Fallout Equestria: Baltimare Heights

In a flash of magic, we appeared in a similar room complete with annoying red lights. The compass on my EFS showed that my mother's tag was much closer now.

The three of us circled around the computer consoles and exited through the only door. "It looks like they're on this floor. This way!" I told them quickly before breaking into a hasty gallop.

"Wait!" came a pair of shouts that I promptly ignored. Rounding the first corner I'd come to; I focused on the number that ticked even lower under the pipbuck tag indicator.

Skidding to a stop in front of a large pair of doors labelled "Power Station One" I stopped to look back and see my companions catching up to me.

When they reached me, Xeyal gave the top of my head a swift hoof that made my ears ring. "Owww!" I whined as my vision swam a little. "Why'd you hit me?"

"Because you are being an idiot. We don't know this place or what dangers it may hold. We have no weapons and neither of you have armor." She crouched so we were eye to eye. "We must go quietly with care. You understand, yes?"

I know... I rubbed the top of my head, "My bad. You have a point." I waved a hoof at the little tarnished plaque next to the door. "My EFS says the mission party should be in here."

Xeyal didn't say anything else, but her eyes hadn't left mine and that made my mane itch. I looked away first, opting instead to focus on the door. Opening it with my maintenance key card. It was as dark inside as the hallways were. I could hear the old machinery struggle in their old age. Turning on my pipbuck lamp, both my companions did as well.

Inside were a pair of large generators built into both sides of the room and along the far end were three technician stations. At the center monitor sat a pony with two more standing beside them. My compass indicated that one of them had to be my mom.

One of the standing ponies turned to look at us, his eyes were glowing a sickly green. "Who's there?" he asked in a deep, guttural voice.

It sent a primal chill down my spine and made my mane stand stark. "What the hell was that?" I whispered, taking a step back.

The other standing pony turned to face us with the same glowing eyes piercing the dark. This one gave off a disgusting laughter that suited death himself. He turned to the others, "Looks like we got some more smooth coats from the stable."

The one in the chair cocked his head back at an extreme angle and one brightly glowing yellow eye focused directly on me. "Nosey little rats. Disarm and capture them. We will put them with the rest." His voice was shockingly smooth in comparison to the other two.

Coffee Bean stepped in beside me. "Should we run? I'd like to run now. C-Can I run now?" His voice shook but I could see he was trying to brave it.

The dark shapes of the two standing ponies started a slow saunter toward us. "Come easy now." One said with a nasty rattle.

As they approached, I could see the faint glow of magic and each one brandished a weapon tucked in close to them. They came close enough to us that we could see them clearly now. Mottled, mostly bold, their skin hung off raw muscle and bone was easily visible all across them.

A putrid funk hit my nose and I could have gagged on the air. Ignore it, focus.

"Come on now, we don't want to kill you, but we will if we have to." The zombie on the left said, wielding a black combat shotgun.

The mare on the right had a pair of sleek looking pistols pointed at us.

Looking around in a frenzy, I spotted something familiar. One of the maintenance panels had been removed and left leaning against some of the machinery. I gave a sly smirk to Coffee Bean and threw my hooves up as I sat back on my haunches. "You've got us! We'll surrender."

The pair gave some gross gutty laughs and quickened the pace, striding past the stray steel panel. Focusing my magic on it, I brought the square around and broadsided the pair and their guns. After that, I flung the metal square like a frisbee at the one that stayed seated and quickly scooped up the fallen shotgun in my own magic.

With the shotgun levelled at the dead ponies head. The metal panel hit the far wall with a shower of sparks and the pony at the terminal jumped up and screamed "What the hell guys!"

The pony I pointed my new shiny shotgun at looked at it but only smiled. "I bet I have more guts than you do. You should have shot me already." I only barely saw the small switchblade fly out of his pocket aiming for me.

"Shit." This'll hurt.

I took quick aim and pulled the trigger just as the knife buried itself into my shoulder. The shotgun kick was more force than I could handle, it kicked itself out of my magical grasp and clattered to the floor. I couldn't help but scream as I fell next to the now headless dead pony. His blood and gore covering his back and the floor beyond.

