Fallout Girls: Devastated Desert

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.