Fallout Girls: Devastated Desert

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.