Fallout Equestria: Baltimare Heights

I don’t want to go, to be honest.

The two of us had taken the following two days to better explore the Heights. Before Amethyst Smoke and her caravan left for Stable 109, she shared with me some of the things we may need. We moved on her recommendations, making sure we had a healthy stock of pulse grenades and clean water. The following day gave us an entire day of rainfall. So, I spent the day sleeping and emptying out the unnecessary items from my saddlebags. Xeyal had done the same. The two of us only left our room for some food.

I found that the blankets were piled on me and her warm body pressed against my back. Sweating profusely, the heat must have woken me. She’s gotta know how weird it is for me. Mixed signals and all.

I levitated the blankets up so I could step out of bed without disturbing Xeyal. I peaked out the window to see the clouds glowing their sunny orange. I was thankful to see no rain or fog. Far off over the ocean bay, I could see the cloud's edge which made the water glow brilliantly. It left me feeling a little hollow.

After using the restroom and feeling refreshed, I left the room with my saddlebags. I need to get something smaller, I miss my utility belts and pockets. With a sigh that turned to a yawn, I reached the elevators. Hitting the button on the wall, I stood, gently tapping a hoof while I waited.

A pair of bucks joined me while I waited. The one to my right wore just a hat and some saddle bags, while the other wore nothing at all and stood to my left. Both of them checked me over, immediately making me uncomfortable. Really?

“Howdy! How's your morning?" The tan buck with the hat asked me.

The elevator gave a "Ding!" before the doors opened.

I boarded and both the well-kept earth ponies joined me. I stood with my tail against the back wall, giving them more room. I looked them both over, the tan pony had a gnarly set of scar across one of his shoulders and a cutie mark depicting a red crosshair over a gray tin can. The blue pony was muscular and his cutie mark was that of a neat pile of green and red casino chips.

Still, I had no reason to trust these two. “I’m doing okay. I just woke up and was going down for some coffee and uh… Who are you guys?”

The tan stallion hit the ground floor button before giving an answer. “I’m Sunny Ember and this is my brother, Daring Shade. It’s been some time since I've seen a mare quite like you. Are you new here?”

A little annoyance trickled into my voice, “Yes, I am. You know, there’s a lot of us here, what would make me any different?”

Shade looked to the ceiling and gave an exaggerated sigh.0 "Here we go again." Looking back to his brother, “You never cease to amaze me, Ember.”

Giving us both a cocky smile. “Well, I know most of the mares here, and most of those mares would have already punched my face in. So, there’s something different about you.”

Daring Shade spoke up while I tried my best angry look on his brother. “Don’t let him lie to you, the only mares he knows around here are a couple of waitresses and the local chem dealers.” I watched as he looked down at my pipbuck before looking back at Sunny then back to me. "Wait, aren't you and that zebra here together?"

My ears perked up and automatically swiveled toward him. Well then. What’s this game? “Yeah, how did you know that?”

“You two have been here a couple days and it’s not often that a zebra walks through here. You two draw a lot of eyes. Besides, there are rumors flying about that you both are from a stable. Is it true?” He glanced down at my pipbuck again as the elevator came to a slowing stop.

As the doors opened, both of them stayed put, effectively blocking my only exit. Sunny Ember put his rear hoof in the door to hold it open without waiting for me to answer his brother’s question, Ember added his own. “What brings you here anyway?”

Past these two, I could only see a few meandering ponies off in the distance. I gave them a yawn, hoping they’d recognize my disinterest in the current topic. “I am from a stable and I had business here. Can you two please get out of my way now?”

The brothers exchanged a quick look and both of them left the elevator at the same time. They stepped aside as I walked out between them. “Thank you. Now, I really must be going.”

The brothers fell in step beside me, “You know, you have me curious. What was it like to live in a stable? I imagine it’s a paradise compared to the wasteland.” Ember’s speculations continued, “Like, fresh unirradiated water to drink. A hot shower after each day's work. Plenty to eat and no fear of being eaten.”

I didn't find his musings all that interesting, but before I could answer him, Daring interjected and gave a slight chuckle. "If I remember right, you had that opportunity and told them to eat shit."

"Yeah…" Ember tilted his head with his eyes closed. “Don’t you remember what we later learned why that stable?”

“Okay, you’ve got me. What was wrong with that stable?” I asked them just as we walked into one of the restaurants, it was empty beside one other table of four.

We got seated, and Shade filled me in. “So back out west, it was Stable 55, a control stable that was almost entirely mare earth ponies and there were only a few bucks there. They had opened their stable and being in the middle of nowhere made it easy for them to avoid being noticed. However, we later found out that they had a habit of breeding any pony dumb enough to join them before ritualistically sacrificing them to maintain the stable. It was demented and we’re lucky we had a job that we couldn’t stray from.”

