Fallout Equestria: Sundown

Chapter 6: Paladin Protectors

“Time!” Hat Trick stated, and three beeps sounded from their gear.

“Aright, we got fifteen minutes and counting. We need to get there early incase everything goes bad,

which considering what we’re up against it most likely will.”

We were galloping down hallways, jumping over upturned tables and barricades as we made our way

through the stable during our hasty briefing by Hat Trick.

“We have ten minutes to find Paladin Copper Wire, and get back to the Stable entrance before we get

locked in here with nightmares incarnate. Any questions?” Hat Trick finished.

“Supplies?” Card Swipe said while breathing steadily. Apparently they were used to this kind of effort

and it wasn’t slowing them down all that much to gallop and talk.

“We got a few healing potions, and some more cartridges from the Infirmary. Not saying that’s

enough to waste. Make your shots count. Go for anything glowing or that looks vulnerable.” Hat Trick

responded, weaving around a corner as the group moved up a staircase to the main chamber where we

met our first monster.

“Glowing? Like in the simulations, right?” Cheese Wheel called out, taking up the rear while I flew close

overhead. The hallways in this stable were about three ponies in height, but the doorways were more of

a bother to get through as they dropped to a pony and a half. About six hooves tall, hah.

“Yes, Cheese. Just like the simulations.” Hat confirmed as we made our way to the main chamber and

the Initiates spread out while I went on ‘Hearing Duty’.

“Central, Clear!”

“Left Side, Clear!”

“Right Side, Clear!”

“Squiri Squui, Squeak!” I finished, then facehoofed.

They regrouped on me as I flew back down from the ceiling with grins.

“Good effort, Sunny.” Card Swipe said before getting serious again.

“Alright. Death monster is nowhere to be found, so let’s go down the way it came up.” Hat Trick

stated, and we made our way to the mangled and bloody remains of the doorway it had clawed its way

out of. It looked like the door had exploded into a fountain of shrapnel and gore, with bits of flesh

dangling in thin ropes from the shredded metal of the door frame. We gathered together and peered

down into the badly lit staircase, flickering lights and sparks coming off of the walls from earlier.

“Sundown, hear anything?” Cheese asked.

I stood at the top of the staircase and closed my eyes to focus on any sound that would come from

down below.

Skittering, clicking, hoofsteps, weapons fire and… screaming?

My eyes shot open and I wheeled around to the three of them and nodded eagerly that this was the

right way, pointing down frantically with both my wings and a hoof.

“How do you even manage to do that thing with your wings?” Card Swipe asked, before huffing and

asking another question. “Paladin Copper Wire?”

I shrugged, but made a loud squeaking noise in my quietest attempt at yelling. It ended up sounding like

a whistle but it got the point across.

“Good enough. Let’s go get em!” Hat motioned with a hoof, as they readied their weapons and lead the

way down the bloody and slick staircase.

“Watch your step, everypony.” Cheese warned.

The squishy sounds of our hooves trampling discarded flesh and bursting whatever pestilent boils that

had decided to grow along the floor was extremely gross to say the least, but time wasn’t on our side as

we made our way to the bottom floor of the Stable and the door opened to reveal the bottom of the

Greenhouse tube.

It looked like a giant had tried to stuff as many ponies as they possibly could into a science tube, and

didn’t care if they survived the effort. Two more paladin bodies were strewn about on the floor, one of

them ripped clean in half. Metallic inner workings of their armor mixed with the gore of their intestines

and it didn’t seem a clean death. One of them had tried crawling away from their other half before

collapsing on the body of a Scribe missing their legs. The other paladin had gashes and chunks of armor

ripped out, revealing the frame of the armor and the pony underneath.

“Paladin Copper Wire!” The initiates gasped in unison as they rushed over to their commander,

sprawled on the floor and breathing heavily in his damaged armor. One of his hooves looked like hash

browns crammed into a tomato soup can, while his helmet had half of it ripped off, revealing the

bleeding stallion beneath. His eye was hanging onto his face by a thread as he tried to move his head to

look at the Initiates.

