Fallout Equestria: Sundown

Chapter 2: Stable Stability

After I had managed to successfully avoid dying, I wandered around for the rest of the 'day' in the ruins

of some city. Never really bothered to learn the names of these places since they all tended to be

decrepit hives of scum and villainy anyway. This city, however, was just so awesome that it had a vault

underneath the town hall that I found by good fortune of shouting, a gunshot, and the sounds of

arguments between a few ponies. Yeah, they were really loud and I was surprised to see that nopony

else had actually heard these few in their ordeal.

Poking my head around a corner, using my hooves to cling to the side of the stable entrance to not fall

on my face, I spotted the unruly quartet of quarreling questers. An earth pony, a unicorn, and -

"TWO FREAKING PEGASUS, WHAT!?" I unwittingly squeaked out at almost a volume loud enough to

make weaponized.

The earth pony, (White coat, Blue mane and a utility jumpsuit) jolted his head upwards to look where

my head used to be, me having retreated fast as possible to hold my heart from trying to escape from

my chest in an act of self-preservation from my stupidity, around the corner of the vault door.

"What was that noise? Did anypony else just hear squeaking?" What I assume the Earth Pony stallion

had asked his companions.

"Um, Yeah? I think we have more pressing matters here than some mouse getting spooked, Gearbox."

One of the mares of the group said with an air of annoyance.

"Besides, we still gotta deal with this murderer you managed to get to tag along with us. Come on

Gearbox, she just killed an entire Stable! There’s no way she can stay with us after that!" Another of

the mares protested.

Wait, this buck sure has a lot of mares with him. Is this a Mare-em? Hah. Okay, I'll kill myself later,

promise.

"Just leave me alone! I already know I messed up and you're not making this any easier on me,

Lightswitch!" the voice of a clearly distressed and sobbing mare called out to the group. I assume that

would be the one that 'killed the stable'.

Yeesh, she was sobbing into the floor plating and I could still hear her voice vibrating my eardrums from

twenty feet away. Hold on. If we're ponies, why do we measure in feet? Shouldn't we measure in

hooves? That'd make more sense... Unless math got invented by Sand Dogs or something, which

wouldn’t be that hard to believe. They all got a bunch of those fancy robotics on them, even if they can

barely put two words together that don’t end in "Kill" and "Pony". Oh well, I guess that’s a question for

the ages. From now on, I’m just going to measure everything in Hooves. Hah, take that, scien"

HELLO?" The earth pony had politely asked directly next to my ear.

"Squeak!" I replied, holding my ears and crumpling to the floor in a flurry of hooves and more squeaks,

trying to stop my ears from ringing.

"OH, JEEZ. I'M TERRIBLY SORRY MA'AM. CAN I HELP YOU?" The earth pony said more calmly than he

should've, given the situation and being in the wastes. Honestly I was surprised I hadn't had my organs

forcibly ventilated at this point, but his speaking this closely next to me wasn’t helping matters.

I decided to take action and frantically wave my hooves and shake my head in the negative, hoping he

would get the point and not look too closely at the fact that my head wrap and goggles had flopped off

of my head in my frenzy. Oh, Crap.

The earth pony, Gearbox I think his name was, just stood there like he had seen a jelly sandwich get up

and leave his lunchbox while staring at me.

"Squeak?" What? I inquired.

"Um..." He turned away to speak to his Mare-em, (Hah! Got you again!) "I think you should see what

the squeaking was." He turned back to see me desperately getting my goggles and head wrap back on

to cover my 'exotic' features.

"I swear, Gear, if this is another of your... pranks. What?" The unicorn I assumed was named

Lightswitch said to me, then looked at Gearbox.

"Who is that?" She said, rudely pointing a hoof in my face.

"I have no idea, but she squeaked at me." He looked from his companion to the strange pony clad in

black and grey before asking, "Who are you, and why haven’t you shot at us yet? You've kind of just

been sitting there."

Using my superior intelligence and charisma, I gave a hearty shrug accompanied with an 'I dunno'

expression on my face. Perfect.

"Is she an idiot?" The unicorn I was rapidly disliking asked, while looking at me like she'd stepped in

something.

