Fallout Equestria: Sundown

Chapter 11: Reality’s Return

I came out of my strange-ness induced dream to the muffled sounds of alarms going off. I couldn’t open

my eyes and I couldn’t feel anything either. Actually, I couldn’t even move!

Uh oh… I know what this feels like. Did I die while I was ‘asleep’?

Well. I could always just wait and see what happens.

…

…

Nope! This is too boring. Move body! Come to li-

“Ehhhh.” I had tried to scream, but my body only had enough energy to lazily rasp and sputter. Opening

my eyes to a burning sensation, I noticed that I was laying sideways on the floor which had gotten

significantly less sterile and clean than when I was last awake. The room was nearly pitch black, save for

the deep red emergency lighting spinning around the room to signify that something had gone horribly

wrong.

Well, no dip! Of course something went wrong. I feel like a corpse!

Using all of my limited strength, I lifted my head enough to look around with a now mind splitting

headache to go along with my aching everything. More of the room was in complete tatters and there

was a large pony shaped scorch mark on the wall, probably a unicorn by the outline. Attempting to

stand proved fruitless, as my body was having enough issues telling my brain to lay down and just rest,

because it was in no condition to just get up and go right now. Resigned to my temporarily floor-ridden

status, I decided to see what I could see.

I was still in that odd circle room that was owned by Elder Rasa. The terminal on his desk looked like it

had exploded and there were reports and status updates strewn about the place like rice at a wedding.

Why do they even throw rice at a wedding? Wouldn’t it be better to eat the rice than throw it on the

ground? I mean sure, if there were birds or chickens or something nearby that could eat the rice then it

wouldn’t be so much of a waste, but as far as I knew, it was pretty much just to give everypony

something to do while the couple trotted off into the sunset or where ever they went to after a wedding.

Returning from my thoughts to reality, I heard a bit of sparking coming down a hallway with light hoof

falls. Either somepony was trying to be sneaky, or they were trying not to get killed by some sort of

hazard. I tried calling out to them, but it came as a faint screech over the alarms that were sounding.

“Who’s there?!” I heard somepony say, clearly startled from around the corner and down the hallway. It

wasn’t loud enough to hurt my ears, but I suppose that my ears had since given up after me being dead

for I don’t know how long. Add to the fact that these alarms had probably going off for as long as I’d

been out, or longer, then I wouldn’t blame them for taking a vacation.

“Hello?” I heard the voice ask again, slightly closer now but sounding worried and more cautious.

“Shh! You’re going to get us killed, Swipe!” I heard another pony hiss, sounding a lot like Hat Trick.

“Hey!” I squeaked loudly, hoping that they would remember I was the only pony they knew that

communicated this way. For a few moments I heard about as much silence as could be had in a

damaged and malfunctioning underground bunker of the Steel Rangers, but it was noticeable. The

ponies outside whom I assume had been the Initiates had stopped moving for a few minutes now, and I

was getting worried.

I once again attempted to stand up, my body protesting significantly less now that it had been given a

moment to make sure everything was actually working correctly. With shaking hooves I managed to

stand upright and sway into Rasa’s table, shifting it a bit and causing a loud screeching sound from the

Elder’s desk moving across the steel floor.

“There it is again!” I heard another pony whisper shout, sounding like Cheese Wheel.

Well at least the Initiates were alive! Now all I had to do was get over to them. Shambling around the

room, nearly falling on my face a few times from papers slipping underneath my hooves, I managed to

slam myself into the door with a lazy thud to look around the corner. Between the swirling red lights,

pitch black hallway and sparking wires, I managed to find three Initiates with magic rifles pointing my

way. Seeing as how they don’t speak high frequency bat pony, I decided to wave a hoof at them, only to

fall on my face and slump into the hallway with a halfhearted moan of injury.

“What the hay is that?!” Card swipe shouted, shakily waving his magic rifle around in my general

direction.