I was speechless. That was not what I'd expected to hear… “That’s crazy, why would any stable have to sacrifice anyone?"

A waiter appeared beside us, "Good mornings!" The buck looked grizzled and his high pitch voice seemed to conflict with his gruff exterior. He wore an eye-patch and was missing chunks of his coat. "What can I get you today?"

I withheld my laughter, this buck didn't deserve to be made fun of. Both the brothers appeared to give no shits though, blatantly laughing at him and his silly voice. "I'm not with these two." I told him just as anger washed across his features. When he looked down at me, I asked, "May I just have a hot pot of water, please?"

He nodded to me before his gaze fell on Ember and Shade. "You two got a problem?"

That made them laugh harder and the waiter rolled his one good eye. "Two cups of piss for ya' then. A different waiter will be with you momentarily." He practically hissed it with all the restraint he could muster.

Once he left the brothers' laughter dwindled to sputtering chuckles. "His voice…" Ember mumbled between his laughs. "He sounded like a squeaky toy, but looked like a sailor!"

I reached across the table just as he leaned forward to try and compose himself. Just as he took a deep breath I whacked the back of his head making him headbutt the table with enough force to make it echo across the restaurant. Shade's laughter came to a full stop as he looked at me with a shocked expression

Sunny Ember hadn't said anything, he rubbed his forehead with a hoof as he slowly sat back up. "Fuckin' really?"

"Yes, really. Don't be an asshole." I told him before I stood and walked over to the waiter with the eye-patch. He and his co-worker had seen that, He also had my pitcher of hot water ready on a platter. I levitated out a bag and dolled out twenty-five caps. "Sorry for their rudeness, how much for the pot of water?"

The buck scooted the caps off the counter into his apron pocket. "You're fine, it's not the first time." He told me. It sounded like he was trying to deepen his shrill voice. "Saw you rock his clock, thank you for that."

I levitated the pot and held it in the air beside me, "Yeah, he was being rude. So, how much do I owe you for the pot and water?"

"Tell ya' what," said the other waiter, "You gave a good show and stood up for Ol' Dinger here. You can have it, we'll tell the boss it got crunched. You take care."

"Fine by me. I appreciate it." I started to turn to leave when I looked over and saw the brothers quietly talking. Shade tossed his forelegs up while Ember pointed a hoof at me. "Can I pay for their food then? How much for two meals?" I asked, looking back at the waiters.

They looked at one another and shrugged. "Sure, Our priciest plate is a hundred and twenty caps, so say a hundred and fifty."

"Sure." I paid them and walked back to the table the brothers sat at.

They both just stared at me, but in shock not anger. "Weren't you leaving?" Ember asked incredulously. Surprise rang true in his tone.

"Well, I am still leaving. I only came down for a pot of hot water. Going to have some tea back home." I paused and looked at Daring Shade, "by the way, I've paid for your breakfasts."

As I started to leave, a hoof touched my tail. I paused and peered over my shoulder to see Shade standing up from his chair. "You don't have to pay for us. We have plenty of caps."

"Already did." I told him as I rotated my body for the sake of my neck. "Do the two of you need work?"

Ember and Shade shared a look, "What sort of job?" Ember asked me.

"It's a scavenging job, we were tasked with finding a boat at the docks east of here that's suitable for sailing trade goods along the coast. I don't expect much trouble, but I don't know what all's out there."

Ember laughed which drew Shade's attention, he leaned on the table, "You appear to be perfectly capable of protecting yourself. Why pay us to tag along?"

I gave a little sigh before giving an answer. "Because, I hear the warehouses there are full of good stuff to scavenge, but the whole area is well guarded and dangerous. Look, I have to go. Come by room 1101 after you're done eating, if you're interested. If you do; bring some radiation suits." I hadn't given them time to answer as I started for the exit.

Xeyal was up and the beds were made. I could hear the shower running in the bathroom so I pulled the pair of glasses I had from the tower out and put them on the desk with the hot pot. Well, guess I'l have to wait for her. I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked healthy enough, the good rest and food had gone a long way towards that. My mane, somewhat longer now, still flowed wavy down the right side of my face. The teal portions intermittently spaced between the majority of my black mane. The dark gray hair of my face was soft and silky smooth, well kept except for one spot on my forehead. Just below my left ear was a spot where a scar had formed and the hair that covered it had always stuck out a bit. At least to me. I couldn't remember where I got that scar, but it'd be there for as long as I could remember.

