Fallout Equestria: Sundown

Chapter 12: Initial Insecurities

We had traveled as a group for the next few days, scavenging, sharing rations and avoiding a few more

confrontations. My strength was returning after every meal and rest, and I was beginning to look more

like my old, non-mummified self. Instead of looking like a corpse, I now resembled a starved pony that

had been given a lucky break. During the night, the Initiates had kept an eye on me almost as much as

the wasteland, and I think it was because they thought I would eat them in their sleep. No new

memories came to me as I got a few hours of rest over the nights, and ended up being entirely

dreamless.

“Alright. Our new headquarters is about half a kilotrot from here, and we’re due back tomorrow so

we shouldn’t have much issue with Elder Rasa.” Hat Trick said, looking over a brewed pot of vegetable

stew and rations that she had prepared for us. I had long since eaten all of the apples they’d had, and

although it wasn’t as tasty or nourishing as those blessed apples, it still did the job well enough of

keeping us alive. During our travels and sparse encounters with ponies that sought to trade with us, the

Initiates had kept me out of sight. Now with the base coming up, I was worried if I would have to

disguise myself or hide to get in, or if I was the entire reason they went back to their old bunker in the

first place.

“We should radio in, so they know not to mistake us for raiders and take shots at us.” Cheese said,

scooping out some of the stew with a makeshift ladle into an old army bowl. Hat Trick passed off her

spoon to Card Trick so he could keep stirring, as she went to the radio equipment and messaged our

arrival. Over the past days I had managed to get all of the nails that were embedded in my wing out, but

it was still full of holes. Cheese had tried to use some of his healing magic, but it didn’t do anything for

me and confused him enough that the subject was dropped after about half an hour of trying to figure

out why. I knew it was because of Nightmare Moon’s eternal ‘gift’ that I had been unwittingly struck by,

but I felt it wouldn’t go down so well if I had explained that. At best, they would think I was crazy. At

worst, they would just try to kill me if they knew anything about history.

After we had finished our meal and reported in, we packed up and moved out in the direction of the

Steel Ranger base over the ridge. I knew that I could revive myself if I ever died, but I didn’t want to just

magically heal myself without explanation while I was walking with the Initiates. They would probably

think that I was an infiltrator of some kind that was taking on my appearance to find their new base.

As their new stronghold came into view, I noticed some power armored rangers along the makeshift

walls, patrolling with what looked like rocket launchers and miniguns on their battle saddles. Around the

area were some Scribes and Knights here and there, (I had learned that you could either become a

Scribe or a Knight, who later became Paladins.) along with more Initiates that looked like they had been

wandering around the wastes and given a Ranger’s uniform. Maybe they were recruited?

“Halt!” One of the armored Paladins called out, and we came to a stop.

“Stand and be recognized!” the Paladin ordered.

Hat Trick walked forward, and answered the challenge. “Initiates Hat Trick, Cheese Wheel and Card

Swipe reporting. Target in addition, non-hostile.”

The paladin paused a moment before spotting me. “That’s not what my EFS is saying, Initiate.

Whatever your target is, is flashing between hostile and friendly.” He warned, training his weapons on

me as a few more Rangers came up to investigate.

I’ll admit, I wasn’t having an easy time trying to not tear him in half. I was pretty sure I could, but I also

knew that it would get me killed again and then I’d have an even harder time controlling myself. I was in

conflict between part of me wanting to cause havoc, mayhem and destruction, and another part just

wanting to lay down and rest with friends. I saw a few of the Unicorn knights’ horns light up, but the

confusion on their faces told me something had gone wrong.

“We can’t tranquilize her, our spells aren’t working!” One of them was about to panic. I think they

must’ve been new, because the Knight and Paladins weren’t looking all that phased by what was going

on. They did, however, aim their weapons at me.

