying all this, the girls would’ve contested that fact – they were all more than certain that what they were feeling was deathly rage. “You’ve led a great life. Living it has been its own reward. But it is only the beginning. Close your eyes now, and imagine what joys await you in the next life – the afterlife. Can you see them? Good.”

Immediately after that, the lights died in the chamber and the audio stopped, the door at the back of the chamber locking shut. “Oh, what now?!” Rainbow Dash’s angry question was immediately answered as the walls suddenly opened up to reveal two small chambers filled with robots and machine-gun turrets, which promptly opened fire on the girls.

Rarity had been quick enough to immediately put a barrier of diamonds around herself and her friends, the robots’ laser blasts and bullets ricocheting off the facets in every direction around the room. Overwhelmed by nothing more than rage, Rarity summoned another circle of diamonds which she launched outward on a spin, slashing and impaling several of the robots and turrets.

Those that remained were quickly dispatched by the other Rainbooms, who let loose their powers as they were running on nothing more than pure anger – Rainbow raced around the chamber in a rainbow-colored blur, dodging gunfire and knocking robots down with her momentum and slipstream as Pinkie – whose cotton candy-like hair had completely deflated and fallen straight to give her an almost sinister appearance – charged a whole box of cereal called Sugar Bombs they’d received in Novac with her powers before throwing them out in a wide arc, letting loose a storm of small pink explosions. Every robot those three missed was summarily crushed into scrap metal by Applejack’s super strength and Twilight’s telekinesis as Sunset and Fluttershy watched, numbed to the violence around them.

Finally, the robots and turrets in the chamber were all nothing more than twisted, crushed, charred, and skewered lumps of metal. The girls looked around at the carnage they had wrought… and the skeletons of what were undoubtedly past Vault 11 Overseers – past sacrifices – the robots had killed and dragged out of the way. “Only sixteen.” Rainbow counted.

That was a sobering thought in itself – assuming one of these corpses was Katherine Stone, that meant this vile ritual had only been in operation for sixteen years before she changed the law and brought about Gottlieb’s revolution. Meaning that this Vault had all but killed itself off almost 180 years before the Rainbooms landed in the Mojave in the first place.

“Over here,” Twilight called out halfheartedly – she had apparently found a door in the back wall of one of the two chambers. The others gathered around as Twilight opened it and they found themselves face-to-face with a massive computer bank. “This must be the mainframe.”

“The one that was supposed to kill everyone if they didn’t sacrifice someone to these junk piles every year?” Rainbow asked, gesturing to the robots.

“Yeah,” Twilight said simply.

“Can you access it? Find out why it did all this?” Sunset asked. “I think we all need the closure.”

“Yeah.” Twilight nodded and easily activated the computer screen on the side of the mainframe. There were only three notes on the screen, the first of which was labeled simply as Override Lockdown. Twilight assumed that referred to the locked door at the back of the room, so she clicked it and indeed the door opened.

The second one was labeled System Recording: Vault 11 Solution, which Twilight immediately clicked, playing back an audio recording. “All right, I know you can hear me, so listen up.” It was the first voice from that tape they’d heard in the foyer. “There’s five of us left. Five. Out of… I don’t know how many. So… it’s over. We’ve talked and it’s over. We’re not going to send anybody to die anymore. So shut off our water or gas us or do whatever it is you’re programmed to do. But we’re done listening to you.”

It was comforting to hear such defiant reason in the face of the odds, but the girls were still gruesomely impressed – the Vault was massive, and yet between Katherine’s killing spree, Gottlieb’s rebellion, and the yearly sacrifice, the fact that there were only five survivors remaining in all of Vault 11 was staggering. No one said it, of course, but they were all thinking it as Twilight looked at the third and final note on the screen, entitled Automated Response: Vault 11 Solution, and clicked it, starting a recording of the Vault’s pre-recorded p.a. voice. “Congratulations, citizens of Vault 11! You have made the decision not to sacrifice one of your own. You can walk with your head held high knowing that your commitment to human life is a shining example to us all. And to make that feeling of pride even sweeter, I have some exciting news. Despite what you were led to believe, the population of Vault 11 is not going to be exterminated for your disobedience. Instead, the mechanism to open the main Vault door has now been enabled, and you can come and go at your leisure. But not so fast! Be sure to check with your Overseer to find out if it’s safe to leave. Here at Vault-Tev, your safety is our number one priority.”

The Rainbooms just stood there, disgusted by what they had heard – all the mindlessness that went on in this Vault was for nothing. It was all just some diabolical social experiment to see what would happen. A social experiment that cost the lives of sixteen overseers – one of whom had lost her dignity in the face of it – a handful of vile politicians in a murder spree, and countless innocent bystanders in a civil war for power… and it was all based on a lie.

Numb to all the Vault had put its people through – the decades of voting, the political strife, corruption, drug abuse, scandals, murders, rebellion, murder after senseless murder – the Rainbooms simply walked out of the sacrifice chamber, their faces darkened by trauma that no one dared speak of as they staggered through the winding corridors of the Vault and past the four corpses of those four survivors who had heard this truth for themselves and chosen suicide… which almost seemed now, to Sunset, like the sensible choice.

She looked down at one corpse – Henry, if the tape was to be believed – and retrieved the pistol she’d taken from him out of her jacket, setting it back into his skeletal hand before she followed her friends out of the Vault and back out into the desert.

As they left the valley, they all cast one last look back at the wooden hatch to the tomb of lies under this mountain. Rarity’s quiet closing thought summed up the group’s thoughts very succinctly; “‘Shining example’ indeed.”

With that, and nothing more, the Rainbooms wandered out back to the highway toward New Vegas. Toward what they hoped would be some way out of this hell.

Author's Note

This is one thing I've always found kinda weird and messed up about Fallout New Vegas: on the road to Vegas, the first taste players - especially first-timers - ever get of Vault-Tec and its experiments is the absolute sickest one in existence.

And it's the first one the Rainbooms ever get to experience in the Wasteland.

Well, Talipedsnake780, in your words, you were

looking forward to seeing if/when someone reaches their breaking point.

Satisfied?