Fallout Equestria: Sundown

Chapter 10: Recollection Road

oooOOOooo

As I fell from the sky, being zapped by a bolt of lightning summoned by the most powerful unicorn mage

in Equestria, I took a moment to take stock of the events in my life up to this point.

I had become a Night Guard, I was struck by a colossal meteor from space which turned out to be the

wish of Nightmare Moon for an eternal night. Being the corrupted goddess of the moon, she was in

direct control of all things related to the night yet either had to overpower Celestia and take the throne,

or as a supposed backup plan, had to cast night itself into an eternal power source. On top of all of this, I

had become ‘Eternal’, which the rapidly approaching farmland beneath me was about to test the limits

of.

In the few remaining precious seconds of existence I was growing increasingly fond of, I realized that

despite being stuck with enough magical energy to be disintegrated, my once light grey coat had turned

a distinct charcoal color, with my hooves themselves being pitch black. I had no idea if I even had a mane

or tail to speak of, considering I was still twitching and in spasms from the amount of electricity I had

somehow survived, but I really wanted coffee at that point. What even is coffee anyway?

CRUNCH

FLOP

SNAP

THUD

Ow?

I think I hit the ground hard enough to bounce off of tilled farmland. Does that make it more bouncy than

regular land, or softer?

Wait a minute, how am I not dead after a fall from that height?

I tried to move, or do anything but breathe, but my body wasn’t cooperating. I should probably be in a

world of agony and suffering right about now, but I couldn’t even blink to get the flecks of dirt out of my

eye. Shouldn’t that be concerning me? I decided that it didn’t really matter, and a few moments later I

heard the tail end of shouting before the chariot carrying the Sun Goddess, Marelin the Evil, and Brag

floated down and landed with a thud on a patch of wheat nearby.

“Marelin, you had better be quick in explaining your actions.” I heard Princess Celestia say in a very stern

tone to my side.

“Well, I had figured that the best course of action in studying the limitations of being Eternal was to see

if that also meant physical immortality and immunity to harm. Seeing as how Sundown here wasn’t

completely disintegrated by a spell designed to do just that, I would say that my experiment was a

resounding success. However I have noticed that she isn’t breathing. I should probably be doing

something about that, shouldn’t I?” Marelin the Evil Wizard Pony of Evilness said.

I noticed myself being levitated and turned around to face the trio of ponies, and with a bright flash of

light from Marelin the Decidedly Not a Good Pony in my Opinion, I was returned to the world of pain and

agony that was life.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUGHHHHH” I eloquently screamed at the top of my lungs with

enough force to send their mane’s flying directly behind them like they’d been struck by a hurricane. I

think a nearby farmpony cried for his wheat field which had been flattened, but I was too busy shouting

at Marelin to really care.

“Luna sodomize me with the Moon! What is wrong with you, you sadistic witch!?” I screamed at

Marelin, after regaining enough of my breath to do so. “What evil has possessed you to even consider

that shooting a bolt of lightning into somepony is a good idea!?”

After that, Marelin released me from her telekinetic grip and I flopped onto the floor and crumpled into a

heap of batpony on the earth. Still in agony and breathing heavily, I didn’t have the energy to do more

than continue my barrage of expletives at the wizard mare. After about ten minutes of this, Celestia

deemed that the verbal abuse I was dishing out was enough, and moved me upright while setting a

pillow from the chariot underneath me. I wasn’t done, but I continued to glare daggers at Marelin the

Sadistic.

“Ahem.” Marelin the Douche cleared her throat before continuing. “Now that you’ve gotten that out of

your system, I can explain. In this case, being Eternal does not mean that you are exempt from harm,

only that death will not claim you. I would perform another test to see how long it would take for your

body to restart itself, but I think that would be in bad taste considering you just fell from the cloud layer

without more than a change in coat color. Nice eyes, by the way.” She levitated a mirror over to me, and

my once normal pony eyes had warped into something resembling the dragon-like eyes of Nightmare

Moon herself, and they were now a blazing orange color instead of their normal light blue.

“Well that’s just fantastic. You’ve struck me with magic hard enough that I have Dragon eyes. I’m not

really sure how to feel about this.” I stated with detachment, not really over the fact that I’d recently

been dead, except not dead. I moved my head to get a better look at the rest of myself, and noticed that

my teeth had grown fangs, and my hair now had a stripe of the same orange coloration as my eyes

running down the middle of my mane. Despite being a bat pony, I didn’t have features before now that

looked like they’d come straight from the corrupted moon goddess herself, space mane not included.

