Fallout Equestria: Baltimare Heights

The two of us hadn't made it but two blocks before I kicked a chunk of broken concrete and yelped loud enough for it to echo off the silent buildings. While I took a moment to tend to my now numb foreleg, Xeyal stood beside me, "You really should watch your step."

"Bite me." I told her as I shook my injured forehoof as if it were on fire. A sensation of pins and needles overtook it as feeling returned with a dull throb.

Something groaned from a nearby alley and out of it stepped a pair of ghouls. "Shit." I heard Xeyal whisper under her breath. "Do we fight them or run?"

I levitated my pair of 9mm pistols out of their holsters. "There's only two of them."

"The noise will attract more." She countered as she drew out her baton.

Seeing us, the front ghoul rushed us. The other one let loose a guttural howl that echoed off all the buildings. I took aim and shot the closest one in his right eye. The sound of that shot reverberated back at us and from other alleys emerged more feral ghouls.

"Time to run!" I shouted and ignoring my sore hoof, I booked it. Xeyal kept pace with me. Some of the ghouls ahead of us came within lunging range just to eat a bullet or be knocked away by my partner's baton. Once the crowd was entirely behind us, we kept running as they gave chase.

"How do we lose them?" My question was given between pants as we both ran as fast as possible.

"I don't know!" She hollered back Just then we split and went around a large wagon that laid sideways across the middle of the street. Galloping about another block and a half, someone somewhere shouted something.

A moment or two passed before something big was launched from a nearby building. It flew between us and in what felt like a second of slow motion I watched the rocket fly by. It struck the overturned wagon just in time. The feral wave rounded both sides of it. The cart exploded behind us, leaving my ears to ring as the heat of the blast washed over me.

"What the hell!" I shouted to whoever did that.

A speaker sounded off somewhere overhead, "Mercs! Capture them alive!"

Both of us kept running but a hail of machine gun rounds zigzagging across the road ahead of us made us hit the breaks. Three earth ponies came out the double doors of a nearby hotel. All three of them were dirty and ragged looking. Each one brandished a melee weapon, small knives.

One more came out the door with a rifle strapped to his side. He was a big buck, almost as big as Big Red, the rifle he wore was something similar to my anti-tank rifle, minus a scope. He had something in his mouth, a flat pad of some sort and a glass lens over his right eye.

The machine gun upstairs went off again, this time aimed at the ghouls. I watched them drop by the dozens as the gunner made a slow sweep across the street.

The big buck made his way over to us but held a safe distance. His armor seemed to be a tier higher than that of the small earth ponies. It was solid steel plating with fabric padding under and around its edging. "You two mercenaries, I want to know who your employer is." His gruff voice was muffled due to that thing he had in his mouth.

"We aren't mercenaries, and who are you all?" I tried to sound confident, but my voice cracked a bit.

That made the three gaunt ponies chuckle over their weapons, one taunted us as he walked back and forth, but it was unintelligible.

"Didn't anyone teach you not to speak when your mouth is full?" Xeyal asked him.

That guy paused and looked at her. He sat back and took the blade from his teeth, "I said; You two look pretty when you's scared." With that he put the knife back in his teeth and continued to circle around us with the other two mangy ponies.

"Oh! We aren't scared. We just don't want to kill anypony." Xeyal looked at the big guy. "Are you the boss then?"

"Yeah, I am the boss here and if you're thinkin' of doin' somethin' witty or clever, I'll put ya' down in a heartbeat." He stepped to the side, revealing the doors behind him, "You two sweet things are gonna walk right in there and you're going to drop all your stuff for us. You play nice and we might let you leave.

"So, Are you the bad ponies?" I asked him, tilting my head to one side. My guns were still levitating, but under me.

He laughed at me, "You better get to walkin', else you're dead. I got dozens of friends who want to meet you and your zebra friend here." He chuckled again, "Of course, I might just keep'er for myself."

Xeyal's eyes went wide, her jaw dropped only a little. She looked over at me and I looked back at him and nodded, more-so to Xeyal than to him.

Xeyal frowned and looked at the three circling us. Then she looked at the big boss. "What is your name?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Listen, I've tried playon' nice. move it else I'll make ya move it!"