My EFS notified me that I had taken damage to my shoulder, it registered as my left foreleg rather than my neck. Small favors, I suppose. Better than dead.

I watched pitifully as Xeyal put a pair of bullets into the head of the other rotting dead pony. His body fell like a sack of potatoes and Xeyal quickly turned to me. "Don't remove the blade, you'll bleed out faster," she instructed in a stern tone. "We must capture that one now."

I gave her a nod and stood up on three legs, letting my injured leg hang limp. My magic slowly lifted the shotgun again and we moved in toward the last pony.

"These zombie ponies are disgusting things." Coffee Bean mumbled from just behind me.

With a huff and a few deep breaths, I focused entirely on the pony that had my mothers' pipbuck. "Where is she?" I asked in a shaking voice. Anger fueling every step I took. "Where is the mare you stole that pipbuck from?!"

The zombie pony stood his ground and said nothing. Xeyal tilted her head toward me with a sideways glare to Bean. He hurried forward and put a hoof up in front of me. "Let Xeyal handle him. Keep the shotgun on him but let me take care of that knife wound."

"But-" I started only for him to cut me off by pulling the knife from my shoulder. "Yeowch! Celestia dammit all that hurt!" Looking down at the fresh wound, I watched blood pour from the hole. I looked away from it and chose to focus on the zombie in front of us. "I have healing potions in my left saddlebag. Give me one."

He did as I asked and pulled out one of the healing potions and popped it open for me. I took it in my injured forehoof and drank it. Almost immediately the healing magic took effect and the wound stitched itself closed. "Thanks for that."

"Disarm yourself." Xeyal instructed the zombie pony around the grip of her weapon. She walked closer to him as he scoffed before drawing a pair of pistols and tossed them into the floor. She gave them a quick kick, sending them skidding across the floor to Coffee Bean. He quickly plucked and bagged them.

Coffee and myself moved forward as well. Coffee fetched himself the pair of pistols and held one in his mouth. "Look, I know you have a pipbuck, I want it and the pony you took it from. Now."

He sat on his haunches and held his hooves up in a shrug. "As you can see, I don't have a pipbuck." He said with a smirk.

I wasn't in the mood for that. I shoved the shotgun against his forehead. "Give me that pipbuck and tell me where the others are. If you do, I'll let you live."

He pushed his head against the shotgun's barrel with a dull thunk. "Just kill me then. Be a murderer, I've already surrendered."

That made me faulter. It struck me that if these zombies are still ponies, we just killed two of them. My stomach lurched and I moved the shotgun away from his head but kept it focused on him. "Make a move and I will kill you. Give some snarky answer, I will kill you slower." I growled. Both Xeyal and Bean moved closer to him and I asked again, "Where are the others?"

The zombie gave a sigh, reached into the pocket of his saddlebag and pulled out a clean gray pipbuck. I took it from him and put it in my bag, "Good, now tell me what you needed it for?"

He took a long look at all three guns pointed at him before speaking. "Pipbucks are equipped with everything we need to access the systems we have long been locked out of."

I gave both Xeyal and Coffee Bean a nod. They both stowed their weapons. "I'll keep him busy, Xeyal, get the power turned on. Coffee, stand guard at the door."

The zombie in front of me just frowned watching the zebra walk past him. Looking back at me, he spoke in that smooth yet gross voice. "Oh, right. You asked how we got it and where the other smooth ones are. If you let me leave, I'll tell you."

"Oh? Is that so? Tough luck. I imagine there are more of you zombie monsters here, why would I let you go?" I tried to sound confident, but my voice was shaking.

"Zombie monsters? Girly, you haven't a clue. We're ponies just like you, the only difference is that I'm 178 years old." He sighed before continuing, "I'm a ghoul, I and everyone else here absorbed too much magical radiation too quickly."

That's old… "Wait, so you were here for the war? What happened back then? Why's this place on backup power?"

"You ask too many questions. Yes, I saw the death of Equestria and that's a long story."