“Stand down! This is our mission’s target. We’re to report to Elder Rasa only, please move aside!” Hat

Trick called out before the situation became worse. A few of them backed down, but two paladins in

powered armor came towards us as escorts to the Elder, and we were allowed inside. I wasn’t too happy

at being called a ‘target’ again, but it was better than waking up all on my own without food or help in

the wasteland. As I was getting my own memories back, I was losing the few that I did have of my life in

the wastes. I didn’t even remember why I had come to that cave in the beginning of my story, or how I

had gotten there in the first place. I don’t remember what had made me so cheery and innocent,

because after some of my memories were returned from my life before, I was fighting some instinct to

just maim and kill everypony I saw.

We were brought to a large reinforced door that soon swung open to the inside of a building made of

brick and rusted metal. The inside was decorated with a few rotting carpets and banners, along with

wooden furniture that the apocalypse had been slightly more kind to. Judging from the stacked

munitions and medical supplies around, along with some rooms holding nothing but sleeping bags, cots

and additional bedding, it seemed fairly makeshift. There were hastily constructed barricades over a few

doors and some ceilings were propped up with metal beams that were melted into place.

“These Steel Rangers are going to imprison you; experiment on you!”

What? Where the hay did that voice come from?

“They will betray you! Run, escape from here!”

The voice in my head seemed pretty convinced of my impending doom, but I was still willing to give the

Rangers a chance to prove it wrong as we were lead to Elder Rasa’s office towards the middle of the

building. The Elder’s door was even more reinforced than the front door to the building, and after

several clicks it swung open, and we were called into the room.

“Initiates, debrief.” Rasa said sharply, as the Initiates went into the room and lined up. I followed after

them, deciding to rest on a dusty couch as the two Paladins escorting us came into the room and the

door slammed shut.

“Target apprehended, Bunker completely fubar. Skirmishes with raider groups, no casualties. Target

heard us coming, but didn’t attack. We gave food to the target, and were accompanied back to base.”

Hat Trick reported, and stepped back. Card Swipe spoke next.

“Target assisted in our defense against large band of raiders. Four survivors on their side, minor

injuries on ours. Total of twenty three casualties, unknown how many were killed by the target.

Possibly saved our lives. Raiders thought the target was a wendigo.” He stated flatly, and Cheese

Wheel finished.

“Informed target of happenings within last two months. EFS was reported to switch between friendly

and hostile in regards to the target. Target was found in severely emaciated state but is rapidly

recovering to former health.” He stated with purpose, and moved back. Elder Rasa looked at me, and

clicked on a sound dampening device.

“Now then, does your version of events follow with what was described?” Elder Rasa asked, earning

confused looks between the Initiates.

“Test… yep.” Was all I said before he made a motion to the two Paladins. Before I could look over to

them and see what they were doing, they were on top of me and trying to force a collar around my

neck! I tried screaming them off of me, but the dampener just made me sound panicked as it finally

clacked on as I was held on the couch.

“I warned you…”

“What is going on?!” I yelled, trying to struggle with ponies in power armor.

“Target is hostile.” One of the paladins reported.

“You think?!” I growled, spitting on his visor.

“Bring the Dampener with you, lock her in the observation room. No visitors.” Rasa ordered, looking at

the concerned faces of the Inititates. “You’ve performed your mission perfectly. You are dismissed.”

The Initiates saluted their Elder as I was dragged kicking and yelling from the room. Soon enough, the

Paladins had gotten tired of my resistance and clobbered me with their armored hooves.

”I’ll take care of you. Just go to sleep and let go…” The voice whispered in my ear, as I felt my vision

fading to black.

oooOOOooo

I found myself waking up in a dungeon cell, hooves shackled to the wall and laying on my side in a bed of

hay. Two guards were posted outside of my holding area, muttering to each other about their distaste of

bat ponies after Nightmare Moon’s attempted uprising. One was trying to talk the other out of entering

my cell and outright killing me, though was doing poorly considering I had killed his brother. My

movement was causing my chains to rattle, and draw the attention of the guards.

“Oh, look who’s awake.” The guard intent on murdering me had stated. “Nopony is gonna care if we get

some ‘free therapy’ in, are they?” he asked the other guard.

“What do you mean? She’s Celestia’s prisoner! We can’t do anything to her, or we’ll get banished, or

worse!” the guard of the brother I murdered had responded.