I tried standing again, body still being annoyingly weak from being dead, and promptly gave up my

insanity and just lazily waved a hoof at them from my increasingly comfortable position on the floor. The

Initiates inched closer to me, not taking their rifles away from my head as they got in a better position to

flick their combat helmet’s lights on, blinding me. I would’ve shielded my eyes, but I was honestly too

worn out and fatigued to do much more than let out a squeak of complaint at them while squinting.

“By the… is that Sundown?!” Cheese Wheel seemed a lot more surprised that I think he should’ve been,

but I really didn’t know how long I had been out. It seemed like a few hours at least, judging from all the

stuff laying strewn about everywhere. Maybe a Minotaur had come through the bunker and started

ripping off deck plating or something.

Ow.

Ow.

“Ow!” I screeched louder, making Card Swipe jump back and stop kicking me with his hoof. He shouted

in surprise at my screech, and leveled his magic rifle at me again.

“Sundown, if you can hear me, squeak three times!”

Thinking about what words I could use to make it sound like three squeaks, I settled for “You are dumb.”

His rifle dropped, while the other two kept theirs aiming at me as Card Swipe picked me up from the

floor onto shaking hooves and my body swaying back and forth, threatening to send me to the floor

again.

“Hat, Cheese, do we still have any apples on us?” Card Swipe asked, looking between his friends.

Apples? I haven’t been gone that long, have I? I don’t even feel-

I heard an angry growling, and my attempt to look at my own stomach nearly sent me to the steel floor

again before I was caught by Cheese Wheel and Hat Trick.

Yep, need food.

“Card, are you sure she isn’t a zombie or something?” Cheese asked, still pointing his rifle at me and

looking concerned.

“Cheese, don’t be an idiot. The only zombies are those ghouls from before the war, and they look all

dead and rotted or like burnt leather. Sundown just looks like she hasn’t had food in about two

months. Actually, come to think of it, when was the last time you ate?” Hat Trick asked me, lowering

her rifle finally.

I actually have no idea, but I can’t exactly speak with the Initiates either. Wait, when did that become a

thing for me? I could speak to everypony just fine in my memories! I blame Marelin.

I felt woozy again after my short daydream, and fell on my side again.

“I’ll take that as an ‘I don’t know’” Hat said, aiming her rifle to cover the hallway they had come

through to guard it against some unseen foe.

Cheese Wheel pulled some apples out of his saddle bag, and I would’ve pounced on him immediately

upon seeing the deliciousness he held with his magic just near me, but once again my body had more to

say about our ability to move than my apple fanaticism. I opened my mouth which had become almost

mummified from my lack of any kind of nutrients in the past… two months? Yikes. Anyway, my fangs

jutted from the rest of my teeth like small spears as I waited for Cheese to get the idea and feed me.

Feed me, Cheese Wheel. Feed me!

Cheese Wheel gulped, I assumed he was remembering the last time somepony had apples near me, and

hovered one directly into my fangs. I bit down on the apple with enough vigor to have them seriously

consider if I was a zombie again for a moment, as I felt some of my strength returning to me.

“Moooore!” I squeakily rasped, giving him a hungry look that probably convinced him that it was either

the apples or himself that I was going to eat next. He floated seven more apples in my direction,

emptying his saddle bags in a slight panic that made an apple wall between him and myself. It was close

enough that I could just move my neck around to devour the delicious fruits in a few bites or more, not

even draining the juices from them and eating them whole. Hat Trick and Card Swipe shared looks of

concern, before Card Swipe mentioned he was glad that I didn’t eat meat, which earned him a smack

from Cheese about jinxing them.

I felt substantially better after my small feast of apples, and moved all my limbs around to see if they

worked correctly this time. I didn’t feel a hundred percent, but I could definitely move on my own and

my wings were working fine. I gave them a wide smile for helping me, which just seemed to make them

shiver before I gave them a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

“Okay Sunny, just like the stable. See what you can hear through all of these alarms and we can get

out of here safe and sound! I just hope tha-“ Card was saying, before getting smacked across the face

by Hat Trick.