“Would you explain why she resembles my banished sister?” Celestia asked with a somber voice, still

emotionally tender after only recently banishing said sister to a thousand year prison sentence on the

moon.

“Without study, my guess would be that since Nightmare Moon made the wish and its eternal nature,

that some of her magic would be responsible for its creation and effects. So in short, she’s become

infected with some residual magic of Nightmare Moon.”

Nope. Too crazy. Not going to believe that my life has suddenly become that twisted, that quickly. No

way, no how. I don’t care if Celestia herself is staring at me like that, I don’t care that the guards are

unsheathing their swords and moving towards me, I don’t care that even Brag is starting to cast magic at

me. This is too insane and I’m not having any of this nonsense anymore. I am definitely not corrupted by

the fears and anger of a neglected goddess that wanted to cast all of Equestria into an eternal night just

so she could get the same recognition and love as her sun controlling sister.

And then I realized that I was pinned to the ground by two fields of magic with swords pointed at my

neck and a very concerned princess staring at me.

“I’m not evil!” I yelped, trying to struggle with about as much success as a snail escaping salt being

poured on them.

“That’s what all the evil ponies say!” Brag blurted out, clearly not helping my situation.

“I’m not evil, I swear it! I’ll bake you cookies! Evil ponies don’t bake cookies!” I desperately begged, still

squirming in a panic.

“What are your orders, Princess Celestia?” One of the Pegasus guards managed to clearly state, sword

gripped in his mouth and held against my neck.

“Definitely don’t kill the bat pony! I’m a nice pony, I wouldn’t hurt a fly! I’m not evil!” I cried out

pathetically.

“Well I don’t think we actually can kill you in the first place. That’s the whole issue with you being

eternal, isn’t it?” Marelin the Decidedly Evil Pony in this situation stated matter-of-factly.

“But I haven’t done anything evil!” I screeched.

“You killed Celestia’s guards, assisted Nightmare Moon and are currently eternal because of said threat

to Equestria. You’ve been imbued with the darkness that took hold of Princess Luna and now look like a

pony possessed.” Marelin bluntly said.

“That’s not my fault! I was confused!” I pleaded.

“You killed my brother!” The other Pegasus guard protested.

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Enough!” Princess Celestia boomed over the argument. “This is getting us all nowhere. We need a way

to make certain that Sundown is telling the truth, is not evil, and won’t have to be turned into a statue to

safeguard Equestria.”

“What is it with you and turning ponies into statues!?” I shouted, annoying the guards holding me with

my volume.

Celestia stomped her hoof on the ground, causing a minor tremor with her temper, before using her

cheaty-alicorn magic to lift me off of the ground and place me gently into the chariot. Then she used said

magic to bind me in chains and I slumped down in relief at not being turned into a statue, killed, or made

to become another test participant in Marelin the Madpony’s experiments.

“Marelin, I ask that you find the source of Nightmare Moon’s corruption within Sundown in any way

possible. We need to know if anypony else has been affected this way, and how to save them if possible.”

The Not Merciful and Benevolent Sun Goddess said.

“Nooo! She’s going to zap me with lightning again, o-or throw fire at me, or turn me into a newt!” I

protested from my spot in the chariot, now having the Pegasus guards strapping themselves in to pull it.

“Hmm, hadn’t thought of transfiguration magic yet. Good suggestion, Sundown!” Marelin chirped,

hopping next to me and throwing a hoof around my shoulder.

“We’re going to be the best of magic buddies together!” she giggled ominously.

“Marelin, no unnecessary tormenting of evil ponies. We’re supposed to set the example, remember?”

Brag said, shoving a hoof into Marelin’s snout, causing it to scrunch slightly.

“I’m not evil!” I cried, falling over in despair at being ignored and resigned to my fate as unwilling

magical target dummy.

“Shush!” everypony said in response.