The shower turned off and I could hear muffled hoofsteps. I craned my neck each way as I looked for anything out of the ordinary. I’d always shared my mom's coat and mane but unlike her, my eyes were a soft pale green. Something that I could only ever guess came from my dad. Can’t help but wonder what he would think of me now.

I sighed and looked over at the bathroom door, just in time too, the door opened, releasing a cloud of steam. Xeyal came out with a towel over her back and shoulders. She saw me and the two crystal cups. "Good morning, Shimmer. I had wondered how long you would be gone."

"I got distracted, so it took a little longer than it should have, but I got us a pot of hot water. I assumed you would like some tea, but I didn't want to dig in your stuff." I told her as I rolled a little ways back and levitated the pot of water to her bed.

I put it down while she went and dug her tea out. A moment later she had a teabag in the pot and I moved it back to the desk. Now we wait. "So I met a couple of goofy bucks who may come by. I offered them a job to join us on our outing."

She took the time to sit next to her bed and finished drying herself off. When she had finished she tossed the towel onto the bed. "I believe we will have to keep an eye on them then. At least until we know they are worthy of our trust." She began getting her barding on, "that tea can be poured now." She said before she finished fastening her barding straps.

Giving a nod, I poured our drinks. "These two are crude, but they seem healthy and capable, so I think we'll be fine for this job." I levitated my tea and took a sip, the water had cooled to a suitably pleasant warmth. The taste was delightfully light with a twinge of sweetness to it. I couldn't resist a pleasant "mmm".

Xeyal smiled as she sat beside me, taking her cup in between her hooves and taking a small drink herself. She mimicked my delight and told me, "Your mother knows how to make this tea blend, by the way. It surprises me that you have not had it before."

"Doesn't surprise me much actually. We never really spent a lot of time together once I got my own room." Looking up, I peered into the mirror again. I wasn't ready to go back out into the city, but I stood and got my barding and bags on. Just as I tightened the straps a knock came from our door. "That must be them," I told her as I magically opened the door.

As the door opened, Ember’s forehoof caught free air, just barely missing the door. With that hoof he rubbed the back of his neck, “oh look at that. It moved on me.” He was looking at his brother and turned to look at us as he walked in. “So, the four of us are going down to the docks? What’re you paying us for this?”

I drank my tea while I examined their outfits. Sunny was wearing some lightweight leather armor and had one of those weapon mounts rigged to him, it didn’t have a gun in it and was folded against him. Daring wore a black heavy set of barding that matched his darker coat and mane, he wore saddlebags and a couple utility belts which could also hold ammo. Daring Shade saw me looking at him and took the opportunity while he had my attention. “Checkin’ me out won’t bring down our price.” he quipped.

I swallowed the last of my tea and smiled. “I wouldn’t hope so. How does five hundred caps each sound?”

“Not near high enough,” said Sunny Ember. “At that rate, you’re asking us to take your caps, hold you up and take the rest. You clearly have no idea what the value of honesty is out here.” He didn’t smile nor did he make any sort of joke out of it.

He’s probably right about that. “Fine, fifteen hundred each. Sound better? We should only be out for three days or so, you can see the docks from our window. I spent most of yesterday looking out there trying to figure out which one would be the best option.”

“See, that’s a much more reasonable amount. Although; I was looking for either three hundred a day or one thousand caps each once the job’s done.” With that Ember and Shade both stood and walked over to the window. Shade gave the cord a tug which opened the window curtains. Xeyal pointedly stood and took care of moving her towel to the little hamper before opting to wait in the hallway. That reaction prompted Shade to give me a questioning look.

All I could do was follow her out, levitating the cups and tea with me. “Nope!”

I could hear Sunny Ember laughing at our expense, so I poked my head back around the corner after I gave Xeyal her cup. “Can you close the curtains when you’re done?”

Ember kept laughing but found the breath to utter, “Yeah, sure, can do princess.”

Hearing him call me a princess made my ears prickle and fall flat, “Damn him.” Thankfully, Xeyal was the only one who heard me. She gave me a smirk and rather than saying anything, she tilted her head back and finished off her tea. She held the glass out to me so I could take it and put it away. The heating pot was empty beyond a trickle at the bottom.

Shade spoke up from within our room, “hey Shimmer Stone, I think we’re looking at about a five day round trip at least.”

I walked around the corner of the door and turned into the restroom. “Really?” I turned on the sink, dropped the tea bag into the trash can and rinsed the cups and coffee pot out. After turning the water off, I returned to the main room where both of them were standing near the window. “Why would it take us a week?”