“What the frolicking fuck did Cheese Wheel just tell you about jinxing us, Card?!” Hat shouted at him,

before covering her mouth again at being so loud, and swearing for a second time that I had known her.

I looked between all of them like they were crazy, and they looked at me like I was going to eat them.

We all decided to just continue on anyway and hope for the best. I hadn’t heard about Jinxes before, but

if they were anything like a Pink Party Pony Promise then I was sure you didn’t want to mess with them.

Most of the journey out of the bunker was uneventful, save from a ceiling tile landing on my head

somewhere near the restroom area. A few rooms had the rotting corpses of Steel Rangers and some

other ponies that looked like Raiders or Slavers. I pointed out the other bodies that had been looted and

were rotting, and they mentioned something about a red eye. Sort of odd, but whatever. They said that

this bunker was a halfway point between the Hoofington area and another city called Fillydelphia. Hat

Trick explained that after I had been floated into Elder Rasa’s office, there was a massive electrical

discharge that overloaded the bunker’s generators and disintegrated Doctor Scour, whom they still

refused to call Redundance for some reason.

Wait a minute. Massive electrical discharge?

Marelin the Flashback actually hit me with magic strong enough to kill somepony even witnessing its

memory!

I continued my lucky string of getting my squeaky questions across, as they continued to bring me up to

speed about the goings on of the last few months. Apparently the skies had opened, a stable dweller

had killed some mutant self-proclaimed goddess and set off a balefire megaspell to do it, the Enclave

had come down from the sky and gone to war with a slaver lord named Red Eye over in Fillydelphia, the

Steel Rangers had a civil war over ideology and some security mare from another stable had saved

Equestria by killing a god from the stars. Oh yeah, and there’s Alicorns all over the place. Just like Luna

and Celestia. They’re from that one Mutant goddess thing.

So all in all, not that much.

…

Pfft, okay I can’t. I just can’t keep a straight face. That is so completely absurd I just can’t even

comprehend it all happened in two months. Like, seriously?! ‘Oh, not a whole lot happened, Sundown.

Just the sun coming back, two gods dying, a few wars here and there, you know how it is.’

Ponyfeathers I say. Complete and utter Ponyfeathers.

Then again, I’m also the eternal spawn of Nightmare Moon some thousand and two hundred years from

the past that just got a chunk of their memories back, having no idea how they were lost in the first

place and I am also incapable of death on a cosmic level. Give or take a couple decades. You know how it

is.

Luna, you drive me to drink.

Anyways, resuming our travels after leaving the ruined bunker, we had snuck past a few of the lingering

forces of the Slaver Lord Red Eye, whom had been killed by the Stable Dweller (also known as the ‘Light

Bringer’ for somehow bringing the sun back) and his armies destroyed and scattered by the Enclave,

before they had a huge showdown at Hoofington with some equally horrible things that blew up all their

giant warships of doom and destruction. Nopony will tell me the exact details, because all of this

information comes from the charismatic voice of some stallion DJ that can be heard in a great many

areas of the Wasteland.

At this point I had finally realized that I had absolutely no weapons or armor to speak of to defend

myself. I was just an emaciated looking eternal batpony with three surviving initiates of the Steel

Ranger’s civil war that had come back to the bunker looking for… Wait a minute, why did they even

come back to the bunker if it’s been so long?

I made a screechy noise to get all of their attentions, before I poked Hat Trick in the chest and motioned

back toward the bunker.

“You want to go back?” she asked, tired from the long march along broken streets, sickly brown grassy

knolls and so much pulverized rock and ruined city.

I shook my head, and poked each of them while giving my best ‘Huh?’ look, and pointed back at the

bunker again. It took them a few moments and some guessing, but they finally pieced together that I

was asking why they had come back. Upon realizing what I had been asking, they resumed to hushed

tones out of my earshot, which happened to be about fifty hooves away at a whisper. They had me nod

or shake my head if I could still hear them, which made them worry even more at how far away they had

to be for me to not hear them whispering. Cheese Wheel noted that their average speaking must be

deafening, to which I face hoofed, having already told them as much.

