Fallout Equestria: Baltimare Heights

Xeyal hit the ground before any of us could reach her. I could hear Shade shout something to his brother but my own heartbeat in my ear drowned out all other noise. As I approached my friend, I could see the damage done. It made my veins run cold and my stomach lurched.

"No! Nonononono, NO!" I must have changed colors because both of the brothers were looking at me as I panicked. I couldn't take my eyes from Xeyal, she was on her side and blood gushed from a hole just above her collar bone. Her mouth was open and moved as if she were trying to speak while her eye was locked on me. I crouched so I could speak to her more quietly. "Don't worry, Xeyal. We… We're gonna save you. You're going to be okay."

Sunny and Shade were standing close beside me, "We have to get somewhere safe right now!" Sunny shouted as he looked around vigilantly.

I ignored him and watched as Xeyal's eye rolled upward and her eyelid half closed. "No…" I told her. "You have to stay with us! I won't let you die yet!" With that I looked up at the Shade who had been watching this play out. My mind reeled with memories and the one that stuck in my mind was seeing Xeyal asleep on my bed. A heat began to spread through me, it started at my hooves and in my horn before consuming me.

"Shimmer? Are you okay?" Shade asked me. A moment barely passed as I felt my magic focus, making my horn glow with multiple layers. tendrils of dust began circling my hooves as I stood up straight. I felt possessed as tears flowed freely down my cheeks. Another layer of lavender magic overlayed my horn and the dust turned into a whirlwind that encircled myself, Xeyal and the bewildered brothers.

The sound of another bullet cracked the air just as the spell triggered. Something hit the back of my head just as the whirlwind turned to a magical light that rapidly rotated around the four of us. Darkness enveloped me and the wind had stopped as I fell against a carpeted floor. My magic spent and my head throbbing with a trickling tingle right between my ears.

Someone shouted.

It all sounded so distant…

They argued and I fell asleep with a lofty… floaty feeling.

I stood at the door leading into maintenance. I still hadn't found my cutie mark despite trying a variety of different jobs Stable 109 had to offer. I was told I wasn't cut out to be in medical, security, or daily services. I stood there lost in my thoughts when the door opened and a really old unicorn smiled at me.

He gave his short white beard a stroke with one hoof as he studied me. "You must be that pesky little blank flank that I'm supposed to tutor."

I wanted to curse at him, but I held it in and chose to examine my hooves. I felt his hoof on my shoulder. "No worries, little missy. How good are you with magic?"

Looking up at him, he wore a wide friendly smile. "Follow me, I've a test for you."

The elderly unicorn turned and guided me past a few different work stations. I could see dismantled pipbucks in a few stations, then a door that read Pipbuck Repair Lead. Passing by that was another section of workstations that I could guess were dedicated to maintaining other miscellaneous equipment and devices.

"What does everypony do here?" I asked sheepishly.

"This is where we bring anything that needs repaired. We fix everything from the showerheads to the keycard readers. If it breaks, we fix it."

That was the obvious answer. I shrugged it off since I didn't know if I would even be staying here. I'd probably learn about all that in time if I did.

"Now no need for you to fret on those spots, because you're going to be working with me in Talisman Maintenance. Our job is the most critical role in this stable." He smiled as he unlocked one of the side rooms.

'Talismans' was written above the door. Inside were a few workstations, gemstones of all sorts were scattered across one of the desks. Another one had books piled high on it, next to that one were bookcases and most of the shelves held everything but books. Only the bottom two shelves were dedicated to books. The room had a couple additions that made it feel like a living space. Against one wall was a sink and beside it on a countertop sat a hot pad with a pot on it.

"Do me a favor and levitate the heaviest object in this room." He spoke with a whimsical tone, having turned around while I had been distracted.

I sat and scanned the room, stopping on the bookcases. Thinking again, I focused my magic on a couch that sat against the wall. It made me sweat, but I managed to bring it to us. I jumped up on it and sat with triumph.

"Okay." He stated taking a seat in front of the couch. We were now eye level with one another. "Now show me your favorite spell." He smiled a genuine smile. "I'll show you mine if you do."

