The shopkeeper sat on his chair behind the counter, looking around the empty store. “Freaking slow days.” He grumbled with a sigh, slumping. He suddenly jolted up as the bell jingled, and turned to look at the pair who just entered his store. “Welcome to the Ponyville Pokémart, how can I help you?” He said cheerfully. Finally a client! Though he raised an eyebrow when he noted that the girl had an Eevee and a Spinarak in either shoulder, and a dozing Vulpix on top of her head, while the boy carried another Eevee and a Pidgey on his own shoulders.
The pink-haired girl of the pair turned to him and smiled, the Eevee on her shoulder waving a hello. “We’re looking for a big tent and some supplies.” She stated, walking closer.
The shopkeeper nodded his head to the other side of the store. “Tents are that way.”
“Thanks.” Both the boy and the girl said, walking towards where they were pointed to.
Prism jumped off from her trainer’s shoulder and padded towards the tents, staring at them. “You’re buying this, right?”
“And some more, yeah.” Spike nodded. “Looks like there are three types, though.”
Fairy looked at the options and tilted her head. “So either we buy a small for each of us, a medium for both, even if it get a bit cramped, or a big and actually have some space to stretch.”
Flare yawned before jumping to the floor, looking at the human duo. “Wait, you’re going to share a tent? Isn’t that… intimate or something?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.” Fairy said off-handedly.
“Every time we visit each other we sleep on the same bed; ever since we were kids, really.” Spike shrugged. “It won’t be so different.”
Shade snorted, shaking his head with a grin. “No wonder your brother teases you so much, Fairy.”
“Hush you.” Fairy playfully glowered. “And no, he does that because I did the same thing about him and Niner.”
“Let’s take the big one.” Spike decided. “More space, we can sleep with our Pokémon if they wish to, and it’s cheaper than two medium-sized tents.” He took the selected tent and nodded to the rest of the store. Fairy nodded and they both searched for the rest of the items they needed.
A few hours later, the duo was walking out of town with their Pokémon in tow, ready to tackle the road towards Appleloosa. “Alright, now that we’re here we’ll start training, right?” Flare mused.
“Yep. Though I thought we would spend some more time in Ponyville.” Fairy confirmed.
“Eh, we don’t really have anything to do here for now.” Spike shrugged. “Let’s walk a bit more and then start.”
“While we’re still traveling, why don’t you explain the league for us?” Silk offered from Fairy’s shoulder, Flare and Breeze nodding in agreement.
“Sure thing.” Fairy smiled. “The Rainbow League is a tournament that happens every two years, where the best Pokémon trainers of the region of Equus compete against each other. To qualify for it, you need to defeat eight of the eighteen different gyms of the region and collect their badges; in each gym you need to fight a three-on-three battle, knocking out every Pokémon of the Gym Leader. After the tournament, the champion will have the right to challenge the Elite Four, and if they win, the Regional Champion.”
“Why does it happen every two years instead of every year?” Flare asked, tilting her head in confusion.
“Because our region is very big, and even when you try to gather the nearest badge, you will still spend nine to eleven months depending on where you start.” Spike explained. “And since a lot of trainers have a specific list of gyms they want to beat – like us – it almost always takes more than a year. We’re tackling the Grass, Flying, Normal, Fairy, Ice, Water, Electric and Psychic. On that order.”
Fairy nodded in agreement. “Yeah, we’re ready for the Grass gym; Flying won’t be that hard despite Rainbow’s boastings, as will Normal. After that we’ll probably have Pokémon with type advantage.” Her eyes lit up. “Speaking of Pokémon… pattern?”
Spike furrowed his brows. “What?”
“You know, a team of Pokémon with a certain color, type or habitat…” Fairy clarified. “I’ll try and capture a Pokémon for each type, like I used to say back when we were kids.” She pointed to her two vixens and her spider. “Already covered Fire, bug and whatever the fuck Prism is going to turn into-”
Prism rolled her eyes. “I’m called Prism and my brother is Shade, everyone already knows we’re evolving into Espeon and Umbreon.”
“-Psychic then, so I only need fifteen more.” The girl concluded without missing a beat.
Spike stared at her for a moment.”… You still have that list, don’t you?”