Some hours later, my unending pleading long since being stopped by a hoof kerchief, we arrived at a

back entrance to the freshly constructed Canterlot Palace. How they managed to create an entire castle

not even a few days since moving to Canterlot I’ll never know for certain, but I suspect it has something

to do with an Immortal Goddess and an army of loyal unicorn subjects doing the work. Princess Celestia

had since left, going to the court to hear requests and pleas from noble ponies looking for table scraps of

acknowledgement from the sun princess, and farmers of the nearby lands reporting the supposed

upheaval of their lives from a few weeks of unending night having wilted their crops. It seemed odd,

because the farmer with the wheat field earlier had been totally fine.

I was being led by Marelin, Brag, and two unicorn guards now and heading deeper into the palace where

they supposedly had a dungeon installed for ‘special prisoners’ like myself. Passing a few of the cells, I

had noticed there were no doors and a one way window that went across the length of the cell for

guards to look in. I noticed a Minotaur that had his entire body etched in red glowing runes, an older

mage looking stallion who had lost his marbles and was casting spells in every direction of his cell in a

futile effort to do anything to it. There was also a room filled with a black smoke, and I noticed two

glowing red eyes following my own, looking at me through the supposedly one way glass.

“Creepy.” I mumbled, before being yanked to keep pace with the guards following Marelin and Brag.

We passed through two ornately decorated wooden doors that swung open with a loud bang, making

Marelin wince at the unintentionally overdramatic entrance to her lab. After giving a cursory glance to

the runes etched into the wooden doors, she motioned for the guards to leave and again slammed them

shut with a bit too much force before giving an exasperated sigh through her teeth.

“You doing okay, Marelin?” Brag asked, moving a few books around with his magic as Marelin got a

chair with leather straps reoriented to face me, and pulled down a large metal cauldron from one of the

shelves overhead and setting it down nearby with her magic.

“Yep! Completely in control and not at all worried about the expectations laid before me by the goddess

of the sun!” She belted out, moving in a panicked frenzy as objects flew around the room and set

themselves down in semi-scientific looking spots that looked like they’d do something.

Meanwhile, I had just been sitting there in my chains taking in the scene before me and been very

worried as to why a chair would need straps and a metal helmet on a swivel attached to said chair.

“Marelin, bruh. You’ll be fine! Don’t sweat it. I’m sure the Princess will give you more than enough time

to crack this evil pony’s resolve and we’ll both get rewarded and have ice-cream to celebrate!” the colt

said reassuringly to Marelin, but worryingly to my own ears.

“She’s Eternal, Brag! We don’t have all of eternity to match wills with the eternal spawn of Nightmare

Moon!” Marelin countered.

“Um, if I could share some input?” I tried, raising a hoof with a clattering sound of chains.

“No more talking, evil pony!” Marelin shouted, using her magic to fling me into the chair, removing my

chains and strapping me in with the leather bindings and moving the weird metal helmet with a bunch of

gems and copper wires coming from it onto my head.

“Bu-“

“No talky!” She interrupted, shoving yet another goddess damned hoof kerchief in my mouth. I accepted

my muffled fate and settled for a glare at Marelin, who had since ignored me and put the finishing

touches on her equipment that nearly buried the room from floor to ceiling in whirring, clanking and gear

spinning sounds. Marelin the Crazy let out a sigh of frustration, before spinning my chair clockwise a few

times before stopping me, and huffed again before moving me counter-clockwise a smidgeon.

“There! Now we can begin with the testing.” She stated, flinging off her cloak and putting on some kind

of white coat with a bunch of pockets on it, and a pair of glasses.

Finally being able to get a look at her, Marelin had a sand colored coat, White and yellow striped spikey

mane with a similar tail, sporting mahogany eyes.

“Fire!” She abruptly stated, as Brag’s horn lit up and bathed me in a jet of flames before ending a

moment later.

As the fire ended, I looked around as well as I could, what with my body and head being held firmly in

place by enchanted leather straps.

“Darn. No effect!” Marelin stated, writing it down on a clip board before going through a whole list of

every sort of magic known to pony kind for the rest of the day, each one having little to no effect on me,

aside from mild discomfort.

“No, this shouldn’t be happening! You’re eternal, not invincible!” Marelin snapped, becoming frustrated

at this turn of events.

“Maybe she’s just immune to magic?” Brag suggested, and Marelin spun around with a sparkle in her

eye as she then turned and dashed off only to return with an armory’s worth of swords, halberds, maces,

crossbows and other implements of death and pain.

“Should we try ‘em all at once!?” She shouted half crazed already by her efforts.