“Who’s gonna say it was us that did it? There’s a bunch of other guards on this shift, and they get

rotated every so often. Nopony will know it was us.” He darkly suggested.

“Except every single guard that can see what she looks like! They’ll all know we beat her up.”

“Not if we move her to the far end of the cell, out of the light. We can tell the next guards on shift about

just who this scum is, and they can get some therapy of their own in as well. Everypony keeps their

mouth shut, and we have ourselves a nice new punching bag.”

There was a pause as a look of conspiracy went between the two guards, and my cell door creaked open.

The guards snuck inside after making sure every other door in the block was locked and closed securely. I

knew that magic couldn’t hurt me, but I was still just as vulnerable to swords, maces, hooves and any

other physical weapon as almost anypony else. These guards where there when it was revealed that I

couldn’t die, so they knew this well in advance before roughing me up a bit, and moving me to the dark

corner of the cell and re-chaining me. This section of chains was to the ceiling, and I was hung by all four

hooves upside down. I couldn’t do much more than let out muffled pleas of mercy and agony as I was

pummeled, cut, slashed, beaten and bludgeoned all over my body. I had spat up blood and vomited more

than once at the damage being done to me. I had deep gashes and cuts covering my body, but I was

unable to die from my wounds as they kept up their efforts. After an eternity of their assault, the banging

of the next shift came from a door down the hallway. Huffing and panting heavily from exertion, the

guards gathered their equipment and locked my cell before speaking with the next set of guards to

replace their shift. I heard a few voices get raised in alarm, but they were quickly hushed as I heard their

hoof falls come closer.

“See, Nopony can tell she’s even hurt. Her eyes do a nice job of reflecting from the dark, so we didn’t

touch em. I’m sure she’s killed more than a few of your buddies, and she can’t do nothing to get back at

you either. Let this be a secret between us guards, because Celestia knows that the captains give us

enough reason to ‘unwind’ after a hard day’s work.” The guard that wanted me dead had said.

“You’re sure nopony will tell?” one of the new guards, a Pegasus, had asked.

“Of ‘course not. Just say that its part of her punishment from Celestia. Not all the guards are gonna like

carrying it out, but she killed my friend’s brother.” He spat in my direction through the cell bars.

A bit more convincing from the guard later, and all four of them walked in and locked the cell, intent on

getting their revenge for anything they thought I had done wrong, and then for things others had done

to wrong them. Towards the end, it was pretty much just because they could. My body had long since

been reduced to a heap of bruises, butchered flesh and disfigured bone as I dangled from the ceiling by

my hooves. I couldn’t move a muscle or lift my head. The only thing they didn’t hit was around my eyes,

but there was enough blood coming from my body and neck that I had been blinded a while ago. I had

long since stopped trying to fight the pain and heal myself, so I had died a few hours ago. I was watching

with detachment at what they were doing to my body, but only after the next shift of guards showed up

did they notice I wasn’t alive anymore.

“What the- You said she couldn’t die! She’s not breathing and the next shift is here!” One of the guards

panicked.

The other guards looked amongst themselves with worry, as the door to the cell block burst open. They

all hurried out of my cell and locked the door as Celestia herself rounded the corner, flanked by four of

her honor guard.

“I wish to speak with the prisoner.” Celestia stated, as the guards shared nervous looks.

“Shes… down in the washroom being cleaned, Princess Celestia!” the guard of the murdered brother

said, saluting with a shaky hoof.

“I just came from there, Sword Slash.” Celestia said with suspicion.

“Well then you must’ve just missed the prisoner then!” The murderer guard offered.

“Open the cell door.” Princess Celestia ordered, as the guards went into a minor panic. They tried to

come up with a list of excuses at the same time, and Celestia’s honor guard moved them aside as she

unlocked the door and stepped through. Her horn glowed only for a few seconds before finding me

dangling as a mutilated corpse from the ceiling before its magic cut out, plunging the room into darkness

again. Her face was contorted in anger and betrayal, as she whipped around to face the guards

responsible for protecting me.