Xeyal shouted "Got it!" Followed closely by the lights turning on. I pushed the shotgun into his mottle chest with a gooey squish. our eyes met and he stood and turned away from it. We walked over to where the zebra sat.

The ghoul wasted no time. He looked at the screen and asked, "What did you just do?"

She looked over at him, her face as stoic as ever. In an even voice she answered and demonstrated it on the monitor. "You see, the main generators had never been switched off. This security protocol here is what kept the towers shielding at maximum and when the power usage had hit critical levels it switched everything else to the backup system to keep the shield active." She paused and scanned different power options and uses then closed everything. Disconnecting her own pipbuck from the terminal, she turned and stood. "I turned off the external shielding."

His jaw hung loose for a moment. "That shield protected us and kept everything else out there." He paused in thought, "Wait, the shield is a security protocol, how did you access that from here?"

She gave a small smile I doubted he would notice. "I'm registered as a senior security officer in the stable and it would appear that both the tower and the stable operate on the same internal systems. Security included."

The ghoul sighed and looking at him now in proper lighting, he was much uglier than his voice let on. His patchy brown coat and stringy tuffs of light blue mane looked as though it all clung to his boney frame by just the green-tinged skin he still had. Half his face had at some point been torn off, leaving half of his teeth exposed where hr had once had a cheek. He gave a chuckle that rattled his chest.

I lowered the shotgun but kept it close. "What is your name?" I asked him calmly.

His glowing eyes met mine. "It's not important who I am."

Grinding my teeth in annoyance, "Fine. Where are the others?"

"Can't tell you." His broken smile made me want to punch him. Hard.

Xeyal leaned closer to the ghoul. "Had you been planning something else?"

He leaned away from her and his eyes darted between the two of us. "we, I, uhm… Yes."

"And what would you have done to turn the power back on?" She asked evenly toned.

"I have no reaso-"

"Wrong answer!" She slammed her forehooves into his chest. The force knocked him off his hooves and he slid across the floor on his back. I found it satisfying to watch.

He groaned, moving to a sitting position. "Alright, alright. I'll tell you." he waved one hoof in the air and the other pressed against his new ache.

The two of us walked over to him. My shotgun barrel levelled with his forehead and Xeyal asked again. "How had you planned to turn the power on?"

"I was instructed to reroute the stable's power." He huffed trying to catch a breath. "I think… you just broke my rib cage." He rasped.

That sent fire through my veins. "You were going to kill over five hundred ponies?!"

"Yes, that's what I said," he reaffirmed. "The first group can be found down on the tenth floor. In security. The rest of the ghouls who call this place home each have their own floors for various reasons. This place is special and we've maintained it for this long."

"You deserve the same fate as those two, but who sent you and what is your name?" I asked incredulously.

He sighed and rested his head against the barrel of my gun, seeming to examine the floor tiles between us. "I'm Professor Willow Sky and I, along with most of the ghouls here, despise you stable ponies. Your ancestors made it down and the rest of us were left trapped here to starve and die." He pressed his head against the barrel and peered up at me. "Shoot me already! We've been stuck here maintaining this place for far too long."

"So, what happened when the stable was locked? How many were left?"

"All fifty-five floors of this tower housed six thousand of the most brilliant ponies in all of Equestria. Only five hundred were saved by the stable. The rest of us struggled for nearly a year before rations began to dry up." He squeezed his eyes close as if crying, but he wasn't.

"I see." I said moving the weapon away from him, his head dipped forward before he righted himself. "So how did you become a ghoul?"

He opened his eyes but stayed focused on the floor. "Well, it happened a long time ago and it killed a large portion of the ponies here." He looked up at me.

Xeyal looked at me and then to him and asked, "can you take us to the others?"

"I can, but I won't," He answered, wielding a devilish smile.

"And why not?" I asked.

His grin grew, "Because I don't want to, and I don't like any of you stable dwelling assholes. You all escaped the hell the rest of us have been in for a hundred and fifty years!"

My blood boiled with anger, "quit being a stubborn old fool! We aren't your enemy and we had nothing to do with what happened all that time ago."