From around the corner, another of the mares poked her head through the open Stable door wearing a

nurse's cap and an odd uniform that looked either mercenary or military (I don’t know these things! It

had a bunch of pockets and it looked official, okay?)

"Is it safe?" The nurse looking Freaking Pegasus asked.

I stared at her with a look of wonder exceeding a Foal earning their cutie mark, while the downer

Unicorn just scoffed at trotted off to go badger the remaining Pegasus in the Stable.

"Well, 'it' hasn't decided to eat us at least. Some wicked looking fangs on her." Gearbox stated flatly.

Hearing fangs, I shut my mouth a bit too fast and drew blood from my lower lip, letting out a squeak of

pain and held my mouth with my hooves while sitting on my haunches.

"Aww, did somepony hurt themselves?" The nurse coo'd at me.

Coo'd at me! I’m not a foal! I've definitely lived on my own successfully enough to not die out here in

these wastelands and I was being treated like a foal for biting myself on accident. The indignity.

I did my best to growl menacingly at the nurse, but it had the same effect as a kitten getting upset with a

bowl of milk.

"Gearbox, I'm keeping her."

"But she's not a-"

"My decision is final! She is mine, and I shall call her Squeaky."

"She’s a living pony! You can’t jus-"

"I can, will, and did!"

Apparently having no say in the matter, I sat there looking between the two of them bickering.

"Swift Shot, She isn’t a pet. She's a living pony. We aren’t slavers and you can't just take her as a 'pet'

against her will!" retorted Gearbox, clearly upset and definitely too loud for my ears.

"Gearbox, she’s gotten here on her own, and I know that she's her own pony." She looked down at

me, noting the fanged smirk on my face and asked, "Now then, would you like to join us? Oh wait...

Actually, can you even speak?"

After a few moments, I realized she was serious, and began digging through my saddlebags for a piece of

charcoal and paper I had found in the Cave earlier.

"What is she doing?" called Lightswitch from inside of the stable.

After another moment, I returned to face them, lifting a page that had the words:

Yes. I can definitely speak. The only problem is that my voice is too high of a frequency for your ears to

register, so therefor you will only ever hear squeaks from me when I attempt to speak.

"Well. I'll be damned. She can actually talk, sort of." Gearbox responded after reading my message.

"See! Told you she's her own pony!" Swift happily said, trotting in place.

"So, does that mean I can keep you?" The nurse Pegasus asked me again, albeit this time more directly.

Mulling over my options and infinite possibilities, given my glorious status as a nopony without any

ability to speak properly to anyone, complete physical inability to use firearms, and lack of companions

to talk with, I decided the best course of action was to nod profusely in the affirmative until my goggles

decided they didn’t want to hold on to dear life anymore, and revealed my 'freaky' Batpony eyes.

"GAAAH!" The nurse screamed into my face, sending me sprawling on the floor covering my own ears

and screeching into the ceiling, sending dust into my face and making me squeakily sputter while trying

to get my vision un-assailed by dirt.

"What the hell happened to you!?" The nurse exclaimed, shortly after I stopped holding my ears in pain

and twitching.

I got back up, glared daggers at her loudness, and wrote down:

Stop being so loud, you're hurting my ears :c

I'm a Batpony, It comes with the genetics.

At the word 'Batpony', I saw both of their faces scrunch up with confusion and look at my sides,

expecting to see wings or something. Then I noticed I was still wearing my 'definitely not a winged pony'

tunic, and promptly shook myself out of it and the rest of my gear. Yes I was naked at this point, but we

ponies don’t normally wear clothes, in case you hadn't noticed that. I let my wings spread to their full

width, put my head up and to the side like I was posing for a patriotic poster, and gave them a fang filled

toothy grin from ear to ear while looking at them with my wide eyes. (Pupils shaped like a dragon’s, for

whatever reason. I guess that’s normal?)

"Well, damn." said Gearbox, apparently getting the message to tone it down, and he spoke in a whisper.

"Oh, if you'll excuse me, I have to be 'loud' for a moment." the Swift Shot warned. I covered my ears and

heard "Everypony! Get over here and look at this!"

Oh great, now I have to deal with the Gawking Gang.

The other two ponies came back, Lightswitch and the 'murderer' Pegasus.