"Wooh, easy now, big guy. We're just curious about who we're dealing with. We might be able to work out a different deal here."

"There ain't no other deals bein' worked out. Now move your scrawny asses! Boys, slice, 'em up." He bit down on that thing in his mouth and the rifle on his size fired a shot that whizzed between us. The sound of it firing made my ears ring and I couldn't hear anything else afterward.

From the edge of my vision, I saw one of the melee bucks move in quickly to take a stab at me. "No you don't!" I shouted as I jumped back. As I did so, I maneuvered my pistols out and pressed one of them to his chin. I wasted no time pulling that trigger and watching his brain jump out the top of his head. It was like a fountain without water… Did I really just think that?

Ignoring my intrusive thoughts, I turned both my pistols at the boss who was lining up an actual shot. Xeyal took on the other two with her trusty baton and some impressive footwork, but he was aiming for me. Hitting SATS with both my pistols leveled at him, I watched him in slow motion. Lining up both shots, the spell offered different targeted locations, I pointed both at his head. Ending the spell, I immediately dropped to one side and rolled, my guns went off at the same time as his, but his bullet blew a chunk out of the road while both of mine destroyed his muzzle. The boss dropped to the ground, and Xeyal broke the neck of the second scrawny melee pony.

Another rocket was launched. Aimed directly at us, it's trajectory changed just in time to fly over our heads, exploding just behind us. Did I just piss myself? I think I just pissed myself.

"Inside! Now!" She shouted to me. Without any hesitation the both of us made a desperate dash to the door the boss and his goons came from. I could hear that machine gun spin up and let loose a torrent of fire just behind us. His range was wide, but he couldn’t aim straight down at us. As soon as we’d crossed into the building we both came to a halt. From the light that poured in behind us, I could only see a barricade facing us. It was strategically placed at the bottom of a staircase that centered the main foyer. Off to our right was a reception desk and to our left a pair of doors and a hallway that led back behind the stairs.

There were ponies behind the barricade and at the top of the stairs, all of which had weapons trained on us. Xeyal didn’t stop to think about it, she immediately dashed for the hallway on the left. I followed closely behind her, unloading both my pistols as we ran. The shots they took on us went wide, almost all of them missing. I took one shot, but it had hit my flank, just above my cutie mark. Thankfully, no one was in the hallway ahead of us and there were several doorways without doors. Xeyal and I slowed our pace, making sure to check our corners when passing these open rooms.

Neither of us slowed the pace, taking a right turn at the end of the hall just as ponies started down the hall behind us. It didn’t take long for us to reach the end of the hallway. Xeyal didn’t slow down as she turned and bucked the door off its hinges. It was a kitchen, off to our left was a door with a screen door before it. The left exit appeared to lead out to a dining area. Ignoring the empty kitchen space and all the goodies it could contain, we made our way to the screen door. I opened it with my magic and Xeyal bucked the door open. Be damned the lock and boards that barred it closed.

“This way, let’s get outta here!” I shouted just as ponies were making their way through the kitchen. The two of us ran for it, clambering over some fallen rubble that blocked one of the exits, putting anything between us and all those bandits would be good. Leaving the alleyway and checking for my waypoint, it helped determine the direction we needed to go. “I… Hate… Running…” I panted, trying to catch my breath. “This… Way…” I told her, as I started running again.

Xeyal didn’t laugh, but she did gallop alongside me, “You need to work on your cardio. We should not stay on this road.”

I nodded and tried a door up ahead with my magic. Thankfully the handle twisted and the door opened allowing both of us in before anyone could see us. Closing the door and taking a look around, I guess I could count myself lucky. This was a store. Empty shelves filled the floor and a checkstand was off to one side with a door beside it. I took this time to reload both my pistols as I walked around and peeked into each aisle for anything of use but there was nothing but empty shelf space.

“Shimmer, over here.” I heard and turned to see Xeyal waving a hoof, beckoning me to join her by the register. When I did, I could see that she’d opened the register to find it still full of bits and a key ring with two keys on it. “We may come across something else here.” She said as she scooped the bits into her coinpurse.