Fairy took a small notepad and opened it, the words ‘Favorite Pokémon for Each Type’ written on the first page. “Yep. Think about it, we’ll always have at least two Pokémon with type advantage! And it won’t be as much work as some other people who catch everything in sight; we’ll be able to give a lot of attention to everyone!”
Spike went silent for a while and then sighed. “I’ll think about it.”
“Can we see it?” Prism asked, sniffing the notepad.
Fairy laughed. “Alright, but only the types you already cover, that way you won’t have spoilers of which Pokémon I’ll be searching for.” She shuffled through the pages of her list, stopping on Fire first.
Flare blushed when she saw ‘Ninetales’ written in big red letters. “So, Ninetales, Delphox, Houndoom and…” She blinked. “Quilava? Why not Typhlosion?”
“Quilava is cute, Typhlosion not so much. That happens with a lot of Pokémon on my list actually.” Fairy responded easily.
“That and you’re traumatized by that ‘Quilava is Mourning’ creepypasta.” Spike snickered, remembering the day he found Fairy crying on her bed, only to slap her upside the head with a deadpan when he found the reason why she was crying in the first place.
“That shit is at the same time horribly scary and extremely sad.” Fairy said drily. “That poor Quilava…” Spike chuckled as Fairy shuffled the pages again.
Silk smiled when she saw ‘Ariados’ written first on the Bug page. “Ariados, Galvantula, Armaldo and Volcarona. Aren’t humans supposed to be scared of spiders?”
“A few, not me.” Her trained smirked. Shuffle shuffle.
Prism blinked. “Espeon and Lugia. Why?”
“Fairy and Psychic are the types I hate the most, which is ironic since my nickname is Fairy and my favorite Pokémon is a Psychic-type.” Fairy grunted. “No matter how many times I look at the Pokémon of those types, I just can’t make myself like more than two or so.” She turned to her companion’s Pokémon. “If you care, Pidgeot’s here too; not sure about Umbreon since I already have Espeon written down.” Shade and Breeze shrugged.
For the next hour they walked as far as they could, making small talk, joking around and talking about their lives before they left to their newer Pokémon. At some point Fairy pulled her phone and put a few songs, loud enough for them to hear but not to scare nearby Pokémon.
“As the masses came
like a shadow through this land
and laid siege to all we ever had, yeah
I stood strong, I was honor bound
I stand defiant, I stand ever proud
I am the chosen
I am the guardian, the guardian…”
While Fairy sung, her vixens bobbed their heads to it while Breeze was all out head-banging, much to the amusement of Silk and Shade.
“Alright, let’s stop for now and train for a bit.” Spike called out with a chuckle, stepping out of the road and setting his backpack down near one of the few trees around the group.
“Aww…” Fairy and the other girls pouted. The trainer sighed as she put her purse near Spike’s bag. “Well, time to train.” Prism and Breeze perked up at this. “First we need to set a routine. We need to train you all at more than just your moves; we need to make you physically fit as well.”
Spike nodded in agreement. “Let’s start with a few laps, then reaction training and then we’ll train your moves.”
Silk sweatdropped. “I’m… not sure the laps are going to work with me.”
Fairy hummed. “Well, I plan on having a speed-focused team, so there must be a way of correcting that.” She crossed her arms and frowned for a minute, until she suddenly smiled and snapped her fingers. “Got it! Why don’t you train running small distances and then use String Shot to cross larger ones? You’re right that being a Spinarak you won’t be as fast as Prism or Flare, but when you evolve you’ll be able to keep up with them easily; especially with Agility. Run a few laps around those two trees here and the train moving from one to the other with you String Shot without falling.” She pointed to the tree their bags were set at and the nearest other tree, and the little spider nodded, already moving for it. “Flare and Prism, you two are going to train together; Flare, you’ll train your base speed by trying to keep up with Prism, then you’ll try to teach her Quick Attack and train it together to the point you’ll be able to use it on reflex.”
“Got it!” Prism saluted before zipping away. “Let’s go Flare!”
“Ah crap.” Flare muttered when she saw the speed Prism was moving, knowing that her training was trying to keep up with that and then making the Eevee faster.
“Suddenly the idea of a speed-based team doesn’t seem too farfetched, even if it’s going to be hell finding a Rock-type like that.” Spike mused before turning to his own Pokémon. “Shade, go with your sister and Flare, that training should be good for you too. Breeze, fly around the two trees for as long as you can without slowing down much.” Both Normal-types nodded and went for their exercises.