I thought about that. Then I smiled and telekinetically turned off the lights. After that I focused on it and produced a little bubble of white light that floated before me. "I found it in a textbook once and thought it could be useful, even if it's just a reading light." I said then giggled a little and let it pop into tiny sparks before turning the lights back on.

He just smiled. "You'll do well here. Now let me show you what my spell is." His horn gave off a glow that layered upon itself, A ball of magic poofed into existence between us and expanded until it surrounded him and I. He gave me a smile, "just watch." The walls of the spell solidified in a brilliant yellow light before changing to show a green grassy field. It stretched across the floor and I could feel a breeze blow through my hair, as if it were real. The walls turned to blue skies with fluffy clouds quietly adrift and hills hiding distant mountains and forests. Off to our left, I could see a road, it was leading into a town and a sign that read "Welcome to Ponyville'' stood not far from us. This was an incredible spell.

The old pony chuckled, "Unfortunately, it works like a photograph. It can't be moved and we can't explore." He let the spell go and the sunny day dissipated.

"What's your name, anyway?" I asked him.

"Oh, no one told you? I'm Cornius Cob, head of maintenance."

My dreams were interrupted as reality reminded me of my headache. Why does my head hurt? What happened? My eyes… I couldn't open them. Panic made my heart rate increase and I could hear it. Not internally but because a machine somewhere nearby was beeping in time with my heart rate.

I tried again to open my eyes. It wasn't happening. I tried to move my hooves, but that didn't work either. Come to think of it, I couldn't even feel them or whatever I laid on. My panic made the machine go wild, which in turn triggered a higher pitch sound. I heard a frenzy of voices and moving bodies, felt a pinch on my neck and my panic ebbed away. I wasn't about to fall asleep again, but now I needed to know… "What… the… hell…happ-?" My voice sounded deep and sluggish around the tubes that were shoved down my throat.

"Don't try to speak." said a mare to my ear, "You suffered a traumatic injury, but we're doing everything we can to fix you and your friend. Relax and get some rest."

With that, I did as she said and let the fog of sleep roll over me once again.

I found myself standing at the window of my room in the Heights, except the glass was gone and fog flowed between the buildings below me. The wind howled against the cold concrete and off in the distance I heard something howl to the wind. It sounded painful, as if whatever it were had been in agony. Another howl rose from somewhere else followed by the sounds of explosions accompanied by a distant tower collapsing. I could see the smoke and dust and debris fly up around it as its collapse disbursed the fog like a wave between the streets.

I stepped forward and looked straight down the side of the building. It didn't scare me. At the bottom of the wall I stood on, below the thick obscuring fog, were thousands of yellow eyes glowing up at me. The faintest sounds of ghoulish growls echoed up from them. The whole street was packed and I couldn't look away.

A gust of wind hit me from the front, forcing me to take a step back into my room. The force of the wind being pushed back out from behind me carried me off my hooves and out into the open air. My heart leapt and I screamed for all my lungs could muster, but that was drowned out by the rushing air as I plunged into the ground.

As soon as the fog wrapped around me…

I jerked awake again, my heart racing, thankfully though, this time my right eye opened and I didn't have tubes lodged in my face. Okay, starting off good… I took in my surroundings the best I could. I found myself wrapped up in a blanket on a medical bed in a well kept and clean hospital room. I was still hooked up to some machines and an IV drip.

I groaned and felt a flourishing pain behind my left eye. My head continued to pulse with a dull headache. The lights were bright and unyielding and the steady beeping of the monitor was too loud. "Hello?" I said as loud as I could, "anyone around?" No response came back, So i tried again, "Hello!" I shouted, my voice cracked and caught in my dried throat.

I pensively held my breath, trying not to cough as the dry air tickled my throat. A zebra mare wearing a doctor's coat opened the door and walked in. "Oh, you've awoken, how are you feeling?"

"My head hurts a lot. Wait…" Zebra doctor? Clean medical room? "Am I in Stable 109?"