I took the keys in my magic and tried them both on the drawer below the register, one of them worked and the drawer came open. Inside was another bag of coins as well as some paperwork and a stack of till reports. I took this bag of bits and closed the drawer. “Great, more coins.” I drolled as if I had expected more.

Xeyal left me and made her way over to the first door, giving its handle a push that didn’t budge it she looked back my way. Levitating the keys beside me, I joined her at the door and tried one to no avail then the other which clicked the deadbolt. Xeyal gave it another go, pushing the door open to a storage room. “Good thing the cashier left themselves signed into the register, huh?” I said with a smile.

“I suppose so,” was all she had to say. Inside was this store's storage space, it wasn’t a very large room, everything on the left side of the room were unopened boxes that filled the shelves running the length of the room. The right side had a series of coolers for cold storage and the center was nothing but boxes stacked atop one another.

“Well, I hope all this was properly labelled.” I said as I started along the dry storage wall. I scanned the boxes and felt a little disappointed. Some of the boxes had labels, but they weren’t saying what items were packaged, just a sticker with numbers and barcodes. “Crap, do we have time for this?” I asked, turning back to my zebra companion.

“I wouldn’t mind resting here.” she responded as she looked at the coolers on the opposite wall. “We may as well use our time here. This could yield us with tradable goods if nothing else.”

She had a point. “Alright, I’ll go see if one of these keys locks the front door.” With that I went back out to the main shop and made my way over to the front door. I locked the handle and the deadbolt before sliding the iron gate across the door. From it dangled a padlock that I took off the door. Clicking it locked, I tried both keys on it and neither worked, “Crap.”

I gave the room a quick glance over, looking for anything solid and straight then I spotted just what I needed. A wrought iron pole with a flag at the top of it. Levitating it to me, I slit it down through the metal gate’s lock holes and tested the door against the flagpole. It sat snug and didn’t give. Happy with it, I went back over to the register and tried both keys on the door behind the counter. Opening it, gave me a reason to slam the door shut and recoil as I gagged on the stale disgusting air.
Leaving the room for future exploration, I returned to the storage room to find Xeyal digging in a box she’d opened. “Anything good?” I asked.

She responded by holding up a can of baked beans that looked brand new. “Yes. Lots of food. This box has thirty-six cans in it.”

I levitated the next box off the top and pulled the packing tape off. Flipping it open revealed cans of mixed veggies. The next box was canned carrots and the one after that contained canned pears. A half hour passed and we’d gone through most of the boxes in the center, we had enough food here to last us months. Apart from the canned and boxed foods we had found flour and sugar, condiments and sodapop. The coolers were broken so all the soda and beer was room temperature. We also found boxes containing nothing but paper plates, plastic cups, metal utensils and napkins. Most of what was here seemed to be general grocers products and all together probably not worth too much back in the day, nowadays though, this was the equivalent of a gem mine!

“So, I believe it may be better for us to note this location and just sell the information about it to someone who runs a food stall.” I told Xeyal as I put the last box back in place on the shelf.

“We should take some of this with us as proof.” She suggested before dropping a can of pears into her bag.
Taking her advice and taking a couple cans from a few different boxes, I dropped them into my own saddle bag as well. “So I’ve locked the front door and figured I’d check that room behind the register, but something must have died in there because it smells horrible.”

Xeyal gave a hum sound as she walked back to the door. “Shall we go take a look then?”

I grimaced. “I guess…” I don’t mind puking that much…

The two of us made our way to the door behind the register, I kept my distance and used my light orb spell. As she opened the door, I saw her recoil a lot like I had. She looked away from the door and gasped for cleaner air. Holding my breath, I moved the orb into the room, illuminating it. I saw Xeyal steady herself taking a step inside and looking around. It only took her a moments’ glance to recoil and stumble backward away from the room. “Close it, close that door.” She was breathing heavily as she looked away from me.

I did so, using my telekinesis to pull the door closed. I walked around the counter to where Xeyal sat heaving before she vomited. “Are you okay? What was it?”

“I…” she vomited again as she stood up. “It was…” She shivered and looked around the room. “Water?” she asked me after a moment. Her eyes were watery and her muzzle had bits sticking to it.