Fairy and Spike both sat on the grass, observing their Pokémon train. Fairy turned to Spike with a smile. “So, are we going to keep walking a bit and then stop at the afternoons to train, or we’ll stay here for a week or so for a more intensive training and then go to Appleloosa?”
“… Staying to train would be a good idea,” Spike conceded. “But this place isn’t a good place for that. No river, no berry trees…”
“Fair enough.” Fairy nodded, standing up. “Well, I’m joining them. It’s been a while since I had a good parkour run, and I can see a good route for it.”
Spike watched her go as she looked at a certain set of trees that were close to each other before taking off, kicking off one of the trees and landing on a branch, almost immediately jumping to another nearby with a somersault, holding to it and swinging herself up. Spike smiled as she nailed the trick seemingly without an effort. “Ah, screw it.” He chuckled and stood up, thinking on what sort of training he could do himself.
The five Pokémon stood side by side, eyes closed as they focused on their internal energy. Their trainers stood at a safe distance, holding their respective Pokédexes at ready, prepared to scan the move they would try.
During the last two weeks the group kept walking until they found a river with a few berry trees at walking distance, and decided to stop and have some more intensive training. On their training the four girls and Shade focused on both their bodies – Fairy’s Pokémon mainly on speed, while Spike’s trained their defense a bit more – as well on expanding their move pool.
Because of that, by the end of the training all the Pokémon had learned around three moves each, though their progress on mastering t]said moves vary. Prism mastered Quick Attack easily, as Fairy hoped, but also learned Iron Tail and Swift; mastering Iron tail was hard work, but Swift was coming along swimmingly. Flare took to Flare Blitz and Fire Spin like a fish to water, and she was close to mastering Payback, though Iron Tail was giving her a few problems as well. Silk easily mastered Pin Missile and Toxic, her typing helping her a lot, but Night Shade was hell on the little spider.
On Spike’s side, Shade mastered Iron Tail extremely quickly to Prism and Flare’s rage, and Façade was coming along well; Toxic was a bit harder, but not nearly as much as Iron Tail to the vixens. Much to the boy’s amusement, Breeze also mastered Steel Wing quickly, but Twister and U-turn were still giving her a hard time.
On their last day on that location, however, Fairy had the idea of teaching them a move that was much simpler than the other and would possibly teach them a move of a new type. Speaking of which…
Five sets of eyes snapped open, staring at the boulders they labeled as targets. Five sets of spheres blazed to life, each one taking a different color; Prism’s was violet, Flare’s was black, Silk’s was a glittery pink, Shade’s was green and Breeze’s was brown.
“Hidden Power!” They shouted as one and fired their combined attack, reducing the boulder to rubble in an instant and creating a huge dust cloud.
The human pair coughed as the dust began to settle, and Fairy groaned. “My hair’s going to be a bitch to clean… oh well.” She sighed and her, and Spike’s Pokémon gathered in front of her. “Alright, we got it. Let’s see…” She trailed off, blinking at the information her Pokédex was displaying. “Huh, look at that. Prism’s Hidden Power is Dragon-typed-” “Fuck yeah!” “-Flare’s is Dark-typed-” “Between Payback and Feint Attack, that’s pretty useless…” “-and Silk’s is Fairy-typed.” “Huh. Neat.”
Spike’s looked at his own Pokédex. “Seems like Shade’s is Grass-typed and Breeze’s is Fighting-typed.”
“Oh, come on!” Breeze groaned. “Prism and Silk got Dragon and Fairy and I get fucking Fighting-type. That’s bullshit.” Fairy and Spike shrugged helplessly.
“Sorry if that’s disappointing, but we can’t do anything about that.” Fairy said.
“I know, just… damn it.”
“So… I guess it’s time to go?” Prism asked, nodding towards Appleloosa’s general direction.
“Yeah, that would be best.” Spike agreed. “Let’s get our things and get going.” Spike agreed. With a nod, all seven started to store everything on their camp.
An hour later, Fairy and Spike strolled down the road, this time with only the Eevee twins out. The trip was made in relative silence, appreciating the nature of the Summer Plains around them while they could, knowing they had to cross the Sandstorm Desert in a few days. While they were walking though, they noticed a pair of adults – Fairy guessed twenty-three or around that age – coming from the other direction, going towards Ponyville; both pairs kept walking like they hadn’t noticed each other, or just didn’t care.