"Yes, that you are, Ms. Stone. Do you not know how you came to be here?" Her accent made me think of Xeyal, her voice held a much lighter tone that I found pleasantly calming.

I couldn't remember. Last thing I could recall was seeing Xeyal launch that robot into the sky. So, I shook my head.

The mare went about turning a chair and took to sitting beside me. "As expected. You were shot in the back of the head, luckily the bullet passed through your brain and exited through your left eye socket, which minimized damage."

A hollow panic tried to wail up inside me but with a deep breath; I quailed it. I didn't see the point in overreacting to what's already happened. It can't be changed now.

"You and your friends were found in your room. From my understanding, you teleported here."

A comforting numbness overtook me. I saved us? "How long have we been here?"

"You've been asleep for nearly a week and thanks to your mother and some experimental medical magic, we were able to keep you alive and repair the damage to your brain and skull, but we aren't sure what affects you will suffer. Healing magic can only do so much. Xeyal was already healed by your friends who found help for you. They had administered healing potions and a chemical cocktail to you both. We aren't entirely sure what all they had used, but it seemed to have stabilized you both."

"What's Xeyal's condition, is she still on bed rest?" I asked, confident that she lived, but I still needed to know it.

"She has been doing well. She recovered quickly and was released the day before last." The doctor took out a small flashlight, about the size of a pen. "Follow the light with just your eye." She shined the light in my eye and moved it from side to side and I did as she asked. "Good, good." She put the flashlight away in a quick flick of her wrist. "Now, are you able to move your limbs?

I raised a hoof out from under the cover and waved at her. "Looks like it," I told her. "Other than this headache, I feel fine."

She turned to the countertop behind her and wrote something down on her clipboard before turning back to me. "Any feeling of numbness or prickly feeling in your hooves, back, mane or tail?"

I looked at my forehoof, I didn't feel any painful prickly feeling. I bit my foreleg and felt it. No, I still had feelings then. "Neither, I feel fine."

The doctor nodded. "Okay, can you sit up?"

I did as she asked with some concentrated effort. It left me a little winded, but I managed to sit up right and pull my hindlegs under me. "Good work." She told me as she walked around my bed. She proceeded to remove the tubes and wires from me. "This may hurt a little," was all she said before pulling the IV from my leg. I flinched in pain, but managed to hold still for her. She pressed a wad of gauze against the spot and bandage wrapped it in place. With that she began cleaning up as she spoke to me. "Do not try to stand. We have food ready for you and a nurse will come in shortly with it and a wheelchair."

Once the zebra finished and left, It was just me and my thoughts. So now what, Shimmer? What do I do now… Shot in the head, surely I should be dead. I blinked my eye and looked around the room the best I could. Nothing in the room really stood out. Beside my bed was a small table and on it was a book. I tried to use my magic but that just made my head hurt twice over.

I leaned over and picked it up and read the cover. "Wasteland Survival Guide, written by Ditzy Doo" I opened it and began reading while I waited.

It hadn't been very long before that nurse came in with food and a wheelchair. The nurse placed the chair beside the bed and my food tray on the bed in front of me. She didn't talk to me since I chose to keep my eyes busy.

I was wheeled into Sweet Beets office by my mom. She had filled me in on the happenings since I had last been home. It was just the three of us and as we entered Sweet Beets looked up from her oversized metal desk. "Oh! Welcome Silver Torrent. Hello, Shimmer Stone. I'm happy you've awakened. So, down to business then, you had a caravan visit us. I met with Amethyst Smoke and after some detailing, we worked out a beneficial deal with the Heights. They left several days ago with a few ponies who were interested in working with them, some of the guards that were with them stayed here in case of another Steel Ranger attack."

I wasn't even listening. Okay; I was listening, but I didn't care about the caravaning and trade deals. "I'm happy to hear it work out." My utter lack of enthusiasm must have been pretty obvious because both of them gave me a pitiful look. "What?" I asked.

Silver Torrent gave me a small sympathetic look, "Shimmer, we have spoken with Xeyal about what the Heights are like, but we would also like your recount of your time there."