"BY THE GODDESSES, WHAT IS THAT THING!?" The Pegasus belted out into my face, as I once again

tried to avoid falling over in pain from the volume.

"Shh! Her hearing is really sensitive, so stop shouting!" Gearbox harshly whispered.

"Oh really, she's 'Sensitive' is she?" The murderer Pegasus said with a wicked spark in her eyes.

This was going to hurt, but I was going to enjoy being louder than she was... Mwahaha.

"JUST HOW SENSITIVE IS HER HEARING, REALLY?" She shouted as best she could into my ear.

I responded by shouting back loud enough to send her sprawling backwards into a safety rail with a

satisfying CRACK of bone impacting stainless steel.

I then got off of the floor, used a wing to brush my shoulder off, and squeaked triumphantly.

Then I noticed that everypony else's ears probably hadn't stopped ringing yet, and I should probably get

a healing potion ready so they didn’t decide now was the best time to make me into a bonding agent.

“Owww…” was the most common reply from my new ‘friends’ after my outburst.

Gearbox was the first to get up, head held in his fore hooves trying to ease a splitting headache. He

looked at me holding a healing potion with the definition of fanged smugness on my face, and lazily

swiped at the healing potion I held in my hooves. Failing to connect, he slumped over sideways and

stared at me with his head resting on the cold stable floor, grumbling “Did you really have to go and

make all that noise?”

I looked around me with feigned innocence and surprised shock at the accusation, and pointed a wingtip

at the previously loud Pegasus that had assailed my ears with volume before I had shouted in response.

“This is just another reason we shouldn’t have this crazy pony in our group to begin with. First she kills

a stable, now she’s antagonizing mutants for the sake of fun!” Lightswitch angrily pointed out to

Gearbox.

“It wasn’t intentional, Light! Emerald here is just gonna have to play without her chemical sprayers

indoors is all.”

“Wasn’t intentional!? She killed an entire stable, Gearbox! Nopony is safe around her!”

Well. This seems like a whole lot of drama I have absolutely no context for. I wonder how this will pan

out. Oh wait! Maybe I’ll get to use my sledgehammer on somepony!

Oh yeah, I have a sledgehammer by the way. Yes it’s fairly loud when I hit somepony with it, but at least

I only have to hit them once. Usually. Most of the time.

Okay, yes it takes a few strikes to keep somepony from getting back up, but it’s better than gunfire. Even

silencers have a habit of making my ears pop with every shot. I’m not really a good shot with them

either, anyway. I wonder what happened with that nurse pony. I haven’t heard her make a sound this

whole time, and I don’t want to deal with ‘Emerald the Loud Mouth’ right now.

Leaving the two conscious ponies to bicker about whatever it is they bicker about, I found the nurse

slumped over the side of a railing. She was busy drowsily blinking and trying to figure out why she was

upside down when I pulled her back up to the safety of the cold catwalk and hoofed her a healing

potion. She didn’t seem as hardy as the others in the group, and I don’t honestly care that I may have

broken a rib of Emerald’s either. Besides, wasn’t I technically her ‘pet’ now?

After she had finished sipping about a quarter of the healing potion, she set the sparkling pink thing

aside and looked at me with what I think was… something, I guess. She didn’t look hostile or upset at all,

which was strange considering most ponies are out for my blood after I scream.

“You really can’t talk, can you?” She asked, forgetting that my hearing is sensitive. At least it wasn’t

intentional or to get on my nerves.

To reply, I simply shook my head and softly tapped her muzzle with a hoof, what I call a ‘boop’. She went

cross-eyed for a second, and was fairly confused as to why I had poked her nose. I shrugged, and sat

next to her, looking at Lightswitch and Gearbox continue their debate about morality in the wasteland.

Swift Shot (That was her name!) instead decided to study my appearance without me noticing, but not a

lot gets past me when I’m not distracted or zoning out thinking about why we even measure in feet.