"Still, it's a no. You already killed both of them, you may as well just kill me too." He flicked a hoof off toward the pair we killed.

Xeyal didn't say anything, but she held a stern emotionless stare. "If you insist, albeit you ordered them to kill us first." She withdrew her pistol, pointing it at him.

The ghoul laughed and I put up a hoof to stop her. "We may as well keep him alive. Let's go, the elevators should be working now."

Xeyal gave me a nod and put her pistol away. "Lead the way."

Turning and walking out of the room followed by Willow Sky and Xeyal, I paused and looked around the empty hallway. "Uhm… Where's Coffee Bean?" I asked, looking back at my zebra friend.

"Maybe he got bored." Xeyal offered, pointing a hoof to a door that stood open.

I poked my head around the doorframe to see our cream-colored friend digging through boxes on storage shelves.

Xeyal stood just behind me, peering into the little room as I did. I looked straight up, and she looked straight down back at me.

He looked up at us smiling, laughing a little. "Sorry, I got distracted."

The room being filled with cleaning supplies and a variety of chemicals gave me the impression that it hadn't been used for a very long time. The room was slender with shelves lining two of the walls. "Janitorial closet." the ghoul mumbled from behind us. "Hasn't been used in a century."

Coffee smiled and held up an unopened carton of cigarettes. "From what I've found hidden behind the usual stock, the janitors would spend their break in here. There's three more unopened cartons and one with three packs left in it."

Going over to him and taking a look myself, I could see an ashtray, an open case of Sparkle Cola, and a small selection of spirits. I levitated the collection of contraband out and helped Coffee tuck it all into his saddle bags. He smiled, "We may not need it, but someone else might."

"We have to get going, Mr. Sky here agreed to help us against his will. We're heading down to the tenth floor. The mission group is in the security cells there." I told him, waving a hoof toward the ghoul pony beside Xeyal.

Both Coffee and I left the cramped little room, returning to the dusty hallway. "Which way is the elevator?" I asked Willow Sky.

He pointed down the hall. "We're going all to the end, taking a left and it's on the right." We started that way and followed his instructions, Xeyal and Sky in the lead followed by Coffee and I. Reaching the elevators and calling it gave us time.

Xeyal wrinkled her nose. "I hadn't noticed until now but…" She turned to Willow Sky and took a sniff. "You smell of death and decay."

The ghoul rolled his eyes but said nothing. My own nose finally registered the stench. Both Coffee Bean and I staggered away with our forehooves over our noses. "How did I not notice that smell was coming from them!?" I asked him.

"I don't know how my nose missed it either." He replied through clenched teeth.

The ghoul grumbled and stepped into the elevator when the doors opened. Xeyal followed him in and left a hoof in the door. "Come on you two."

I looked over at Coffee Bean and he looked over at me. We both shook our heads. "We can take the stairs." Coffee Bean suggested.

"Hold your breath and get on." insisted the zebra as the doors tried to close.

"But stairs!" I told her, dropping back to all fours.

Coffee Bean sighed and took a very deep breath. "Elevator time."

Giving a defeated sigh of my own, I took in a full breath and boarded beside the ghoul. Xeyal let the doors close, and she pressed the tenth-floor button. The elevator gave a small lurch and began to descend. Coffee Bean and I shared a look with our cheeks full of air. He smiled and I laughed letting loose the breath I held.

The doors opened just then, and I leapt forward into the hallway taking in a somewhat stale breath of air. Coffee Bean stepped out laughing just behind me with Xeyal and Willow after him.

Looking up at Xeyal, her expression being one of disappointment. "He may not smell good, but overreacting is not the answer. Nor is it funny."

She had a point. While his smell did make my stomach revolt, it wasn't unbearable. "Alright, fine." I stood up and looked at Willow Sky. "What can we expect?"

The ghoul gave a gross cough and cleared his throat before speaking. "The other smooth coats were disarmed and put in a holding cell. I don't know any more than that." He started down another hall, and the rest of us followed. Levitating the shotgun out, I tucked it between my belt and between my bags on my back.