“Did you do this?” She said with a tempered and level voice, all the more terrifying from the level of

anger barely contained from behind it.

“N-no, Princess Ce-“ A guard tried, before she flung the four of them against the wall with her magic.

“DO NOT LIE TO ME!” She bellowed in her Royal Canterlot voice, meant to address thousands of

gathered ponies throughout the city. Used in the small confines of the dungeon, it was loud enough to

make the foundation shake with bits of dust raining from the ceiling as torches flickered on the walls and

the guards tried to appear as small as possible covering their ears.

While this was going on, I assumed it safe enough to revive my body. I tried to breathe, but my lungs had

been shredded by repeated stabs through my broken ribs. With my throat cut out and blood seeping

from my wounds, I only managed to gurgle and jerk in pain. The sounds caused all guards present,

including the honor guard of Celestia to jump in surprise as a few let out startled shrieks. Celestia turned

her gaze to my slowly repairing body, and ordered the four guards to be locked in a cell at the other side

of the block before walking next to me.

She studied me as my body slowly repaired itself. Eventually I was able to start screaming in agony at my

mutilated body, as I convulsed and shook uncontrollably in the air. Celestia stood there, watching in

horror as my features were warped and twisted into a form that roughly resembled the bat pony I was

before. I tried to ask for help, to get me out of this dungeon, but my voice was not repaired enough for

speech. It came only as squeaks and whimpers that she couldn’t understand as I begged and pleaded

with her to be released. Her personal guard soon returned, and she turned to address them.

“Take her to the gardens. Unshackle her when you get there.” She stated completely detached from the

horror she had witnessed, as I screamed and cried out to be released, to let me go. I had done nopony

any harm since Nightmare Moon had been banished. I hadn’t raised a hoof in anger against another

pony. I deserved to be released and set free.

Later, I stood atop a stone pedestal in the hedge gardens outside of Celestia’s palace. I was surrounded

by guards of all races as Celestia came forward. She didn’t say a word, nor did anypony else that was

present. Her eyes began to glow, along with her horn, and the Alicorn goddess of the sun cast a spell that

began to entomb me in stone. She was going to turn me into a statue!

I tried to fight it, to move and resist what was happening to me. I could feel my limbs locking in place and

unable to move or free myself from the stone that was replacing my body. My wings and chest were

soon locked, having been trying to fly away before the stone took them. Before the rest of my body was

encased, I pointed a hoof accusingly at Celestia with a look of pure hatred at having me trapped in

eternity, conscious, in stone.

The last few moments before my eyes were taken, I saw regret on the face of the Sun Princess. If I was to

ever escape, I would not show mercy to anypony in Equestria for what she had done.

After all, Nopony had shown any mercy to me.

oooOOOooo

I came out of the memory, shaking my head furiously to rid it of something that had become stuck in my

mane. Only then did I notice it was somepony’s intestine. I looked around at where I was, coming out of

a blinding haze as the world flew into focus.

Bodies.

Bodies of ponies were everywhere. Ripped apart, blown to bits, shredded beyond recognition. Scribes

had been impaled with their own weapons. Paladins had been burned alive in their armor, their charred

husks propped against walls and each other. Knights and Initiates had been ground to paste and thrown

from rooftops to become heaps of broken bones. Some were still alive, screaming for help or a quick

death.

I looked down at the ground, at my hooves. They were drenched in the crimson blood of those I had

killed while inside my head. I checked myself for injury but could find only scratches and bits of my coat

torn out.

“I told you I would take care of you.” The ethereal voice in my head said. It was soft, soothing even. It

calmed me when it spoke, filling me with a sense of belonging and companionship. I had never felt love

before, so I had no way of knowing what that was like. I had never had any true friends that I could

count on to be there for me in a time of need. But this voice sounded so familiar, like somepony I used

to know closely.

Who are you? I thought.

“You don’t need to worry about things like that now. All that matters is that I am here for you, and I will

never let anything bad happen to you.” She responded. Her voice flittered between words like a gentle

breeze, reassuring me that all was well in the world even as I strode through the devastation and

slaughter of the Steel Ranger base. I had nonchalantly kicked aside the limbs of a few ponies as I walked

through the building leading to Elder Rasa’s office in a dream like haze.