On second thought I can’t really blame them for forgetting. I was dead for over two months, and I had

only known them for what, a few days at most? Actually, if I’m eternal, why can I even die in the first

place? Do I just get knocked out and my spirit comes back to say ‘Hey body, get your lazy flank up!’?

Eventually, their conversation was interrupted by another band of Red Eye’s slavers turned to Raiders,

and we had to duck for cover inside of a bombed out brickwork building that had once been a large

industrial scale cake factory.

‘FOREVER’ A slightly destroyed and yellowed poster from before the war said, my face scrunched into it

as I was thrown into a broom closet to avoid getting hit by stray bullets and magic beams ‘For my safety’

as Hat Trick said. The closet itself was fairly nice as closets go in that it still had a few chemicals, a mop

bucket with most of a mop still there, and a sink with a mirror. I guess the janitor of this building liked to

look at their reflection. Since the sounds of chaos, mayhem and general death related injuries were still

happening outside, and the door being locked, I decided to look at my own reflection in the-

“Eee!” I squeaked in panic, before realizing that reflection was me and not some horrible monster from

a foal’s storybook come to life to eat me.

I looked like a charred skeleton of a pony, coat barely clinging to my body as most of my muscles and fat

had either burned away or simply degraded to the point of nonexistence. My face was the very

definition of gaunt, and I think that calling myself a mummy earlier was actually a good guess. Bracing

myself for a smile, I noticed that my gums had all receded and exposed more of my teeth than normal.

My fangs now looked like spikes that would tear somepony’s throat out if I got too close, and my eyes

were bloodshot on top of being their usual dragonly slit pupil selves.

I can totally use this to my advantage to scare the pants off of somepony! This is gonna be awesome!

I now saw my wide smile in the mirror, however horrifying it may have been to anypony else, it was

making me even more excited at the idea of breaking down the wooden door that held me in this closet

in order to leap out, wailing like a banshee and helping out the Initiates.

“Hey, check that door before we go after those steel rejects!” a gruff sounding voice yelled from

outside the door, and I saw the handle rattling.

Oh, this is just perfect, Mwahahaha!

…

I’m still not an evil pony!

The door finally gave out from the now confused and startled unicorn on the other side of the door,

covered head to hoof in shoddy metal plating attached to leather as he dropped the door on the cement

floor of the bakery. My guess was that he was not expecting a Janitor’s closet to be holding a

mummified batpony with dragon eyes, and I would be right as he decided the best course of action for

his current situation was to gallop away while wetting himself before I could even start screeching at

him.

Aw… Well at least there should be more of these raiders around! This is a whole lot better now that I

know I can’t actually die.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Cut Throat?” The gruff voice from earlier asked, I assume to the

unicorn I had run off earl—Wait a minute.

Cut Throat the Raider pony? Who the hay names their foal ‘Cut Throat’ anyway?!

Broken from my thoughts, said Cut Throat the Raider Pony of Ridiculously Lazy Parents With Poor Taste

bounded around the corner with a few more of his buddies. Despite the fact that he was shaking behind

one of the larger earth ponies, the three new raiders he had brought with him didn’t really think much

of me, which I soon fixed as I spread my batwings and gave them a good earful of sonic screech to the

face from down the hallway. Using my newfound time to think about awesome ways I could torment

these raiders, I settled for shadow flashing around and screaming directly into each of their faces until

they would either melt or run off.

I’m not evil!

With my wide, mummified and fang filled grin, I flew at the raiders that were holding their ears or trying

to pick themselves off of the ground and slammed into Cut Throat. We flew together in a jumbled mess

right into a brick wall, where he broke my fall with a very satisfying Crunch of his spine being broken and

slumping to the floor.

“Hahaha!” I chirped squeakily, getting way too much joy out of how fun it was to…

Oh great. I’m turning evil, aren’t I?

Whatever, the Initiates are outgunned and I can’t die. Might as well have fun and be evil if it means I

won’t be helpless and crawling around on the floor sobbing like last time. In the Stable. With the Steel

Rangers who were going to kill me for being in the wrong place.