“I don’t think that you’re a mutant. Everything about you is too specific for a mutation, let alone a lot

of them all being in the same theme to begin with. Were you like this since birth?” Swift questioned

out loud. With raised eyebrow, I slowly nodded at Swift and almost went back to watching the two

argue when I noticed her nurse hat was askew on her head. I pointed at it, and after an awkward second

of comprehension, she adjusted it and stared back at me. I guess it was pretty confusing for her. Imagine

going about your normal (For the wasteland) life, and suddenly a relatively friendly flying freak decides

that they’re going to agree to being your pet, even though they’re sentient and can live successfully on

their own without your help. Add on top of that, the fact they can shout so loud that you either get sent

across a room or your organs decide they don’t want to be as tightly knit as they used to be with the rest

of the gastrointestinal gang, and liquefy. Probably about as crazy as somepony hugging a Balefire

Phoenix I’d imagine, but nopony would be crazy enough to do that, right?

I was brought out of my thoughts by Swift tapping the side of my head like I had become a

malfunctioning toaster that she was trying to get working. I looked at her with a squeak of ‘Ow’ and

booped her nose in revenge, which made her more confused.

“She’s a monster, and a threat to the entire wasteland! Who knows what kind of ponies we’re going

to have to fend off when she gets a bounty on her head!” Lightswitch yelled at Gearbox.

These two were still arguing? Ponies die in the wasteland all the time, from everything to raider attacks,

starving to death, Taint exposure (Nasty stuff, taint is. I’ve heard it described as a rainbow sludge that

decides you’d look a whole lot better as a meat explosion or worse, depending on its mood.) Radiation

poisoning, slavery, rape, torture, and somepony not liking the way you looked at them or talk even.

Don’t even get me started on mutants, Alicorns, or Batponies. Those are the worst. I mean they can’t

even speak to anypony and all they do is squeak! Can’t hold a conversation for more than five minutes

and always need to make everything neat and tidy.

“Are you alright? You seem to space out a lot.” I heard Swift say next to me. I definitely didn’t get

startled and jump to my hooves.

“See, that’s what I mean. Are you sure you haven’t been hit in the head or something? You could have

a concussion.” The nurse Pegasus worried.

I thought a concussion made you dizzy and vomit a lot? I’m pretty sure I’ve slept recently too, and I don’t

think you’re supposed to do that after you get hit in the head.

“Helloooo…” The nurse was waving a hoof from side to side in front of my eyes now. Do I really zone out

that much? On the other hoof, I suppose I’d lose my mind if I was completely attentive to every little

noise and scratch that was happening around me, not to mention hearing heartbeats and breathing and

the skitter scutter of bugs crawling around and leaky pipes and venting gasses further down the stable

and—

“AAAAAH!” Well, more like ‘Squeak!’ but just assume whenever I talk, it’s a series of squeaking noises

that roughly sound like the words they’re supposed to be in the first place. Anyways, I was now covering

my ears while on the floor, keeping my eyes shut and trying to zone out again before I went nuts from

all the sounds. It’s not really as effective as it sounds though, it just muffles everything a tiny bit.

While I was busy hyperventilating and trying to contain my panic on the ground, Emerald let out a

pained groan and peeled herself off of the catwalk railing and slammed into the floor. I’m pretty sure I

heard the grinding of bone, and the nurse took off with my healing potion after casting a baffled glance

at me. Lightswitch and Gearbox had stopped arguing, and split up in a huff. Lightswitch trotting over to

me, Gearbox moving towards Swift Shot and Emerald.

Opening my eyes, I actually remembered I haven’t described her to you yet. She had a lemonade coat,

white and orange mane and eyes colored like beach sand. Her cutie mark looked to be a flash of light, so

I guess that means she’s good at… light? I mean her name is Lightswitch, so that’s a given. Oh, she’s also

a Unicorn, in case I didn’t mention that. Maybe she’s good at making electrical lighting, like an

electrician! That’d be neat to have with my dream house. I could have a generator for all the lightning

and… wait. I’m a Batpony. Why would I want lighting anyway? More often than not it just hurts my eyes.

Then I realized that she is probably looking at me on the ground, rolling my head around in thought with

my eyes dancing back and forth between sentences like an insane pony. I chanced a glance upwards.

Yep. She thinks I’m crazy.

“Come to think of it, I think you might be the more dangerous one between Emerald and yourself.”

She said with a smirk, staring down at me while I was on the floor. “What’s your name, anyway? It’s not

Merry Stew, is it?”

What the hay kind of name is Merry Stew? I looked at my cutie mark, and pointed to the sun on it, then

pointed downwards with a hoof.