When they were a few feet apart however, both pairs stopped abruptly, eyeing each other. The new boy had a pretty obvious preference for dark colors – his hair was black and spiked, and his eyes a dark shade of gray; he was wearing black jeans and a hoodie, with a grey shirt under it, a dark silhouette of a Garchomp printed on it. He eyed the duo with indifference, but Spike noted a small shine of friendlessness on his eyes, immediately knowing that even if the boy acted distant, he wouldn’t push him away.
The girl was completely different – she had a long and wavy silver hair that reached her hips, and her silvery eyes held a sliver of nervousness, but also the same shine of friendlessness. She was wearing a dark blue jeans and a sky blue blouse with the left sleeve hanging on her arm, the shirt seeming to be held only by the right sleeve and her… impressive bust.
Fairy looked at the girl, and then looked down. She returned her gaze up with a pout.
The others present followed Fairy’s gaze. The girl blushed and jumped behind the boy, who had a look of amusement on his face while Spike sighed, slapping his partner upside the head. He turned an apologetic look to the girl. “Sorry about that. You know how some people say that only men are perverted? She’s the exception to the rule.”
“Metta.” Fairy countered, rubbing her head.
“One of the exceptions.” Spike corrected himself with a sweatdrop.
“I-It’s okay, I’m used to that. It’s just that I’m used to being stared by boys.” The girl sighed in embarrassment.
“Bisexuality is OP.” Fairy chimed, ducking under Spike’s hand as he tried to slap her again.
“Shut up.” Spíke warned.
The girl giggled slightly before introducing herself. “My name is Sapphyra. This here is Soul.” She tilted her head to the boy, who nodded in greeting. “We are travelling through Equus at the moment; He’s taking the Gym Challenge, but I’m more interested on Contests.”
“I’m Spike, and this here is Shade.” He introduced himself, petting the Eevee on his shoulder.
“I’m Fairy, the sleepy-head here is Prism.” She said, scratching her Eevee on her chin, who had been sleeping on her shoulder until she ducked.
“She was sleeping?” Shade asked. “So that’s why it’s been so quiet.”
“Hush.” Prism mumbled sleepily.
“So, Contests?” Fairy asked. “I might try participating on one, but I doubt I’ll stop my Gym Challenge; gotta kick my brother’s ass on his own game after all.” She said with a chuckle.
Sapphyra nodded. “Yes, I’ve always been interested in contests, even as a child. I still battle every now and then, but I’m not interested enough to the point of trying my luck on the League.” She rubbed the back of her head. “I’m not really good at battling.”
“That’s why we’re travelling together; aside from the fact we’ve been friends since childhood.” Soul shrugged, speaking up for the first time. “I’m helping you with your battling and you help me raise my Pokémon a little better.”
Fairy grinned slyly. “That, and you two are probably ban-” She was cut off by Spike as he beaned her again.
“Seriously, shut up.” He growled, shooting another apologetic grin Sapphyra’s way.
“I-It’s alright.” She stuttered with a wide blush on her face.
“She’s not wrong, anyways.” Soul shrugged noncommittally.
“Soul!”
Fairy burst out laughing, clapping her hands together as applause for Soul. “Hoh-oh-oh-ly shit, buddy I already like you.” She stated, pointing a finger gun at the boy with a wink. Soul smirked back. She suddenly perked up. “Hey, how about a battle? We’ve been training around here for a while, but we haven’t met anyone aside from you two, and we still haven’t used two of our Pokémon in battle.”
Sapphyra and Soul looked at each other and smiled. “Sure.” Sapphyra finally said, reaching for her Pokéball along with Soul. “Dratini, take the stage!” “Gabite, time to battle!”
Both Dragon-types appeared on the road, Gabite roaring a challenge and Dratini slithering in a circle before eyeing her opponents with curiosity. Fairy whistled. “Nice. They seem strong.”
“Gabite here steamrolled the Fire-type Gym.” Soul pointed out, making his Pokémon puff his chest out in pride. “Sure, he almost lost on the last Pokémon, but his evolution saved him.”
“Fire-type? That’s Niner’s Gym!” Fairy blinked before laughing uproariously. “Holy crap she must’ve been pissed!”