There was nothing to worry about, everything was going perfectly for me. I wasn’t hungry, I wasn’t tired

or worrying about… anything. Nopony was hurting me, nopony was looking for me. All was well.

I heard gurgled coughing from a room nearby, and a walked through the archway that once held a door

to find Hat Trick laying in the corner behind a couch. Her magic rifle was shaking in her grip before it fell

to the floor with a clatter and she fell over in a heap. On a desk nearby was the Dampener, still going off

and muting the sounds of the room. Something told me that the dampener was the only reason she had

survived, as the bodies of Cheese Wheel and Card Swipe lay in the room as well. They were in bloody

shreds and Cheese was missing both of his forelegs. Hat Trick was still coughing, so I walked over the

corpses of her fellow Initiates and stood over her.

She looked up at me after a coughing fit, and tried to scramble away from me in terror. I stopped her

with a hoof placed on her chest, and she froze.

“Please… please don’t kill me. I haven’t done anything to you! I didn’t hurt you, I didn’t attack you! I

didn’t want you to be taken prisoner, please!” She begged, too weak to move the hoof I was resting on

her. I simply stared at her as she struggled, her eyes were desperate and pleading for her to leave me

alone.

“She’s lying.” The voice snapped, the gentle breeze turning into an angered tempest.

“You’re lying. Tell me the truth.” I said without emotion as her panicked efforts redoubled shortly before

her wounds sent her into a pained coughing fit and she spat out blood. I pressed my hoof into her chest,

causing her body to wrench in pain.

“We were sent to gather your body!” She cried out, and I set my hoof aside so she could speak.

“Elder Rasa started talking about old mare’s tales from before the war, about a moon of nightmares.”

She sputtered out the words between hacking coughs filled with blood. “He said that if we found you,

we would get promoted to Knights! Just jump straight up the ladder because he could do that for us.

So we went out to find your body, but you weren’t dead!” She was trying her best to explain, but her

body was too busy trying to stop her from talking and getting herself killed faster. I tilted my head

sideways, finding myself more interested in how long she would take to die than what she was actually

saying. “Rasa said that you had been alive, before the war. He said that you would be able to bring the

Rangers back together. He said you knew the Elements of Harmony!”

Pfft. Yeah, I know them pretty well. They sent Nightmare Moon away.

“He said that if you knew the Ministry Mares, that you would’ve known Applejack. That you would’ve

convinced the other Elders that it was our mission to protect other Ponies, not to be keepers of

technology.” Her breathing was becoming erratic and uneven. I was sure she was in her last few

moments of living. I had never heard of these ‘Ministry Mares’, or known an Applejack. All I was certain

of, is that they had planned to use me to settle some civil war. Planned to use me for their own ends

after having locked me away. So soon after that memory, I was never going to let myself be used again. I

was never going to be at the mercy of other ponies that time and again had treated me as property.

That had used me and abused me without any regard to my own sense of self.

She was still babbling about something. Talking about some device in a mountain that was going to fix

the wasteland and make everything better. I couldn’t care less, because Equestria was doomed to fall if

it was run by ponies like these Steel Rangers. They had allowed raiders and slavers to operate freely,

endangering the few innocent citizens of Equestria. I may have been the last of the Night Guards, but I

wasn’t going to let that happen any longer.

I needed to cleanse Equestria of the rot that was keeping it from returning to its former glory, and I was

going to start with Hat Trick and the Steel Rangers.

“Stay your hoof, Sundown.” The soothing voice asked. I was about to end Hat Trick by stomping her head

into the floor, but the voice asked and I listened.