“No! We’re the good ponies here, remember? She’s the evil one!” Brag said with a look of disbelief.

“Oh, fine then! I’m gonna start with the spikey mace!” Marelin grinned devilishly as I squirmed and

fidgeted away from the spikey mace of imminent pain and injury floating towards me.

Then the doors burst open again, making Princess Celestia and her two Pegasus guards wince at the

unintended bang the doors gave off, only to stare at a crazed Marelin holding a Morningstar in her

magic, who equally stared at the shocked Sun Goddess while shifting her eyes frantically back and forth.

“I can explain!” Marelin blurted, dropping the weapons with a cacophony of noise to the floor.

I met Celestia’s gaze with hopefully pleading eyes as her focus shifted around the room to take in all of

the equipment Marelin had been using for some purpose or another, to the scorch marks behind my seat

and other magical after effects that still flittered about the room before finally resting on Marelin herself,

who was babbling incoherently on the floor beneath Celestia’s hooves.

“Marelin, my faithful student… What the hay is going on!?” She shouted, making everypony surprised at

her sudden outburst as ears reoriented themselves forwards after recovering from the volume.

Marelin looked back at Brag for help, but the colt just shrugged and trotted over to me and started

releasing me from my binding.

“Brag, what are you doing?!” Marelin shouted, before being stopped by Celestia’s magic as she tried

running in the air, to be turned around and pointed at the face of the Sun Goddess who was giving her a

stern look.

“Explain to my why you have Sundown strapped into an execution chair, surrounded by weaponry and

the aftermath of magic spells, and why you appeared to be readying a Morningstar to strike a helpless

prisoner.” Celestia said, her stare going straight into Marelin’s soul.

“Eheh… um. Science?” She offered weakly, tapping her forehooves together with a nervous grin on her

face.

Celestia dropped Marelin from her magical grasp without ceremony as she addressed Brag.

“Braggadocious, are you able to explain this madness?” she asked, moving forward and ignoring

Marelin.

“Well your royalness, Marelin decided that since Sundown here is Eternal that she could test the effects

of whatever spells she wanted to, to see if they would be able to hurt Nightmare Moon when she comes

back from her vacation on the moon. I thought it was most un-cool, but she’s my teacher and I had to go

with it.” Brag explained, finishing his task of releasing me and I hopped out of the chair onto wobbly legs,

having been stuck there for quite a long time being blasted with everything and a kitchen sink, which lay

in broken pieces somewhere in the back room.

Marelin looked up with betrayal from her position on the floor, but before she could respond she was

silenced by a look from Celestia.

“What would you do to see if Sundown has been afflicted by Nightmare Moon?” Celestia asked.

“Well your Sunniness, I would say that Sundown already proved she isn’t evil, because she hasn’t used

any of Nightmare Moon’s abilities to annihilate us and has actually been pretty chill about all the things

we’ve done so far. Though I honestly haven’t been able to tell since we gagged her forever ago.”

Upon remembering that I still had that dreaded Hoof kerchief in my mouth, I spat it onto the ground and

growled through my teeth and fangs at Brag and Marelin.

“Well, she looks upset to me.” Celestia said matter-of-factly.

“I’ve had it with you insane ponies!” I screeched, attempting to fly out of the room before being

grabbed by Brag, Marelin and Celestia with their cheaty powers and dragged back into the room.

“I’ve come down here because I found a pony that has the uncanny ability of seeing a pony’s soul.”

Celestia calmly stated, like she hadn’t just said something completely bizarre. Though I guess that is what

my life had come to at this point. I was eternal, technically a servant of the banished Nightmare Moon,

and about to be looked up and down by somepony who claimed to see souls.

A bright pink earth pony mare, with a mane and tail like cotton candy and sky blue eyes literally bounced

into and around the room before abruptly sticking to the floor with her hooves. She wore glasses without

lenses, a giant tan nose from some creature I’ve never encountered, and a fake moustache.

“She refuses to state who she is, exactly, but I am confident in her abilities.” Celestia said, as the pink

mare moved around me with squinty eyes being offset by the ridiculousness of her headwear.

“Why is that, exactly?” Marelin asked, as I continued my staring contest with the bright pink and bubbly

mare, before I blinked and she appeared in front of Marelin.