Spike chuckled as well. “Congratulations, the Courage Badge isn’t the easiest one to get, even at advantage.” The young adult nodded in appreciation. Spike sighed. “Well, I don’t think we’ll win this one but eh.” He narrowed his eyes, hurling his Pokéball upwards. “Breeze, battle cry!”
The capsule twirled in the air before opening, releasing a flash of with that revealed the female bird. “The skies are my domain!” She cried out, circling from above before settling in front of her trainer.
“Nice.” Fairy complimented, juggling her own Pokéball before hurling it. “Silk, show’em what you got!”
Like before, the sphere opened in a flash of light before revealing the creature contained inside, this time being the little Spinarak. “This is going to be-“ She cut herself off, finally noticing her opponents. “… Hard, apparently.” She finished lamely.
“Three outta ten, need a new one.” Prism called out.
“Shut up, I’m not exactly good at this.” Silk growled.
“Ready?” Soul asked.
Fairy opened her purse and took a small ball from inside, holding it up. “Ready.” She nodded, letting the sphere fall.
The four trainers tensed as they watched the ball fall, minds racing as they came up with strategies for the fight. Soul and Sapphyra both decided that they would go easy from the start, as the opponents clearly were inexperienced, while Fairy and Spike both knew they had to find a way of being at advantage against those two.
The sphere bounced.
“Set your arena!” Fairy barked, an idea coming to mind. Silk nodded and jumped high, firing String Shots seemingly at random.
“Stop her!” Sapphyra called out, and her Dratini immediately darted forwards, preparing a Flamethrower to burn the strings.
“Breeze, use Gust!” The Pidgey beat her wings hard, unleashing a blast of wind strong enough to knock Dratini to the side, staggering her and stopping the attack. “Now use Steel Wing!” Dratini only had time to open her eyes before a silver wing impacted her across the face.
Soul growled, berating himself for not being quick enough to shout his command. “Gabite, Dragon Rage!” Gabite sucked a breath before firing a compressed sphere of Dragon energy, the attack impacting Silk before she could move out of the way. “ Now follow with Dual Chop!” The Dragon/Ground-type shot forwards with his fins glowing purple, ready for the double strike.
Too bad Fairy wouldn’t let him. “Constrict, bind him!” Gabite’s eyes widened as multiple strings of web spun around him and pulled his arms against his torso, causing his attack to dissipate. “Absorb now!” The strands glowed green as it started to sap the Pokémon’s energy.
“Ice Beam, free Gabite!” Sapphyra called for her Pokémon. Dratini shook her head from the earlier impact and gathered energy in her maw again, this time she finished the attack and fired a frigid beam at Silk.
Silk turned an eye towards the incoming beam and quickly shot a String Shot from her rear, pulling her out of the move’s impact area, detaching herself from the strings on her mouth. “Nice!” Her trainer praised. “Now use String Shot, just touch him!” Silk clicked her pincers in confusion but complied, connecting herself and the Dragon-type before he could free himself. “Now use Toxic! Carry it through the string!” Silk’s eyes shone in understanding and did as she was asked, the string quickly becoming purple with poison and poisoning Gabite before he could do anything.
Soul nodded. “Impressive combo.” Fairy grinned in response. “But don’t get overconfident! Dragon Claw!” Gabite tore through his bindings at last and shot towards the Spinarak.
“Evade and Pin Missile!” Fairy called out before turning to Spike. “The Toxic is going to take the Gabite out fast, and Silk is quick enough to evade everything he got. That Dratini’s Flamethrower is a problem, however.”
“Breeze is agile; she can evade the beams if she pays attention.” Spike informed her and turned to the fight. “Alright, let’s stop playing around! Twister!”
Sapphyra’s eyes widened. “Counter it!”
“Finally!” Breeze grinned as she gathered the draconic winds around her wings, flapping them hard to unleash the move; Dratini did the same, and her own Twister clashed with the bird’s.
It wasn’t much of a contest.
“Motherfu-” Breeze yelped as the winds impacted her, sending her into a stumble that she almost couldn’t control in time, stopping a feet from the floor. “Alright, then.”
“Freaking stab.” Spike sighed. “Get close, use Steel Wing!”
“Brutal Swing!” Sapphyra commanded. Both females darted towards each other and started a physical battle, silvery wings impacting a tail coated with Dark energy strong enough to create small shockwaves.