“She will be useful to you. Find her a healing potion and she will be indebted to you.” The voice swayed

my opinion almost effortlessly, as it was far more relaxing and enjoyable to follow with it than to think

for myself. In a trance, I walked out of the room and left Hat Trick in a pool of her own blood and began

searching through the boxes of medical supplies that had escaped the devastation. I found a box that

had a hole through it, but I opened it to find three purple bottles of super rejuvenation potions,

although one had shattered and was only half full. I carried the box in my mouth, and set it down in

front of Hat Trick. She looked up at me weakly, before I opened the box and held the potion to her

mouth so she could drink. After the second bottle she was able to move on her own, and carefully drank

from the jagged edges of the last rejuvenation potion.

“Why?” she asked quietly, setting down the broken potion and looking at me.

The soothing voice spoke through me, though sounding like my own voice.

“You will follow me, Hat Trick. I have saved your life, so you are in my debt.” The voice spoke.

Hat Trick looked at me suspiciously, squinting her eyes like she was trying to find something in my face.

“Who are you?” She asked finally.

“The one who has saved your life, of course.” The voice replied with a cheery tone.

When the voice was not speaking, my face held an expression devoid of all emotion. I let the voice take

control of me, because it had guided me this far and protected me when I tried to defy it. I would’ve

been a prisoner again were it not for her efforts, and the voice was filling me with calm euphoria.

“We will travel to the ruins of Fillydelphia, to see if any of the slaves there have survived the battle with

the Enclave and Red Eye’s forces. From there, we will seek out any remaining Steel Rangers.” The voice

hummed, using my body to gather supplies and saddlebags for the coming journey.

“And why is that?” Hat Trick asked, gathering food and ammo into her own saddlebags.

The voice stopped searching and walked over to Hat Trick, placing a reassuring hoof on her shoulder.

“Because they are the first that must be removed from the wasteland, if Equestria is to become whole

once more.” The voice smiled, sending shivers through Hat Trick. The voice went back to gathering the

last few bits of supplies, and Hat Trick followed her through the devastated wreckage of the compound

outside of the building. The main gate and surrounding walls were completely toppled or obliterated,

with the burnt and exploded corpses of ponies lay scattered about. Blood and gore was everywhere,

without a single survivor calling out for help.

“Don’t worry about the Rangers, Sundown. They were going to use you for their own ends. It is better

this way.” The voice washed over my worries like the tide, and I sank deeper into the comfort she

provided. I had noticed that while the voice was speaking, she didn’t need to be near an Audio

Dampener.

“Were you just messing with us, with your squeaking?” Hat Trick asked, having noticed as well.

“No, my voice was damaged when we met. I was only recently able to heal most of the damage that was

done to it.” The voice stated calmly, making me feel at peace.

“How is that?” Hat Trick asked, moving around a large rock that had propped up the corpse of another

Initiate.

“Do not worry about things that don’t matter, Hat Trick. All that matters is that we are safe for now, and

as long as you stay with me, you will be safe as well.” The voice stated softly, glancing back at a confused

and suspicious Hat Trick before looking forward again towards our goal of Fillydelphia.

“‘We’ are safe for now? Who is we?” Hat Trick asked, growing more suspicious.

“Well, Sundown and I of course. You can be safe as well, so long as you remain with us.” The voice

responded like she was teaching a classroom of Foals.

“You mean that you’re not Sundown?” Hat Trick asked again, getting something out of her saddlebag. It

was probably a snack for the road, nothing to worry about.

“Of course I am Sundown, and Sundown is myself.” The voice replied cryptically.

“So Sundown didn’t kill everypony back there, it was you?” Hat Trick asked, a clicking noise coming

from behind us as we abruptly stopped to look back at Hat Trick. She was holding a large and menacing

looking revolver in her magic, and aiming right at our head.

“We are Sundown, and Sundown is us.” The voice said with a bit of caution as she looked between the

revolver and Hat Trick. “We will cause you no harm, should you continue to-“

BLAM!

…

That definitely was a feeling that I’m sure somepony will have invent a new word for, just to adequately

describe. For now, I’ll just go with

‘Oh-my-bucking-sweet-Celestia-my-face-just-turned-into-shredded-meat-dear-goddesses-why-would-o

w-ow-ow-why’ as an apt descriptor.

Hey…

The voice is gone!

Then I fell sideways with a squishy flop, and my vision faded to black.