“Spoilers, duh!” She shouted while giggling at some joke nopony else understood, as Marelin unattached

herself from a ceiling light.

“Now, for Miss Evil McEvilpony pants!” she declared, hopping right next to me and pressing her nose

against mine, causing them to scrunch up as I tried to escape this invasion of personal space.

“Nope, you’ve gotta sit still, you silly filly!” she said, throwing me into the chair I had just been released

from with an strength I wouldn’t attribute to a minotaur, let alone a pink mare with party balloons for a

cutie mark. I tried to squirm out of her grasp, but she held my hooves down with her own as she climbed

onto the chair, her hair whipping like a tail and knocking the helmet with wires out of the way as the

room’s lighting dimmed for dramatic affect.

“Look into my eyes…” She said ominously, waving her forehooves about while making ghost sounds,

while her eyes themselves became an entrancing swirl that I couldn’t not look into.

After a moment, my entire world melted away and I stood in the middle of a black abyss. No land, no

water, no sky. Only darkness with an obnoxiously pink party pony prancing around me.

“So!” She said suddenly, making me flinch. “Let’s see what’s in your head Miss Evil Pony!”

“I’m not evil!” I said, punctuating with a stomping hoof on nothing in particular as I realized there wasn’t

even a floor, and began falling with the pink pony.

“Aaah!” I yelped in surprise, as I felt the odd sensation of the ground rushing towards me again even

though the ground didn’t exist, wherever we were. We then abruptly stopped, and when I opened my

eyes we were in a completely grey version of Equestria.

“Welp, now that we’re here, we can start going through your memories to see how nasty you really are!”

she said with way more cheer than the situation could even begin to call for.

“I’m telling you, I’m not evil!” I still tried to argue, on the verge of giving up even trying at this point.

“Ooh! I know, let’s ask your subconscious what it thinks about everypony!” she said, grabbing me as we

somehow flew toward a crowd of lookalike ‘Sundowns’ in a town square. We arrived far sooner than I

would’ve expected considering the distance, but stopped just short of slamming into the crowd like a

missile.

“Oh, I get to answer first!” A Sundown with glasses said.

“No, me! I’ll convince her we’re not evil!” A Sundown in my Night Guard uniform said.

“But we aren’t evil!” A Sundown looking like I had before being Eternal said.

“Well that’s what everypony else thinks!” A Filly version of myself said.

“Screw what everypony else thinks, we have really awesome looking eyes now!” An inebriated Sundown

slurred.

“Stop yelling, please…” A Sundown with long hair whimpered in the background.

“Yes, we will convince the strange mare that we are the most not-evil pony in all of Equestria,

Mwahahaha!” somepony laughed most maliciously, before realizing that had actually come out of my

mouth.

“Oooh, this is gonna be a doozy! What should I call all you ponies?” The pink party mare asked.

“I got this!” the drunk Sundown managed. She pointed with a free, non-cider holding hoof at each of us

in turn.

“Sun-nerd, Guard-down, Normal-down, Sun-Filly, Shy-down, Spooky-Sun and myself being Drunk-down!”

she finished with a belch.

“Wait, if you’re drunk, then what part of me do you actually represent?” Spooky-Sun asked

Drunk-down.

“Well I’m *hic* obviously Sundown’s uninhibited self! Duh!” She finished with yet another hiccup.

“Then that means I’m her smart side.” Sun-nerd continued.

“I’m her sense of duty.” Guard-down proudly stated

“I’m the real Sundown!” Normal-down called out.

“I’m… um… I don’t actually know?” Filly-down said innocently.

Shy-down just squeaked.

“Well I am obviously the best Sundown!” Spooky-down declared, a hoof to her chest in a pose of pride.

“Wowee, you remind me a lot of some ponies I know!” the Pink mare declared before pulling all of us

into a large huddle, her hooves somehow defying nature and stretching out enough to grab us at the

same time in one large scoop.

“Too close!” Shy-down whimpered.

“So, which one of you is the Evil Sundown?” The mare asked, looking suspiciously at each of us, as we all

looked at another in confusion.

“I already told you, we’re not evil!” Guard-down protested.

“I think its Spooky-down!” Sun-filly accused.

“Nonsense! Everypony knows that the evil one is always the innocent filly that nopony suspects!”

Spooky-sun retorted.

“Wait, shouldn’t there be some kind of test or evidence for who is evil?” Nerd-down asked.