“No… Get out of here! You’ve got to-“ He tried to warn, before everypony but myself went deaf. I

jumped into the air on reflex as the place I had been standing turned into a warped metal crater from

the monster slamming a claw where I was a moment before. The initiates realized they couldn’t hear

anything as they turned around to see the amalgamation of scribe, paladin and stable dwellers before

them. What amounted as its ‘chest’ was covered by the remains of powered armor and metal plating

ripped from the stable itself, just slammed into its chest with flesh growing around it. The flower of

unicorns around its eye had grown to a full spiked mesh running down its neck, with several more eyes

looking out with a green glow in every direction. The eye itself having split into what looked like

hundreds of insect eyes, the honeycomb lattice of it glowing like the runes of a spell. It had no mouth to

speak of, and made no noise as it lifted the structure of the doorway I had flown from, tearing it to

pieces as large chunks of rock from the stable’s foundation came pouring down on it in a chunky grey

landslide. The Initiates had been pouring on fire into everything that glowed on the beast as it

shuddered slightly with every pop of the eyes along its neck. I don’t know why they knew to shoot for

the bits that were glowing, but I wasn’t complaining that it had a weakness.

I saw Paladin Copper Wire trying to stand, but there were various red lights flashing from what

remained of the inside of his helmet as he attempted to right himself. He flicked one of his hooves, and

a minigun on his battle saddle swung over to provide support to the Initiates as he yelled in pain

towards Hat Trick at his side. From this distance it seemed that they could still hear each other, but I was

flying in erratic patterns over the head of this giant thing trying to distract it and not be turned into

paste.

“Sundown, get to the entrance now! Get backup!” I heard Hat Trick yell loud enough to just barely make

out.

I hesitated for a moment, not wanting to leave my new friends to their fate, before I was slammed aside

by the wake of the abomination’s claws. I spiraled out of control towards the Greenhouse Tube before

barely leveling out and narrowly avoiding a broken neck from slamming into the side of the tube. I

bounced off of the reinforced plastic and fell down onto the ‘pony carpet’ of the floor next to the

paladin, feeling a hot liquid running down my side and leg. Looking down in a daze, I saw a deep gash

running down my right hind leg almost to the hoof, and that my wing had the membrane sliced across

the center. My ribs had mostly protected my organs from horrible death, but my vision began to blur

from the pain. I heard somepony swear before something was brought to my mouth and poured down

my throat as my vision cleared again.

“Sundown! You’ve got to get us help. We only have five minutes left before that door closes! You’re

the only one fast enough to get up and back in time.” Hat Trick shouted into my ear, chucking the

empty healing potion at the monster with her magic before opening up another volley on it. I got to my

hooves with some difficulty and tried flapping my wings. Everything was sore and still fresh, but just

barely mended enough to do what she’d asked. All of the Initiates gathered around the fallen paladin as

I swooped around the behemoth and flew upstairs to the main stable door as fast as I could.

I arrived roughly half a minute later to the sounds of charging weapons and a few yelps of surprise

before ducking below some beam fire and hiding behind a box.

“Hold fire, that’s the mutant!” Scribe Clear Report ordered before galloping over to me.

“Where’s the rest of the Initiates? With the paladin?” He asked in a rush.

I nodded yes, and wrote “Bottom Floor!” on a nearby cloth before he rallied the Minigun paladin from

earlier and a few scribes that could be spared from guarding the entrance as the last of the explosives

were set up.

“We’re making this quick! Bolt downstairs and get anypony that’s alive out of there. Move!” The

scribe belted out before we rushed back down. I heard a beep and noticed that the timer on his gear

said one minute remaining.

We were met half way by a staggering Paladin Copper Wire with Cheese Wheel on his back, Hat Trick

and Card Swipe covering the rear by firing down the hallway where the monster was last.

“Use Incendiaries!” Paladin Copper Wire called out to us, and the sounds of reloading were heard, filling

the chamber before Swipe and Hat fell back to the rest of the group, joining Copper Wire and myself.

We waited for what felt like eternity, without any sound to give an ominous approach or a bellowing

roar to announce the monster’s arrival. Flashes of light spewed forth from the Steel Rangers still

standing as the wounded were ushered upstairs and out of the battle. Unicorns from the back ranks

used their telekinetic magic to hurl steel apples with a red ring around the center at the approaching

doom coming from the hallway below before erupting into a fountain of fire.