“Sun…Down?” She guessed, looking at me for confirmation.

Wow, somepony actually got it on the first try! She must be a pretty smart pony compared to most I

deal with, even if I’m not the brightest myself. Oh, I should probably respond to her so she stops looking

at me like that. I nodded my head when she repeated ‘Sundown?’ again.

“I’m Lightswitch, in case you didn’t hear during our little disagreement over there. Nice to meet you.”

Then she did something crazy. She extended one of her forehooves out at me, just holding it in the air

and pointed flat at me. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow and slightly open mouth, questioning her

sanity with my expression. At least I hoped it looked like that.

“Um… it’s a hoofshake? Like when you meet somepony new and want to assure them you’re a

friend?” The lemonade unicorn looked at me like I was the crazy pony here. How is holding your hoof

out supposed to make somepony like you? It just looks like they’re pointing at your chest with their

hoof. I held a hoof on the same side that she did, and pointed at her chest with it. She just looked down

at my hoof, and then back at me before covering her face in that same hoof she had pointed at me.

“I’m not pointing at you. You’re supposed to shake my hoof with your hoof.” She grumbled at me

through a covered face, looking at me like I was the idiot here. How is shaking somepony’s hoof

supposed to do anything but make it so you can’t use all your hooves if they decide to attack you? They

could also pull on your hoof and slam you into the ground! It’s just asking for trouble to let someone

grab a hold of your hoof in any situation.

I know a much better way to make friends than trying to shake their hoof. Food! So, with this in mind, I

completely ignored her protests and began digging through my saddlebags for some Sugar Apple Bombs

that I keep on me. (More because other ponies really like them than me needing them. I don’t need

sugar in my system, I’m on edge enough as it is.)

Holding the two hundred year old sugar supplement in my hooves, I offered it to Lightswitch, who

looked just as confused as I assumed I had when she tried to shake my hoof. Her look wasn’t changing

fast enough, so I took out my writing tools and wrote:

Food = Friend

Grabbing = Scary

“You’re scared of shaking my hoof? How have you even survived in the wasteland if you’re scared of a

hoofshake!” she asked nopony in particular, spinning around and trotting to her friends.

“Gearbox. She’s afraid of a hoofshake! A hoofshake! She acts like she hasn’t seen another pony in her

life, or how to properly interact with them. I can’t fathom how she’s survived this long without

anypony else. We barely make it day to day in our group, let alone with a psychopath that you insist

on keeping with us.” Yikes. They barely survive? They either don’t know how to stay quiet, which is a

given at this point I think, or they don’t know how to scavenge properly. Speaking of that, if everypony

in the stable is dead, why aren’t they looting them?

Seeking to remedy this affront to all things salvageable, I made my way past the two arguing ponies to

loot what remained of the stable before a hoof grabbed my hind leg and made me jump.

“Hold up, sensitive. You won’t survive down there, too much gas.” grumbled Emerald, the stable

murdering Pegasus with way too concerned friends.

Well if there’s a lot of gas, then I’ll just have to wear a gas mask, wont I?

While looking through my saddlebags, a hoof tapped my head and I looked up to find Gearbox with a

grim expression standing over me.

“She doesn’t mean any normal kind of gas. She has her own special mixture that eats at your skin and

makes you fuse to things if you don’t melt outright. A gasmask won’t help. It’ll more than likely just

melt onto your face than anything beneficial.”

Oh. Well that explains why they weren’t looting then. Why did I just get myself stuck with the crazy

ponies that don’t scavenge, insist on having raiders in their group, and like to be grabby?

I decided to wait patiently for the group to gather themselves, making sure my sledgehammer wasn’t in

danger of falling apart on a swing when I needed it, and that I was wearing all of my ‘definitely not a

Pegasus or a mutant’ outfit.

“I think that the only weapon you’d need is a megaphone, what with that voice of yours. What’s with

the sledgehammer?” asked Emerald after getting her ribs set and healed by Swift.

I pointed to the engraving I had done on my sledge hammer. The handle said ‘Swingy’ and the

hammering part said ‘Smashy’. Emerald didn’t seem impressed, and sat down next to me.