You know what? Why am I even helping the Steel Rangers?

Oh yeah, they came back for me and gave me food, but they never actually told me why they came back

in the first place.

Whoof-CRACK

I was literally smashed out of my thoughts with what looked like a street post that had been ripped out

of the concrete and flung through a nearby brick wall, adding to the stress of the Factory’s structure to

remain standing with a few groans coming from whatever ghost held it standing. I was covered in a dirty

brown and red dust mixed with the grey of concrete from the makeshift mace that had hit me, as I

struggled to get myself upright.

“Shum-nny whanna tell me wuh dat fing was?” The gruff yet muffled voice from earlier asked, a bit of

worry in his voice. I assume he was the one with the big mace, since his speech was so weird.

“I think it’s a Wendigo!” somepony yelped, barely in control of themselves. His comment earned him

what sounded like a smack on the face, several ponies arguing about the possibility of wendigoes being

present when there was no frost or snow, and the fact that wendigoes look nothing like pony mares.

“Enuff, let’sh go an git em.” Gruff Guy rumbled, and was joined by a few half willing cheers from his

raider buddies as they moved to the Sundown shaped hole in the brick wall.

During this time, I had seen fit to look at my surroundings and notice I was on the factory floor. Said

factory floor had a very high ceiling, with rafters that I could hide and maneuver around while in flight. I

also noticed that the Initiates had barricaded themselves in what looked like a site manager’s office with

some upturned tables and furniture barring the door. I had already tapped a hoof on the glass window

overlooking the factory floor that was filled with long since decayed cake, nearly spooking them enough

to shoot me through the window. I had finished telling them about the hole in the wall before Gruff Guy

broke a bigger hole in the wall with his mace. I then flew up into the rafters and waited for them to pile

in.

Setting his mace down, his voice was much clearer. “Alright. Spread out in groups of two and find the

weird monster thing. Shoot those tin heads if you find ‘em as well.” Gruff Guy said, picking up his mace

and joining a raider unicorn mare that was holding two machetes in the air with her cheaty powers and

looking more than a bit drugged out of her mind.

“Come on out, Wendi-go-go-go-GET OUT HERE!” Screamed Machete (That’s what I’m calling her.)

Deciding not to go near the crazed mare for the moment, I noticed that she was erratically stabbing

cakes that were near her while biting the blade of the other machete. Yes the blade, not the handle or

anything else. Her mouth displayed a canvas of scars, I imagine from her cutting herself so many times in

a fit of rage.

Deciding that enough was enough, I gave a series of squeaks to let the Initiates know it was about time

to open fire. The raiders had gathered in groups of four with their backs to each other and looked every

direction but up. That worked out just fine for me, and I swooped down from the ceiling screeching like

a banshee over the heads of the raiders who were either holding their ears or ducking for cover from

the magic beams coming from the three Initiates above them. As I banked left to do another screaming

run, I spotted a raider pointing a shotgun at me and shadow flashed behind her. Tapping her shoulder,

she turned around to expect one of her raider buddies, only to find my ear to ear death grin to greet her

before a wall of volume forced her to fall to the ground and hold her head together from the vibrations.

The gunfire and beams zipping through the air all around me were deafeningly loud, but at some point

my ears had given up trying to register the noise and became a painful ringing. It allowed me enough

respite to focus on my new goal of stealing from Machete.

Machete was busy jumping all over the place, picking up random objects with her telekinesis and

flinging them in the direction of the Initiates. I took this as my chance to tackle her in the middle of one

of her jumps. I couldn’t hear a word she said as I slammed into her, and my own screeching added to the

confusion as her ears started bleeding. Then I tried to wrestle her off of me, but in my emaciated and

near mummified state, she had a lot more strength than I did. We both plummeted to the ground soon

after I had crashed into her, and we tumbled through several raiders and cakes before coming to a stop

at the far end of the factory wall. She grabbed a hammer, two boxes of nails and a saw with her

telekinesis as I was getting myself off of the floor. I noticed that the cardboard boxes had fallen to the

floor, as a wall of carpentry nails flew towards me. I used my wing to try and shield me from it, but the

punctures of the nails just stuck in my wing like an Iron Maiden pointing at me. I didn’t really hurt like it

should, and that was worrying me. I didn’t know if that was because of me re-discovering my Eternal

nature, or the fact that I might not have the energy left to really feel it. My ears were already out of

commission and I was running out of steam to keep up with my attacks.