Then it screamed.

It wasn’t a regular, pain induced cry of agony. It was the sound of hundreds of ponies gurgling and crying

in an unholy choir of torment and suffering. Several scribes stopped firing, and I found myself frozen in

place at the horrifying noise. The worst part is that it never stopped. It was a constant wail of sheer

horror that frayed the nerves and made blood run cold. The deep green glow surrounding it had been

shattered when the fire leapt at it, breaking whatever spell had been on the beast and unleashing its

tide of anguish as it barreled towards us from across the open space of the meeting hall. You might hear

it differently based on who you ask, but after that display not a single one of us stood our ground. We

made for the exit to get out of there as fast as physically possible, from the hardest veteran to the

newest recruit. Not a single pony stood in resistance to that thing as we desperately crammed through

the skinny doorway in a desperate attempt to not be dragged back down to Tartarus where that

indescribable terror had clawed its way out of.

A few more cries of pain were heard as the monster cleaved through scribes and paladins unlucky

enough to not get out of its way in time as it slammed into the doorframe with its entire body, its

screams like an endless battlecry of demons and lost souls. I regained myself only enough to make sure

more than just I would make it out of there, as I helped a few ponies to their hooves and had a wounded

earth pony draped on my back as I moved as swiftly as I dared up the stairs. Its wails could be heard

louder and louder as I got further away and broke out of the mangled hallway to the stable entrance

where Clear Report and a wounded Paladin Copper Wire were directing survivors out of the stable and

topside as swiftly as they could. I saw a medic carrying Cheese Wheel up the steps leading out of here

with Hat Trick and Card Swipe close by, only survival and their friend on their mind. I looked back at the

rest of the Steel Rangers attempting their escape as the hallway buckled and warped around the

monstrosity chasing them up the steps. They weren’t going to make it before that thing did! I spun on

my hooves and raced towards the Paladin, screaming bloody murder (Squeaking) and pointing behind

myself with a free wing that wasn’t holding my wounded baggage.

Paladin Copper Wire and Clear Report looked up to see my frantic blur racing past them as the weapons

fire drew closer and closer to the Stable door.

“Blow it! Blow it now or we’re all dead!” Paladin Copper Wire shouted to the demolition team as I

made my way up the stairway and out of the stable.

“But sir, there are still-“ Clear Report tried to argue.

“BLOW IT!” Paladin Copper Wire screamed, as the last few scribes and a paladin were cut down by the

monster as the stable door grated closed like a giant gear locking into place with the screech of grinding

metal. A pony pressed a button on a remote, and a deep boom was heard as nearby buildings shook

from the blast inside of the stable. I could still hear the monster even after the charges had gone off, but

it wasn’t beating against the door and the ground itself looked ready to cave in as cracks began

spreading from the stable outwards.

“Topside, Move it!” Copper Wire shouted to the few of us too shocked to move.

They must’ve thought it was dead because they had looks of relief written all over their faces, that it

hadn’t been them killed by the beast, that at least some of their friends had made it out of that hell

alive. When I was finally able to move, I gathered myself and the wounded stallion on my back, and

slowly made my way to the makeshift camp the Steel Rangers had set up in a nearby building. Every one

of them looked exhausted, beaten, wounded or broken entirely. Some were rocking in the corner or

curled up like foals, trying to hide underneath bloodied table cloths in the pre-war restaurant that had

become their command post.

I know I’m focusing a lot on the other ponies, and not my reactions. But that’s because the most

horrifying thing I had ever experienced in my life wasn’t over yet.

A deep boom and crack was heard from the direction of the stable, roughly a block away. Then another,

and another, and another. Rangers looked up in horror from where they lay, some moving to the

windows with looks of disbelief on their face as the booming continued, spider web cracks spreading

from the direction of the stable outwards. The ground began falling out of existence as a final

resounding Boom was heard, and a large gear with ‘96’ detailed in yellow on it soared through the air

and obliterated a nearby structure.

Coated in grey ash and dust, wailing and screaming louder than before, stood the monstrosity of

Stable 96.