I levitated out a bottle of water for her. She popped it open and swished a gulp around before spitting it at the wall she had heaved at. After that she dumped some on her muzzle and shook her head. Finding the closest piece of stray paper, she wiped her mouth clean. “Why would someone do that?” she asked me.

“Do what?” my curiosity peaked when she was puking. I couldn’t imagine what would cause her to react that way… Do I even want to know?

She looked at me and proceeded to drink some of the water. “I can’t unsee that.”

“That’s it, I’m taking a look.” I told her as I turned back to the door and held my breath. Casting my light spell again and opening the door, I looked inside the office. The room was painted red with dried blood and the floor was covered in a dry black and brown mixture. On the desk was a rotted corpse of a mare splayed open with her entrails pulled out. Her face faced me, eyeless and silently screaming.

I slammed the door shut on my own face before adding to the stomach stew Xeyal started. “That…” I finally said after my stomach was empty and I continued to dry heave. “...was gruesome.”

She just nodded to me. “The stuffiness of that room must have preserved it… but wasn’t the room locked from the outside?”

That made my stomach churn again, if only it weren’t empty… “It was. How long could a body stay like that? It looked as if it’s been there for a long time. Whoever did it, didn’t have any interest in the rest of the place and even put the keys back.”

“Maybe she has been there since the war?” Xeyal offered with a hint of doubt.

“I’d rather not think about it. Whoever did that is a monster and I only hope they died the way she did.” The image of her face stuck in my mind. Her broken neck made it so she was facing the door.

“We can’t stay here.” I said.

Xeyal pointed a hoof at the door. “I don’t believe we have a choice.” Outside the front window were the wisps of green fog rolling in. “We should wait here until tomorrow.”

I gave a single hearty, “Haah!” before levitating out my radiation suit. “We came prepared for it. Get yours on and let’s go. We aren’t that far away from the Heights anyway.”

“No.” she said, standing and walking to the backroom. “I would rather sleep here, even if that body is this close. It is safer for us here than out there in the dark.”

I hate when she’s right. I tucked away my radsuit and joined her in the backroom. “Fine, but we should at least listen to the radio.” She didn’t protest it, opting to lie down near the back of the room. I levitated some of the boxes off the shelf to build us a little wall. It made me feel a little more comfortable, not being visible from the door. She laid down with her chin on her fetlocks and I laid down next to her, she adjusted her weight to lean against the wall opposite me.

Turning on my radio, I flipped through the stations and everyone was just playing music, so I looked over at Xeyal. She gave a yawn and said, “The stringed instrumental one.” On her request, I turned it back to DJ-Pon3’s station.

“Good night, sleep well.” I told her.

“You too.” I told her, but she’d already fallen asleep. I laid there and listened to the music, I didn’t want to close my eyes though. It didn’t feel safe to me. So I laid there and stared at the wall and listened to Xeyal’s steady breath.

Morning came quickly and I must have dozed off at some point. The sound of a stallion speaking stirred me from my dreamless sleep. “Good morning children! May Celestia bless your day and hopefully Luna gave you all a good nights’ rest. The time is seven a.m. and the rad. phoenixes are singing. This morning is a good morning for a little good news. As it turns out, over the course of last night, a pair of heroes have been flaunting their success in taking out an entire bandit camp along the highways between Manehatten and Hoofington region. Todays forecast is, as always, cloudy. Thank your local Enclave for another one of these partly rainy kinda days.” He gave an infectious laughter that got me to smile as I stretched for the day. Beside me was my zebra friend who was still fast asleep. I prodded her flank with a forehoof and she kicked at me in response.

“Time to get up, Xeyal. We have to get moving.” I told her, prodding her again, this time with a little more force. She rolled and sat up groggily.

“Augh… already? I did not sleep well.” She grumbled before yawning. She rubbed her eyes and looked at me. “Fine then. Let’s go.” She had bags under her eyes. “You are quite a fidgety sleeper, you do know that, right?”

I blinked at her. I hadn’t known that but I wasn’t about to admit it. “Whatever, let’s get outta here, do we have a name for this place?”

She gave me a shrug and yawned again. “Not a clue. Maybe there is a sign outside?”

