The Many Destinies of Sunset Shimmer

by ratedoni

War never changes 02

Sunset Shimmer kept on watching at the gun she had on her hands, looking how black it was and how it shine, how well kept it was considering the age of the weapon. She did all that just so she wouldn’t think about what she had done.

She had shot once and the bullet had went through the back of the head, as simple as that, no screaming, no groaning or cursing out from the victim, he just felt and didn’t get up again, it was disheartening, surprising and oh so shocking. So shocking that Sunset has been sitting down front of what used to be one of the favorite stores of kids before the war.

Sunset could only stare at the gun so she wouldn’t stare at the empty eye of the bandit, and she did mean one eye since the bullet had destroyed the other eye and part of its face leaving behind a husk of what once was a living being.

She knew she should be feeling sick, that she should be raging or screaming or crying… but the only thing she felt right now was relief knowing that the bandit would hurt no one after this, was she a bad person for thinking that? Was something wrong with her?

Her sight and mind never put attention to the oncoming reinforcements; thankfully those same reinforcements were on her side.

Consisting of Applejack, Quick Trigger and Chrome Shield, the three had guns ready and were looking around before meeting with the other person besides Sunset and AJ all but threw herself at his arms.

“Pa, never scare me like this again” the usual tough farm girl all but bawled at seeing her father alive while this one gladly returned the hug, they maintained the hug for several seconds before they separated. Applejack turned her head to the sitting girl not too far from them and her face changed from relief to annoyance “so, in what kind of trouble did you got my father this time?”

“AJ, that’s enough”

“But Pa, she…”

“I said enough” Red Barn had a voice of command that made everyone stay straight when he talked, probably due to his past in the army before the bombs, nowadays people could forget that until he started to get serious, and this was one of those times “I don’t know what kind of grudge you two have, but I won’t have my own daughter talk that way to an innocent girl”

“Sure, an innocent, which Sunset isn’t, don’t you remember how she was before we all went down into that damn Vault?”

“I sure do, but this is a different time, we all changed because of that, now look at her, does she look like that bully?”

“No, but… what is she doing?”

“She went into shock… I hate to think that I wasn’t capable of defending myself but… Sunset saved my life killing the last bandit; I thought this zone was safe once again and wanted to scout for a little bit, thankfully miss Shimmer here followed me, I heard her say that she wanted to find a clean holotape, no idea what she wanted to do with it” Barn said knowing full well that all any explanation about the technology that had been created due to the atom craziness would always fly over his head.

“Then we found three bandits, new kids, probably couldn’t get into any big band and decided to go solo, one of them had me under his sight before I could react and if it weren’t because of her I wouldn’t be here right now”

“But why is she like that?”

“Because she had to kill, not everyone react the same way after something like this happens” he said sitting down at Sunset’s side, then he took the 10mm from her hands and the teenager finally turned around to look at him with vacant eyes; red Barn almost cursed seeing such a young girl have to live with the consequences of taking a man’s life.

“Is it wrong?”

“What is wrong?”

“That I am feeling relieved that he is dead?” she simply asked before the tears began to fall from her eyes; Barn had no answer to her question, the only thing he could do was hug the teenager until she stopped crying.

Author's Note:

Sometimes in all the excitement of Fallout we forget something, that it is a cruel world out there, one where you have no chance to remain innocent, it is truly a tragedy.

Comments

[Isumo1489]

Now that...was a powerful chapter...indeed as gamers we tend to forget what our actions truly mean. We're taking other lives, granted, it's the best thing we CAN do unless we break the game for pacifist runs and the like, but in the end it's what we're encouraged to do. In real life...it's nothing like a game. No Level-up, no XP...at least not the kind that's numerical, and consequences that are FAR more damning that any "justice" system in any game I've ever seen. It's a big thing, and I'm glad you showed that Sunset, as bad as she was/seemed before the big Rainbow of Friendship, is no exception to the harsh slap of reality. Well done, well done indeed.

[Marauder15]

7374706 Amen to that.

[Sylica telca]

The greatest illusion is innocence