“Dragon Breath, hit her!” Soul shouted. He was getting worried; the poison in Gabite was acting fast, and the Pokémon was receiving a lot of damage from it. “Sapphyra, I need your help.”
“A bit busy.” She grimaced. “The Pidgey is much stronger than I thought, and most of the long-range attacks I have won’t hit.” She sighed, turning to her boyfriend. “Let’s hit them with everything?” Soul nodded.
Silk used her String Shot again to get out of the way and fired her Hidden Power at Fairy’s command, but Gabite jumped back, regrouping with Dratini. The smaller Dragon-type looked at her partner with worry, but received a reassuring grin. Fairy frowned. “I don’t like this.”
“Any ideas? They’re close to each other now.” Spike asked.
Fairy was silent for a moment, observing the couple whispering to each other and knowing that she had to take the opportunity but didn’t have anything that hit strong enough- Her eyes widened as an idea came to mind. “Jump as high as you can and hook Breeze with your String Shot!” Silk nodded and jumped high, linking herself and her old friend with a strand of silk. “Spin her around you!” Breeze yelped in surprise as she was spun in a circle around the airborne Silk. Soul and Sapphyra looked at it in confusion, but Spike smirked as he caught on. “Now slingshot her!” The string cut, and Breeze found herself flung at the dragon pair.
“Brave Bird!” Spike added quickly. Breeze’s look of confusion immediately turned into a feral grin as her body ignited in blue blazes, her strongest move ready to strike.
Soul and Sapphyra looked at each other and nodded. Turning to the fight, they shouted their command. “Draco Storm!” Gabite and Dratini nodded in understanding, the bigger dragon gathering purple flames in his maw while the smaller one spun draconic wind around herself, firing her Twister just as her partner used Dragon Breath. Both moves impacted each other and turned into a spinning vortex of draconic blazes, engulfing Breeze and exploding violently.
“Breeze!” Spike, Fairy and Silk cried out in worry together, observing as Breeze’s unconscious form fell from the cloud of smoke.
“Dragon Rage!” “Flamethrower!” Soul and Sapphyra shouted together again, the double move quickly striking Silk while they were distracted and taking her out as well.
“Silk and Breeze are unable to continue; the winners are Gabite and Dratini. The victory goes to Soul and Sapphyra.” Shade announced from his trainer’s shoulder. The teenagers sighed.
“That went about as well as I expected.” Fairy commented dryly.
“I actually expected worse.” Spike admitted, pulling his medical supplies as the others did the same. “I mean, Dragon-types are really hard to take down, and one of them is an evolved form.”
“We could have won if they hadn’t teamed up like that.” Breeze huffed.
“It was a double battle, Breeze, they’re supposed to team up.” Fairy pointed out, inspecting Silk’s injuries.
“So you can talk to Pokémon.” Soul stated, applying an antidote on his Gabite.
“It’s my pendant and his bracelet; Moon Dancer’s whole research is about Pokémon communication.” Fairy explained, holding said accessory up. “We’re testing it for her, along with the Elite Four and Gym Leaders. I think she’s going to give it to a few trainers she knows and trusts but I’m not certain.”
“Cool.”
Sapphyra took her Xtransceiver out and smiled. “Hey, could you give us your numbers? I’d like to talk to you again, see if we’re in the same town and all.”
“Sure.” Fairy smiled and put both of their numbers on Sapphyra and Soul’s Xtranceivers, and Sapphyra did the same with the younger’s ; Spike’s Xtranceiver was new as he bought them on their visit to Ponyville.
The group had sat down and chatted for a while, Fairy releasing Flare as Sapphyra was curious about the third ‘ball on her and the pink-haired girl finally managing to make the quiet Dragon-types to speak so she could be sure the devices were working. After a few minutes, however, the y parted ways and walked towards their destinies with promises to keep in touch.
“Alright, now I’m sure we’re ready for Applejack.” Fairy nodded confidently.
“I think I’ll visit the Badlands before the battle, though. I need a third Pokémon and a fire-type is perfect for it.” Spike mused.
“What are we waiting for, then?” Fairy shouted, changing her steps into a sprint in a second. Spike shook his head in exasperation and started to run as well; luckily the Sandstorm Desert was fairly small compared to others around the world, and it shouldn’t take more than a day to cross.