I turned off my radio and started for the door, Xeyal followed me out at a sluggish pace. Stopping at the door, “Should we eat here or wait until we get there?”

“Hunger will be a good motivator, I do not want to be here any longer than you do.”

That was fine by me, we crossed the empty sales floor and I levitated the flagpole out of the door and opened both doors. It was clear outside, if not a little frigid. My pipbuck gave off a soft clicking noise and I could hear it coming from Xeyal’s pipbuck as well. Looking down at my pipbuck I saw that the radiation gadge was ticking up with a little display reading “+3rpm”

“It’s radiation left over from the fog.” Xeyal observed aloud, “It’s because the street is still wet with the mornings’ dew. It doesn’t appear to be high enough to worry about, but we should get moving because we will start feeling it soon.”

I nodded my understanding and led the way up the road toward my EFS marker. “Shouldn’t take us more than an hour to get there, we should be fine.” We continued along the wrecked roadways, heading east toward the other end of downtown, which happened to be down a long hill. Several of the super tall mirror-like buildings that surrounded us reflected one another and the cloudy sky above. Their height still bothered me though so I indulged myself in speculating about what this all would have looked like when it was all actually occupied and clean.

“This city must be vast, surely there are good ponies somewhere.” Xeyal mused as we went. She hopped up on the concrete edge that split the road down the center, a dirt bed with the remains of dead bushes periodically poked from the muddied divider.

“Wouldn’t it be nice? To meet someone out here we can actually trust.” I mused as we passed another four-way intersection, she had hopped off the center divider and walked along the sidewalk beside me. The slope had steadily gotten steeper and now we had a barrier on our right that overlooked a whole nother section of the city, a lot of smaller office buildings, shops, and apartments pretty far below us. It was weird. It was like the balcony back in the atrium, but on a completely different scale. The buildings weren’t that far below us, but we could see the ocean bay, old boats floating at the docks and the greenish glow the water had made it look angry or sickly… Maybe both?

Either way, I couldn’t stop myself from looking across the cityscape down there in awe. The roads weaved back and forth, criss-crossing everywhere. There were several larger flat buildings that took up as much space as several of the larger buildings that stood out against the smaller shops and stops. Looking back at Xeyal and I could see she was looking out over it in awe as well. The tall building just a few blocks back was almost entirely hidden behind the also tall building we’d most recently passed by. Further down the road we followed were several more super tall buildings that were presumably our destination.

The waters' ebb and flow was rough with large waves rolling in through the narrow bay. The green glow that emanated from deep below those waves gave an eeriness to the silence of the scene. Only the crashing waves and the whistling breeze made a noise.

"We should keep moving." Xeyal finally said, poking my shoulder with a hoof.

"Yeah. I guess we should." I absently answered as I examined the rest of my view before turning back to the Heights we needed to reach. "Isn't it remarkable though?"

Xeyal tilted her head and looked down at me, "Oh? What do you mean? This is a very big city and easily functioned with several hundred thousand ponies."

"Yes, but not what I was going to say." I smiled up at her, "I find it remarkable that this city is so quiet. It feels huge, but so very empty. I find it remarkable that we're here now as a new hope for Equestria and for this city."

"Ah," she started, then paused to ponder the notion. We continued on our way in silence. Listening to the distant waves crashings all along the shoreline. As the slope leveled out and the buildings surrounded us once again, we found ourselves at a Y-junction. The building before us wasn't a tower but still stood a couple stories tall. In the front of it was a dried up fountain and above it was a very large blackened screen. The screen wrapped around and led down both roads, the left seemed to round back northbound while our path, on the right, continued on east toward the skyscrapers.

"We're almost there." I said as we continued on our way, "See that?" I pointed with my nose. Down the road, I could see an enclosed bridge extending across the road from one building to another. Granted that one looked like it was built prewar. "I think one of those buildings might be the one we need."

"I truly hope this venture has not been a wasted time." She grumbled, drawing me to a stop so I could just stare at her.

When she noticed I had stopped and she looked back at me, I could see something in her had changed. "Xeyal, are you worried they will be prejudiced against zebras?"

She simply nodded.