Giving an exasperated sigh. "Do we really have to? I'm getting tired of recounting this shit." When the two of them neglected to answer me. I rolled my eyes, "Fine, here y'go."

It took us a few hours to go over everything that had happened. Apparently, my tale gave them information they were needing such as the exchange rate of bits to caps and the extent of just how much power the Heights probably wielded. "I, for one, don't trust them," the Overmare told me.

"I've got my reservations for them too." I told her. "I'm not sure exactly what it was, but something felt off."

Sweet Beets had her hooves set against each other under her chin. "Thank you for your services, please go eat and get some more rest." She smiled at me as I was dismissed.

"Alright, time for us to go," mom told me. She stood, went over and opened the door. Silver's magic gripped the handles of my chair and started to turn me around and out the door we went with her leading the way. Once the door closed behind us, she looked over her shoulder, "Your strength should come back in a day or so. Also, try not to scratch at your eye as the socket heals."

I slowly put my hoof back down before I could start rubbing at my bandaged eye. That earned me a smile, a real smile. I hadn't realized how long it had been since I'd last seen that smile from her. She seemed genuinely happy for the first time in a very long time. I couldn't resist the urge to return the smile, in spite of how hollow I felt.

She wheeled me down to my room and stopped at the door. "Before we go in, you need to know that janitorial hasn't been able to clean the mess up."

"It can't be that bad, can it?" I inquired as my stomach tightened.

She looked at me and grimaced, "Your room looks like a homicide scene."

I gulped as she opened my door and turned on the light before rolling me in. The tan carpeting of my room had a massive red stain with three spots where the blood had pooled under Xeyal and myself, leaving indentations in the bloody mess. There was also a thick spray of blood that painted the wall between my desk and bed. A bullet and chunks of me were scattered across the floor leading up to that wall.

The sight of it made my stomach lurch. My bed and desk were speckled by the blast too and I could see a dint in the metal wall where the bullet hit. The thick smell of the blood filled the room and it only served to make me gag on it. "Mom?"

"It's a lot, isn't it?"

"Yeah…" I paused, the scene sinking in. Both Xeyal and I were dead. There's no doubt that we should have been dead. "Were you one of the first responders?"

"I was."

"We were breathing, right?"

She sighed and hesitated before answering me. "No."

I was still shell-shocked. The image of my blood and brains… my eye was probably blown to pieces amongst that mess… I couldn't not think about it. Silver had taken me up to the atrium while Xeyal brought the brothers to meet with me. Seeing Sunny Ember and Daring Shade helped solidify the reality of my situation, and depression be damned if I would show it.

When the two of them approached, it was Sunny who made the first joke. Because of course he would. "I guess you could say we kept an eye out for ya." When no one laughed and I simply looked away from him, he took the hint. "Look… I mean. Seeing as… Shit! Shade, do the talking, please?"

"You've always been the talker, you can handle this." His smile gave me a little something to smile for. He turned to me when his brother reluctantly looked away, choosing to watch the ponies and zebras go about their day. "He just doesn't do well with grief. Look, I don't know how you managed it, but that teleport spell saved all of us."

"I still died." I told him flatly.

Shade's eyes didn't leave mine, his steadied gaze, warm and friendly with his voice. "Yet here you are. You saved your friend and got us out of a sticky situation."

His brother on the other hoof, completely derailed the sentiment. "Heh," he laughed, "sticky situations." He spoke a bit louder when he noticed us all looking at him, "I've seen some shit, but that's the first time I've ever been noped out of a situation like that."

Daring Shade gave a nod, "Yup. We've made some incredible escapes, but this one jumps toward the top. It doesn't beat that time we narrowly avoided a balefire bomb just north of Old Appleloosa." He nudged Sunny, "Do you remember that one?"

"How could I ever forget?" He responded. "Being as drunk as I was made that so much easier to endure. That poor distillery."

"I'm still surprised your tail grew back after that." Shade told him with a chuckle. He then looked back to me, "So, this stable is a hundred times better than any of the others we've stumbled through."