Then the Iron Maiden of my wing slammed into my ribs, as Machete had run into me at a full gallop

while I was still recovering. Trying to unstick my wing actually did cause me pain before I got the nail

embedded wing out of my chest. We both looked down at my chest, and noticed there was no blood.

She just seemed to get even more upset, and I was too confused to comment.

Beams of magic started flashing our way, streaking across our vision as the Initiates were too pinned

down for accurate fire, but still tried to help me out anyway. I used the momentary distraction to see if I

really could rip out somepony’s throat with my fangs and lunged.

Turns out it’s pretty easy.

Easy and satisfying.

… I’m not evil, I’m just really hungry still!

I saw Machete crumple to the floor and attempt a last few hoof punches in my direction before I turned

my focus to the other raiders. I still had her windpipe and some of her throat in my mouth, so I decided

that I would go for scare tactics again. With the gore still in my mouth, I screeched and swooped down

on them, dropping the giblets into some raider’s lap who then freaked out and started shooting at me

wildly. The Initiates had managed to drop quite a few of them, judging from the ash piles and scattered

bodies around the factory floor. Only Gruff Guy and three of his raider buddies remained.

I heard some muffled noises, and the flashes and gunfire stopped. Looking from my perch on the ceiling,

I saw the Initiates and the raiders walking towards another, so I decided to join in.

I landed pretty roughly, but instead of making me look like a fool for almost breaking a hoof in my

exhaustion, it spooked two of the raiders that were near me. Machete’s blood was still dribbling down

my face, and my nail-impaled wing wouldn’t close correctly, so I just left both of them open. It had the

effect of me looking like I would grab somepony in my wings and eat them, so I went with it.

Everypony seemed more than a little skittish about me trotting towards them with a big bloody grin on

my face, but I supposed since I did look like something out of a horror story that I could at least seem

cheerful. My ears were still ringing from all the damage they had suffered from the noise of the fight,

but Hat Trick and Gruff Voice looked to be making a deal of some kind while shooting nervous glances in

my direction every now and again. I didn’t really know what they were saying, so I nodded randomly

when they looked at me and always kept the fleshy grin on my face. I thought about menacing one of

the raiders who was looking at me, but even looking in his direction had him pointing a gun at me. I just

let out a tiny ‘Scree’ at him, and he nearly lost himself before getting smacked upside the head by

another raider.

I slowly trotted up to the argument between Gruff Guy and Hat Trick, looking between the two with my

mummified murder grimace. I was having way too much fun right now. I chirped at the both of them,

and they looked down in unison, only to yelp and move away from me at the same time.

Way too much fun.

Oh hey, the ringing is going away!

“-nt get that thing the hell out of here, I’m not gonna be so lenient on letting you tin cans through

here!” Gruff shouted, trying to act like he had any cards to play.

“We called this parley so Sundown here would stop slaughtering all of you! There’s enough dead

ponies in the wastelands now, so we don’t need any more!” Hat trick shouted back, trying to take a

moral stance.

“You mean that thing is on your side?!” Gruff asked, baffled.

“That thing is Sundown! She’s a Batpony!” Hat answered.

“You know what? Just get you, your friends, and that monster out of here!” Gruff yelled while backing

away with what remained of his crew.

Hat Trick let the argument drop, and after the Initiates had grabbed their things and spent some time

looting the bodies of the dead raiders, we set out from the warehouse into the battle devastated ruins

of Fillydelphia. The Initiates would look back at me every now and again with fear in their eyes as I met

their looks with a stare.

They’re scared of me…