Sunny was opening the blinds all the way while Daring Shade made his way toward me. “Well, I could point it out to you, but it looks like the closest downhill street has a bridge collapsed across it. Even if we were to climb through that, we’d still have to follow the shipyard fence south until we reached the entrance.”

When Daring stopped beside me, I was still watching his brother who snickered to himself. “Hey, Sunny. Close those blinds.”

He turned around and smiled at me with a shrug before walking to join us. “Nah, you two should have natural light, it’ll do wonders for your complexion.”

I rolled my eyes and telekinetically closed them in a quick swish before I turned my interest back to Daring. “Essentially, I was looking at the wrong boats. If we find one that works, we should try making it easily accessible for a caravan to reach…”

“Right,” he replied. “The ports here are pretty large and there are two docking areas. The really big boats probably wouldn’t be operable, but we could still check them over. The docks on the southern side of the bay is where the majority of personal boats are docked.”

Sunny added his two bits too, “So that makes it cost more, how about five hundred caps a day?”

My brow furrowed as soon as I caught his eyes. “Really?”

His smile only broadened. “How about a thousand a day?”

To this his younger brother stepped forward and put a foreleg around his neck. “Sunny, when a pretty mare gives you that kind of look,” he raised an eyebrow to me while I held my glare. “Try thinking before speaking.” As Daring continued to explain, he pulled Sunny into a headlock and rubbed a hoof against the top of his head. “Aren’t you supposed to be a smooth talker? You’re smarter than that dude!”

Sunny Ember struggled against his brother's hoof, trying to pull himself free. When Daring Shade finally released him, Sunny stood up on his rear legs and dramatically staggered over to fall on the beds. He took a pose with a hoof just below his ear, expecting to land on a solid surface, but the elbow he planned to land on fell straight down between the two mattresses. The shock that overtook his face as he landed caught him off guard and he gave a sharp, “Oh shit!” as the blankets tugged toward the center of the beds and covered his head. “It’s eating me!”

The sudden commotion prompted Xeyal to join us in a hurry. She trotted in quickly and looked at the bed while Shade and I broke into fits of laughter. Xeyal gave an annoyed groan. "This is why we do not have nice things."

I looked up at her as I wiped a tear from my cheek. Xeyal looked down at me, "May we get going before these two destroy our new home?"

The four of us had bought and retrieved our munitions and melee weapons on our way out. I bought three mags filled with armor piercing rounds for the sniper rifle and made sure every weapon we had was loaded and readied. I opted to keep my shotgun strapped to my back.

Seeing me and Xeyal load everything, moreso me, left both of the guys flabbergasted. Sunny Ember had a laser rifle mounted to his side and a multi-cell pack on his other side. The pack had six arcane powercells plugged into it and each of them swirled with a purple and blue magic.

Daring Shade had given a whistle when I unfolded and loaded my sniper rifle. He had put his own rifle across his back after loading it and a mouth gripped submachine gun that dangled around his neck by a strap. "That rifle's nice," he told me, "I'd imagine it has quite the kick."

"That it does. My pipbuck says it's-"

Shade interrupted me."It's a HI-6, heavy infantry six round .503 anti-tank rifle. I remember reading about it once, the manufacturers, Ironshod Firearms, had nicknamed it "Pumpkin". Fitting name in my opinion."

I hadn't known that, so I asked him, "What about your rifle?"

We walked at a moderate pace, Xeyal and I both had our EFS on and nothing was on it. "Mine is somewhat unique, being produced by the pegasi for the Ministry of Awesome. It's an MOA-S15, semi automatic using .357 rounds on a fifteen round magazine. It's a lightweight frame with a long barrel."

"Ministry of Awesome?" Xeyal inquired, curiosity rang in her voice. "What did they do?"

Ember butted in, "Well, it depends on who you ask. I've heard they did nothing but build those giant towers throughout Equestria. Others will say that Rainbow Dash was in charge of ariel forces and assassinations. Her ministry didn't do a lot on paper, besides commissioning construction projects. The Ministry of Wartime Technology worked with the Ministry of Awesome whenever a big battle took place, but off the battlefield there weren't a lot of documented missions between either ministry."

Shade decided to add onto his brother's remark, "We've spent some time digging through Ministry ruins and knowledge so sometimes valuable, often it can point you towards some unique old world stuff. That's how I found my sniper rifle."

"And this beam rifle," Ember added enthusiastically. "It's been awhile since we last left the Heights, so if we come across some raiders or ferals; let us handle them."

Xeyal currently held her stoicism in check but I could see she was trying not to snicker. “We are perfectly capable of protecting ourselves as well. I am still trying to figure out why Shimmer decided we needed companions.”