Silver Torrent and Xeyal shared the same befuddled expression while I slapped my forehead with a hoof. Silver Torrent was the first to respond and true to her scientific mind, she asked an actually legitimate question. “You two are quite adventurous; what other stables have you come across?”

Sunny Ember and Shade shared a glance at one another. Shade lifted his hooves in a shrug, so Sunny looked back to Silver and answered. “Well, excluding this stable, we’ve been to stable 66, stable 96 and stable 28. They weren’t what we expected. Stable 66 was a smaller stable and was all dead when we found it still closed up tight.”

Shade chimed in, “When we finally found a way in, we found that the stable was still powered. After reading the files on the Overseer’s terminal, that’s how we learned of what really happened there. Apparently, this stable was what’s known as a control stable which means it was used for a specific experiment. This stable was rigged to flood the air ducts with a hallucinogenic gas every night to induce nightmares and study the different types of dreams they all experienced.” He paused for a moment, “Wasn’t Stable 96 the one with the mares and the sacrifices of stray bucks?”

Sunny nodded, “Yup, it was. That stable had an altar of some kind under the Overseer’s desk. Apparently the stable was closed for eighty years before opening up. It was ninety mares and ten bucks and once a year a pony needed to be sacrificed to maintain something. I don’t think it was actually required though, they were doing as they were told so a lottery would be held, expecting mothers would be excluded. Now though, they all bein’ crazy in there.”

Daring coughed, “They’re the healthiest raiders I know of, thank goodness that’s back on the west coast. Stable 28 was just sad though.”

Sunny nodded his agreement. “That’s true. Stable 28 was… sad.”

“Why?” Xeyal asked with genuine curiosity. Her hooves were laid across the table as she leaned in. “Was it another experiment?”

Daring sighed, “Uh-huh, that it was. See Stable 28 only had twenty ponies in it when it locked down. The stable wasn’t equipped with water at all. The only food that was available was from a material reprocessor meant to repurpose personal waste, however the machine requires water. Above that though, them assholes in StableTec thought it would be funny to fully stock this stable with nothing but alcohol and packaged shortcakes.”

Sunny must have seen the surprise the three of us shared because he whinnied softly, “It’s true. We walked outta there with a cart loaded with probably thirty or forty cases of drink.”

Daring added, “The fancy buck cakes were all eaten and according to the diaries we came across, it got pretty nasty down there.” He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “The stable’s computer system was rigged to prevent any override code on the main door.” He sighed again, “and apparently after only a month or so, these drunk forsaken folks were killin’ one another.”

“Yeah, it was pretty fucked. The ones who did the killings were eating and drinking from their victims.” Sunny seemed physically sickened by the thought. “Those diaries were pretty hard to read.”

Xeyal excused herself from the table, opting to just leave the conversation while mom and I shared a look of disgust. Silver looked back to the brothers. “You mean StableTec knowingly rigged a stable to become cannibalistic and fueled by alcohol?”

Daring held up a hoof, “Not really, I wanted more answers. I did some exploring and found that while the stable didn’t have water, it was because no one actually turned it on from the outside.”

“They never turned the main valve on? That’s a horrendous oversight!” I almost shouted it in my shock. All those ponies just gone, like that, over something stupid!

Silver Torrent turned to see where Xeyal had gone. “Excuse me,” she told us quickly before getting up and following after her. This left just the brothers and I at the table. “So, I have to ask this…” I started strong, but my voice hitched in my throat. I gulped and as I continued, I found my voice to be much softer and unsteady, I couldn’t fix that so I pushed through. “How bad was it… whe-when we got-t here…”

Daring and Sunny gave me looks loaded with sympathy. Neither of them spoke and that silence infuriated me to no end. “How bad is it?”

“Well… I…” Sunny started but abruptly stopped.

“We uh… you’re…” Daring tried but couldn’t find his voice either.

“Damnit, just spit it out!” I screamed unintentionally. Fear drove me and I didn’t care if literally everyone looked at us. Tears flooded my left eye, “Celestia damnit, tell me!”