“I think Marelin is evil!” Normal-down yelled, hurting everypony’s ears.

“Shut up, Normal-down!” Guard-down said, giving Normal-down a bop on the head with her armored

hoof.

“I’ve got it! We’ll play tic tac hoof, and whoever loses is the evil pony!” the Pink mare said, earning

baffled stares from all Sundowns present.

“That’s stupid!” we all said in unison.

“Darn, I was hoping one of you would oust themselves as the evil pony with that, but you all said no!” the

party pony pouted.

“What does that mean?” Sun-filly asked.

“It means you’re a grumpy grump!” the mare responded, her hair slightly deflating.

“Being a grumpy pony doesn’t make us evil!” Guard-down protested.

Her hair re-inflated with a bright smile, as an idea had come across the mare’s mind.

“I know, we’ll play truth or dare, except you can only tell the truth!” She stated excitedly.

“Then wouldn’t that just be us telling the truth to your questions?” Nerd-down asked.

“Nopey Dopey! You all have to Pinkie-oop. Um, You all have to Pink Party Pony Promise not to lie, or

else!” She said, waving her hooves ominously in front of her while looking into each of our eyes.

“And how do we do…the thing?” Drunk-down asked, regaining consciousness.

“It’s easy! Repeat after me, but don’t ever break a Pink Party Pony Promise!” she warned, before reciting

the ritual and we all repeated with:

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my—Aaaahh!” we cried, sticking a suddenly

appearing cupcake into our eyes, causing us to blink pastry for a few moments before it vanished.

“Good enough for me~!” She said in a sing song voice, before having us line up.

“Okay, first pony is Nerd-down!” She said excitedly, getting into the ‘game’.

“First Question: Are you the evil pony?” She asked, leaning in with her head turned sideways to give one

eye a good look at Nerd-down.

“Um… I- I’m… Bleh!” She said, trying to make her tongue work correctly.

“Ah-ah! No lying missy!” the party pony warned, waving a hoof back and forth in front of her.

“No!” Nerd-down managed finally.

“Second Question: Have you ever hurt anypony intentionally?” her eye continuing to stare at Nerd-down.

“I wou… ne… Yes!” Nerd-down finished, finally giving up at resisting the Pink Pony Promise’s effects.

“Third Question: Would you hurt the Princesses?”

She pondered the question for a bit, before answering, “I would only hurt one Princess, that being

Celestia, if Luna ordered me to, because I’m in service to her until death take us or we are released from

her service.” She finished, stating the oath the Sundowns had taken to become a Night Guard.

“Oki doki Loki! NEXT!!” She abruptly shouted, as Nerd-down was shuffled in a half circle to re-join the

line.

Guard-down was next to be questioned, and she shifted uncomfortably in her armor.

“First Question: Have you ever hurt or killed anypony?”

Guard-down began sweating and shifting her eyes around nervously. “Yes…”

“Second Question: Have you ever tortured or made another pony miserable because you could?”

“Y…Yes.” Guard-down began to become teary eyed as she tried to hold back tears.

“Third Question: If you could take it back, would you?” The pony leaned in close enough to stare

Guard-down directly in the eyes with a burning intensity we could all feel, since we were all technically

the same pony.

“Yes!” Guard-down said, a waterfall of tears erupting from her eyes as she fell to the floor in sobs, before

the pony continued.

“Final Question: Are you the Evil Pony?”

“N-n-No!” She cried, and was whisked quickly away to bring up the next Sundown, which happened to be

Sun-filly.

“First Question: Do you like pranks?”

“Ye… Of cou… Um. When I’m the one doing them… I don’t like being pranked” Sun-filly pouted.

“Second Question: Would you steal from another pony if you could?”

“N… I wouldn… I would no… Darn it, yes!” Sun-filly said, being thwarted by the Promise.

“Third Question: Would you bully another pony?”

Taking into account her other attempts at lying, Sun-filly simply stated “Yes.” In defeat, staring at the

floor.

“I told you it’s the cute and innocent ones that are evil!” Spooky-down declared with an air of victory.

“Final question! Are. You. The Evil. Pony?” the pink Interrogator said putting emphasis on each word.

“Ye… I a…” She sighed again, before stating “No.” and being whisked away, replaced by Drunk-down.

“Oh give me a break.” Spooky-down huffed.