I couldn’t tell if it was what she said or how she sounded, but that had made both the guys share a look at one another that was followed by a prolonged silence. Shade finally spoke up after walking around a bit of rubble. “You know… Feel free to tell me I’m wrong, but I was assuming it’s because we’re more acquainted with the shitty shit out here and may be able to save your hides if something unexpected happens.”

Sunny trotted around to walk between Xeyal and I, “and something unexpected always happens, it’s kind of a rule out here in the wasteland.” He leaned toward me, “You know? I’m curious about something.”

I widened the space between us and hopped a small hole that had been blown from the road. “What’s that?” I asked him just as I landed.

He didn’t seem to take it to heart, having turned his attention to the zebra that still stood a whole head over him. She could just shoulder him in the snout if he said something dumb. Oh, how I’d love to see that.

“So, have you two encountered ghouls?” He asked her before looking back at me. “Know what a ghoul is?”

That’s about what I had expected him to ask. “Yeah, we met a few on our way out of the stable. Ran from some feral ghouls on our way to the Heights. We were saved from the ferals by some raider gang types, killed their boss guy and fled for our hides. Came across a cache of food and a gruesome murder scene before making it.”

His eyes went wide and Shade gave a chuckle, “You keep surprising us, y’know that, right?” He trotted around from Xeyal’s farside to be in the middle with his brother, but on my side of Ember. Before he could continue, the sounds of trumpets accompanied by a drum beat met our ears. Xeyal and my ears pricked and focused ahead of us. Further down the road was a little round thing bobbing in the air a few feet off the ground. While Xeyal and I both went into a serious speculative mode of mind, both of these guys gave it but a moment before turning their attention back to us. Daring Shade seemed to have the answer I needed. “Don’t worry about that, it’s a sprite bot. It’s one of the machines the Ministry of Morale used during the war. It plays an annoying song and at one point was used for Equestria wide announcements. Now it plays that or pre-recorded recruiting messages.”

Sunny Ember gave a little chuckle, “Rumors have it that a ghost possesses them sometimes to give helpful advice in dire times.” He was trying and failing to make it sound spooky, “I’ve never met a pony that’s had it happen to them though.”

Xeyal squinted at it. “These sprite bots are not dangerous?”

Her tone prompted Ember to chuckle and look up at her. “Not at all. They aren’t equipped with anything other than cameras and speakers.”

As we walked, the triumphant music got louder. That little bobbing robots tune was static-filled and extremely annoying, just as Daring Shade had said. “You weren’t lying about that tune being annoying, but someone please shoot it.”

“Nope,” said Ember, “firing a weapon here will only draw attention to us. We don’t need unwanted attention.”

His brother impulsively chimed in, “that’s right! We don’t know who’s drugged out near an open window or how many ferals are laying around.” They seemed pretty confident about it, so I bit my lip and laid my ears flat. That tinny song was like sandpaper to my eardrums.

“Can we at least bludgeon it!” I asked them in agony.

“Sure, go for it.” Shade said. Then, without hesitation, Xeyal broke into a full sprint. As she approached the floating noise ball, she took a short leap that closed the remaining gap. She landed with her forehooves together and rotated as her rear hooves came down. On her pivote, she used the downward momentum to deliver a devistating buck to the bottom of the sprite bot. The robot didn't stand a chance, even though it was floating. The music cut off as sparks erupted from where she connected, the robot flew high as it's parts unravelled. Reaching it's peak height, the sprite bot fell and landed several paces ahead of where Xeyal stood, all of us watched as it exploded on impact.

The brothers and myself covered our ears, just barely in time. The explosion threw loose debris in all directions, shatting windows and sending an echo throughout the streets. Everything settled and my ears still rang, Xeyal looked back at us, stoic as ever.

"What the hell was that?! You idiots really want to draw us some sort of trouble, don't you?" Ember shouted as he began to trot toward Xeyal.

I trotted after him and Daring Shade joined us. Xeyal stood facing us, outlined by the flickering orange from the fire behind her. As we were approaching her the sharp booming sound of a single sniper shot echoed off the city around us. In that same moment my heart stopped. The world froze in a snapshot of clarity.

It all played out so fast. From somewhere high above, a bullet struck Xeyal in a crimson splash. Knocked from her hooves, the zebra fell to the ground.

All I could do was scream her name.

"Xeyal!"

Footnote:
Level Up! Lv. 11
Perk Unlocked: Influential Speaker
+2 Charisma
+3 Luck
You're capable of adjusting your speech to better communicate with any other pony.