“Shimmer.” came my mothers voice from beside me. I hadn’t noticed her and Xeyal’s return… all my focus was on them. She telekinetically turned my wheelchair and pulled me into a hug after flipping my wheel lock. “You’ll always be my beautiful daughter and nothing will ever change that.”

I simply weeped into her shoulder, letting my emotions out. It was an ugly sob, but I just didn’t care.

It had taken three more days before I was able to walk on my own. My magic was still burnt and I couldn’t focus even a flicker of a spell without it resulting in a thrumming headache. I had gathered everything of mine from my room and moved it to a storage spot in my mothers’ room. The maintenance crew was tasked to take the room apart, removing the carpet entirely before refurbishing everything else. I hate this anticipation…

Xeyal had offered to join me for this. The two of us were on our way up to medical to get my bandages removed and I suspected that my mane would be greasy and gross. At least, that’s how I was keeping myself in check. Neither of us chose to speak as the tension that pierced the air around me was potent. So potent that it felt like anyone we passed had to stop and stare at me.

I tried to ignore them, but hearing their whispers of my feats had made me well known to those around me. I heard one pair of mares whispering, “That’s her?”

“Yeah, I think so? Wasn’t she shot in the head?”

“Think she’s like those ghouls up above? How else would she still be alive?”

Neither of us stopped to answer them, I didn’t acknowledge them at all, opting to stare at the floor in front of my hooves. It was clean. No garbage or debris to accidentally kick or trip on, I was about to see my face. I was already finding it difficult to keep my strut straight…

Xeyal’s voice penetrated my anxiety. “Do not fret, Shimmer. Regardless of what has happened, you have lived through it and that is what matters. We have survived and I thank you for that.”

I locked eyes with her as we walked side-by-side. Her voice had a soothing tone to it and that comforted me more than anything. We’d been through a lot together. We came to a stop outside the door leading into the atrium on the second floor. “Thank you, Xeyal. You really are awesome.”

She gave a smile and opened the door for me. The atrium was as busy as usual, I could spot a few new faces, probably the reinforcements from the Heights. From my blind side came a familiar yellow buck who nearly gave me a heart attack. "Hey Shimmer! I've been trying to catch you ever since you woke up, how are you feeling? I've heard some pretty wild stories, is it true?"

"Wooh!" I sat back on my haunches with a hoof against my chest. "Luna's love, you scared me. Coffee Bean, can you slow down some and try that again, we're on our way to medical, can you come with?"

He gingerly took a step to my left, "Sure, and I'm going to guess you're not doing alright… Right?"

"Right," Xeyal told him for me. The three of us started moving again. "She's having the bandages removed, so please be supportive."

You shouldn't have to point that out, Xeyal. I gave off a small but sharp exhale through my nostrils. They hadn't noticed it and if they had, they didn't make it known. My pace had quickened, leaving both of them to keep up with me. I could feel the sweat building under my coat, I wasn't sure if it was all the eyes on me or the speed at which I was now going. My quickened walk had become a wannabe gallop as I reached the upper floor and I hastily made my way to the doors that would lead me to the medical wing.

I got through the door as fast as I possibly could. In the empty hallway, I skidded to a halt and took to sitting with my hoof over my good eye. My head and heart were pounding in sync leaving me searching for a way to calm myself. I took to breathing deeply, I hadn’t noticed my friends catching up behind me. Both of them came walking around me as I sat there, in the center of the hall. Coffee Bean and Xeyal sat before me and while neither spoke, I could feel them there… That helped me a lot. I put my hoof down and stood back up. One last big breath, “Okay!” I said as I exhaled. “Let’s go see how ugly I am.”

Footnote:
Level Up! Lv.12
Feat Unlocked: Friendship’s Magic
You gain +20 DT when protecting an injured ally.
Allies have +10 DT when protecting you.
“Friendship is magic”
Feat Unlocked: Limit Breaker
+2 Spell slots
You can now cast advanced spells.
+20% more magic
“What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”