“First Question: If a really hot stallion wanted you to have sex with him, would you?” the Pink Pony

surprisingly said completely seriously.

“Wait, what? What does that have to do with anything? How is me liking stallions evil?” Drunk-down

asked.

“Would yooouuu?” The pony dragged out, ending in a lower tone.

“Um… well… Alright fine, I totally would. If he was saf… I mean if he didn’t ha… Damnit, Yes!”

Drunk-down finished in exasperation, her sober-ness returning rapidly.

“Second Question: Would you blame somepony else for something that was your fault?”

“I mean, not if they were my frie… Not unless it was really ba…” She sighed. “Yes.”

“Third Question: Do you talk about ponies behind their back?”

“Yes.” She stated without hesitation.

“Final Question: Are you the evil pony?”

“Nope.”

“Huh.” The party pony said, seemingly surprised, before another Sundown took the spot. It was

Shy-down.

“First Question: Do you have any friends?”

Shy-down squeaked a bit, before gathering the courage to mutter, “N…no.”

That seemed to take the wind out of the Pink Pony’s interrogation for a moment, before she resumed.

“Second Question: Do you care about anypony, including yourself?”

Shy-down looked right at the pink pony before answering, “Y…Yes. I care about not dying. I care about

ponies who help me and make me laugh. I don’t care about ponies I don’t know, though.” She said

ashamedly.

“Third Question: Would you help a stranger in need, even at cost to yourself?”

Shy-down looked up with a hurt expression before being louder than she had been before, which

amounted to a more normal speaking volume.

“Of course I would…not. Only when I’m on duty would I do that. Somepony might try and trick me to hurt

me if I didn’t look like a guard, and ponies scare me!”

“Final Question: Are you the Evil pony?”

“No…” she finished, slumping down and resting her head between her forehooves on the ground, before

being rotated out and replaced with Spooky-down.

“Well, that was a completely shameful display.” Spooky-down stated, before turning her attention to

the pink pony.

“Oh, this’ll be easy.” Guard-down said, recovering from her breakdown during the questioning.

“First Question: Would you enslave other ponies to work for you?”

“What!? Never! That is just plain horrible.” Spooky-down said, shocked at the question. “It’s because of

my features, isn’t it? That’s raci-!”

“Second Question!” the pony said, interrupting. “Would you overthrow Princess Celestia, or Princess Luna

if she wasn’t Nightmare Moon?”

“Why would I overthrow anypony? Do you know how much work that would leave on my shoulders if I

had to rule an entire kingdom? That’s entirely too much effort!” She stated, brushing off invisible dirt

from her shoulder.

“Third Question: Would you ask that ponies work against their will for the greater good of the kingdom

in order to save it from a larger threat that they don’t believe is going to be coming?”

“Well that’s specific.” She said, before thinking on her answer. “Yes, I suppose if it was for the greater

good, then I would do such a thing.”

“Aha! You just said Slavery was a bad thing, and you wouldn’t overthrow anypony, but you just agreed to

do both of those things!”

“Wait, what?”

“Having ponies work against their will, and being in a position of power to be able to have enough

influence to do that sort of thing would mean that you would need to be a ruling figure to over-ride their

rights, and force them into slavery!” the pony explained.

“But… but I’m a good pony! It’s not because I can, it’s because they don’t understand the need in order

to defeat some hypothetical foe!”

“Final Question: Are you the Evil Pony?”

“That’s Racist! Of course I’m not. Honestly, just because I LOOK like I would eat baby foals doesn’t

mean I actually do!” Spooky-down protested, before being whisked away.

The final pony was Normal-down. Everypony just looked at her like her time had come, but the Pink pony

continued her questioning.

“First Question: Why did you become a night guard?”

“To protect and ser… um. To fight for a better and…” She sighed. “For rent money.”

“Second Question: Did you care about anypony other than yourself before becoming a guard?”

“Well… I cared about my paren… darn it, thought I would be able to get that one at least. Nopony cared

about m… okay that’s not true either, My parents cared about me. Not in the traditional ‘I love you, lets

hug and get ice-cream.’ way, but the ‘Do your work and don’t be lazy, help around the house and stop

looking for any sign of affection.’ Way. I guess that was their way of caring, so in the way that they care

about if I die, then I care about if my parents die, but not about them personally.”