“You don’t look that tough. How’d you manage to survive in the wastes? You look like a strong breeze

could knock you down for the count, even If you can swing that thing with any skill.” She pointed at

my sledgehammer while giving me a light shove, making me rock sideways a bit.

I’ll admit, I’m not the hardiest pony. I can take a few hits but I prefer to scream at somepony and get out

rather than fight them to the death. Besides, that just causes problems for whoever lives because you

either get called a raider or run out of towns, or get a massive bounty on your head cause you killed

somepony’s mare or buckfriend. I’d rather be quick and deadly than slow and shot to pieces because I

thought I was a one pony army. Besides, I don’t want the added effort of shadow flashing my way

around a fight and being weighed down by a metric buckton of armor or weapons either. It’s just that

much more taxing to do. Oh right, Shadow Flashing. It’s like what a unicorn can do when they teleport,

except I do it between shadows, and a lot easier than a unicorn can. I try not to do it a lot, because it

makes me feel cold afterwards. I might like Luna, but I don’t want to be actually on the moon with her

just to hang out.

She’s staring at me. Did I do something wrong? Oh I know! I didn’t answer her again. I know she can’t

understand me, but I decided to answer her anyway just to annoy her with my squeaking.

“I sneak. If I can’t sneak, then I run. If I can’t run, then I smash. If I can’t smash, then I teleport. If I can’t

teleport, then I squeak. If I can’t squeak, then I cry. If I can’t do that, then I’m really screwed!” I replied

as a barrage of squeaks. Yes my normal speaking voice is that quiet. The reason everypony else’s speech

is bolded is because it’s that Loud to my ears, and I don’t want to repeat myself in saying how loud

everypony is all the time.

“Never mind, squeaky toy. Forget I asked anything.” Emerald said, trying to cover her ears while

cantering away. It was actually pretty funny seeing her try to keep her balance when also trying to cover

her ears. She probably could’ve used her wings, but I think my squeaking was making it hard for her to

think. The group was trying to be quiet to talk amongst themselves, but I could still hear them just fine

despite the distance of about forty hooves. (Take that, science!) They were discussing if ‘we are

seriously considering taking that mutant with us. Yeah I don’t look like most ponies, but come on

Gearbox, I don’t eat foals for Celestia’s sake. I’ve only got slightly reflective eyes with a pupil that looks

like a double pointed wooden spear, batwings, fangs and a really squeaky voice that can melt faces. At

least I don’t kill stables. I also tried to give Lightswitch some food after she did her weird hoof grabby

thing and was civil with a pony that had tried to burst my eardrums with her volume! I’m a pretty chill

pony.’

Well, those were the highlights of the conversation they were having. Most of them in favor of my

staying while I walked around taking great interest in the staircase leading out of the stable entrance

enclosure. Taking a seat on the steps, I decided to focus on things outside of the little cubby hole we

were in to see if anything was waiting around for us to emerge into the moonlight.

Wait, when did I sleep last? I know I was going to sleep when those raiders bugged me, then I dodged

some slavers, and I ran into this group. How long ago was that? A day? Huh… I should probably keep

track of these things. Have I eaten anything since then? I don’t remember if I did. Oop, I hear a noise!

Some clinking and clanking, hoofsteps, grumbling and mumbling and...

Caravan!

Wait, last time I thought it was a caravan it was actually slavers. I should probably tell the group that

there’s a bunch of slavers wandering around outside.

Getting up from my spot and cantering back down to the stable area, I poked my head around and

found a distinct lack of anypony.

Well, they didn’t go down into the stable, because they said there was a bunch of gas that killed

everypony. Maybe they left without me? Hmm… That’s possible but kinda rude. Maybe one of them ran

off and they had to chase them. Then they’d probably run out the other way that’s here, run across the

street and run right into-

BRRRRRRRT!!

Ow! My ears!

Ka-tink, FWOOOOSH

Wait. Fwoosh? Fwoosh means big BOOM!!

Augh! Why with the shootings and the explosions and the -- EEP!

I had turned over on my side to see a towering monstrosity of metal looming over me, pony shaped with

metal plating and spikes running down its head where the mane should be, with more bladed things

where a tail should-

“Speak or be destroyed, civilian.” The monster boomed at me with its already obnoxiously loud voice

being amplified by the armor it was in.