I started walking again, "Even if they are, I doubt there are many zebras here. They may be indifferent."

"That may be so, but I still worry that this is folly." She said with a sense of clarity.

"Even if it were foolish of us to come out here, we have to do whatever we can to help our home establish itself. We can't just stay sheltered. There is too much out here for us to stay hidden away for any longer."

Xeyal smiled at me but just as she was about to speak someone began shouting in the distance. Our attention caught sight of a group of five down the road from us.

Some of these ponies stood with weapons drawn while two of them were walking toward us.

I used a spell to amplify my voice. "We come in peace!" I shouted and shocked myself when Xeyal danced away from me, covering her ears.

The ponies down the road shouted something back. "Come here then! Draw a gun and we will shoot!"

Xeyal dropped back to all four and the two of us quickened our pace to a light trot. The two of them did as well and after a block and a half of trotting, I could make out their features. Both of them were unicorns, a younger buck who was dark purple with a charcoal black mane. The other was an older light orange mare with a fluffy light blue mane and tail. Both of them looked fit and healthy though which was a nice change of pace.

"Howdy doodles!" The mare said as we all came to a stop. "We don't see many mercenaries here, and before we can permit you entry into our town, we need to make absolutely sure that you're not hunting one of our residents, got it?"

I sat back on my haunches, "We aren't mercenaries!" I said waving my hooves back and forth as fast as I could. "We're, uh, travelers." I put one forehoof back down and the other against my chest. "I'm Shimmer Stone and this is my friend Xeyal."

"Not mercs? Well, ya coulda fooled me!" The mare said, "Oh right! I'm Daisy Chain and this is-"

He cut her off, "They don't need our names. We need to disarm them before we allow them into the towers."

"Don't be like that!" She scolded him before turning back to us, she gave a courteous bow. " My apologies. You see, Nightshade here is still new in his security role and has always been a strict individual. Now, what is your business in the Heights?"

"May we get off the street, Ma'am?" Xeyal asked in her usual confidence and exotic voice. It gave Nightshade a reason to grumble.

"Oh, yes. Of course, please follow me." She waved a hoof and as the pair turned, I saw them put away the guns they had hidden behind them.

We fell in step with them and I offered up our reason for coming here. "The two of us are here to represent our home as a potential trade partner with the Heights. I had heard a radio broadcast saying you needed more unicorns for expansion work. I hope it wasn't presumptuous of me."

"Not at all, my dear. Not at all." She led us to a pair of double doors that had guards stationed inside it and outside it. "Now, please follow me inside, we will not take your weapons, as there are shops here for repair and enhancements, but we do require all of your ammo, explosives and melee weapons." She guided us to a reception desk where another pair of unicorns sat. These two didn't look up at us, but one repeated Daisy's request.

Xeyal and I withdrew our guns and munitions, explosives and melee weapons. Emptying the chambers and dropping the clips, we put our now emptied guns away, we were given a clip board as they levitated our ammo stuff into an empty box. I jotted down our names on a line, the mare behind the desk added a number beside it as well as a date and time before taking our stuff through a door. The two of us turned back to Daisy and Nightshade. "Now what?"

"Well, you're free to enter through here." Daisy lazily pointed a hoof at the next set of doors. "Feel free to explore. Most ponies here have something to sell. We don't regulate the market here but if you do sell something, expect to pay a fine on your way out." She gave a sweet smile, but I didn't trust it.

"A fine for what?" I asked.

"You see, we don't condone slavery here, and so the Heights has to make it's money somehow. We provide a safe place for ponies to conduct their business with little to no intervention, however if you want your munitions back, you will have to pay a portion of your total profit made while here. It isn't a lot, a lousy 10%. We try to keep it fair because many residents of the Heights rarely leave, so we only make this from travelers such as yourselves."

"That is fair." Xeyal told her as she stood and walked between us toward the doors. I stood and followed her. "Thank you, Daisy."

With that, the two of us passed through the doors into the Heights.

Footnote:
Level Up! Lv. 9
Endurance +2
Intelligence +1
Perk Unlocked - Speed Demon: Rank 1
Fortifying your stance, your gallop can carry you further and faster than most any Pony.