“Third Question: Do you blame other ponies for your own shortcomings or failures?”

After a few moments of thought, and looking between all other gathered Sundowns, she stated, “Yes.”

“Final Question: Are you the Evil Pony?”

“Isn’t that obvious? She’s the last pony and none of us are evil!” Guard-down said, before being hushed

by the pink mare.

“No… I’m not evil. I’ve just made my share of mistakes and misdeeds. I’m not out to make other ponies’

lives miserable for the sake of my own entertainment or any kind of malice to another. I try my best to

listen to the complaints and arguments of other ponies to empathize with where they’re coming from but

I don’t always get along with everypony. I’ve killed ponies, I’ve tortured ponies, and I’ve been a bully and

a thief. I have stolen and blamed others for my own wrongs and gotten away with it. I’ve thought about

being a great ruler that everypony bows down to and worships, and I’ve thought about just living a

normal life where I don’t have to have responsibility or look after anypony but myself. But I’m not an evil

pony.” Normal-down finished, looking weary and beaten as she slumped down and was whisked away to

be replaced by Nerd-Down.

“Final Question: Which one do you think is the evil pony?”

“I thought you’d already asked everypony their questions?” Nerd-down asked, surprised.

“I didn’t ask your final question until now, silly!” she chirped in response, before becoming deadly serious

again, awaiting Nerd-down’s answer.

A few minutes passed, Nerd-Down having a very animated and expressive thinking process as she mulled

over everything she had heard and witnessed over the interrogation.

“I… I honestly don’t think anypony here is evil. We’re all a part of Sundown, but none of us on our own

are really all that ‘evil’. Does that mean that we’re right, and Marelin and the Princess are crazy, or that

all of us combined are the evil pony?” Nerd-down asked, grasping at straws for any hope that they would

be cleared of ‘evilness’ by their mysterious pink interrogator.

“You get all that, Princess Celestia?” she asked, turning her head to a rapidly becoming visible Princess,

Marelin and Brag, along with the two Pegasus guards from earlier as the room flowed back into

existence and my subconscious retreated into my mind.

“I can see why you called her in here, Princess Celestia.” Marelin said with her jaw lightly hanging.

“Marelin you’re gonna catch flies, brah.” Brag said, and Marelin closed her mouth with a snap.

“Uuuhg, I don’t feel…” I said, falling over exhausted. “Mmm… I’ll just lay here, if that’s okay with you all.”

The party pony pulled out a long checklist on a clipboard as well as a pencil from her mane, going down

the list and marking things all over it before putting the pencil behind her ear, and handing the report to

the princess, somehow writing and holding the pencil with her hoof, instead of her mouth like anypony

that can’t use magic would do.

After a moment of reviewing the list, looking between the pink pony and myself, the princess held up the

report in her magic and announced the findings.

“This report, given by ‘Pink Party Pony’ states that Sundown here has a total Evilness rating of… Below

Average.” She showed us the report, which had a D in red ink as a grade.

“How is that possible? She served Nightmare Moon and killed guards! She has-“ Marelin was interrupted

by the Pink pony’s stare at her, before the pink mare’s expression exploded into a grin wide enough to

make a dentist faint.

“Oh this is just terrific! Now I can throw a ‘Sundown-totally-isnt-an-evil-meanie-pants-pony-of-evil’

party!” she rattled off, bouncing in place before coming to an abrupt halt and looked at a watch that had

sounded an alarm and appeared on her left hoof.

“Aww, darn it! I don’t have any more time. Bye bye, Everypony!” she said, waving a hoof and throwing

out confetti before vanishing in a flash of light. Everypony stayed silent for a moment just staring at

where the mare had been, before Marelin spoke up.

“Is this what you deal with on a daily basis?” Marelin asked, looking at Celestia.

“Yep.” The Sun Goddess said with a heavy sigh, before turning her attention to me.

One of the Pegasus guards threw down their helmet and transformed into an insectoid pony with fly

wings, soul-less teal eyes and a horn with holes in the side of it.

“You know what? The Queen says you can have Equestria. She isn’t dealing with this kind of crap.” The

bodysnatching and shapeshifting changeling said, before flying out of the room to leave the rest of us

once again staring in disbelief.

“Is this real life?” I asked from my position on the ground.

“Apparently.” Braggadocious replied.

oooOOOooo