We reached a set of double doors at the end of a short hallway. The double doors had "Security" written across it and prior to them were two more rooms. "So, what kind of security does this place have?"

The ghoul gave a rattled chuckle, "Well, besides the pony forces that are long dead, the tower has a plethora of automated defenses such as beam turrets and lockdown traps. Both of which work off a database of verified personnel and cameras."

It didn't surprise me any, to be fair, I would have been surprised if there weren't security features. "So why haven't they tried to shoot us?" Coffee asked before I could.

"Because I'm here and the system still recognizes me as personnel. It has probably registered you lot as a group of guests." The ghoul responded flatly. "Or because we have a security officer present."

"Then we can presume that those who sent you to maintenance know that we have you captive." Xeyal said in a gloomy tone.

"Well, let's go." I told them, moving toward the doors. Entering the main lobby to security was about as I had expected it to look. One large counter stretching the length of the room with a small gate at one end giving access to the back half of the room which was mostly filing cabinets and desks. Off to the right was a label-less door.

The ghoul started toward that door. "It's this way. They are probably expecting us." He said with a faint guttural chuckle.

Coffee and Xeyal shared a look of caution before pulling out their pistols and clenching them in their teeth. I levitated my shotgun nearby. With that the four of us continued through to another short hallway that ran the length of the previous room. A long cork bulletin board with a variety of papers pinned to it filled a portion of the left wall. Along with several military and ministry posters framed past the cork board. I looked at each of them as we passed by.

One depicted a group of pegasi flying upward leaving behind a smokey rainbow and it read "Join the Wonderbolts today!" Another one showed a pink earth pony smiling big with a hoof against the poster. Her eyes were creepy and the quote only added to the creepiness. "Pinkie Pie will protect you!"

Skipping past the other framed wartime posters, I caught back up with the others. Willow Sky guided us through the door to the holding cells. Inside were two unicorn ghouls in tattered white lab coats and all the stable ponies locked inside cells. When the ghouls saw us, they both levitated weapons and took aim. "Stop! Don't move at all or we will shoot." One said in a panic.

I levitated the shotgun up so they could see it pointed at the back of Willow's head.
Willow Sky spoke up first. "They don't care about us. They already killed Riptide and Basalt without a-"

I pushed the barrel into the back of his neck. Cutting him off, I reiterated my defense. "you told them to kill us! That was self-defense. Listen to me, we are not here to hurt anyone, we're only here to help the others."

"Then what are you all doing here?" asked a stallion who levitated a pistol.

"I'm here now to rescue my mom and the rest of her group. She's the pony this one took the pipbuck from. Now release them all and we will give you back Willow Sky."

The mare wielding a rifle of some kind snickered. "You couldn't possibly kill all of us. Now why are you all here? These guys haven't said a word since we captured them." She kicked the bars with a rear hoof. "They've been scared shitless since we met."

Xeyal answered in a sharp authoritative voice and her accent gave me a warm reason to hold my breath. "We were sent to take care of several tasks that are required to sustain the power systems of our stable. We also need several resources that could be found here. However, you've rendered our initial group irresponsive, and we were sent to investigate." She walked forward and drew her pistol again. Around the grip she spoke again, "Release them now."

Out of nowhere, Coffee Bean turned and bucked Willow Sky's shoulder as hard as possible. The unicorn ghoul flew off his hooves and slammed against the wall with a heavy thunk. On the floor where he had stood, a pair of knives now laid.

Looking at him I shouted. "What the hell was that?!"

Coffee Cake pointed a hoof down at the knives without looking away from the other ghouls. "I had a feeling. Turned out to be right."

The mare pointed and fired her rifle. Luckily Coffee Bean jumped out of the way reflexively, dodging the shots that rang out.

Xeyal quickly fired off three shots, two of which hit, the third embedded itself in the screen of a terminal. In a shower of sparks the mare dropped to the floor, her rifle clattering next to her. The stallion shouted something and fired wildly at Xeyal, I ran forward and magically moved my shotgun even quicker. I fired at him as soon as I could guarantee a hit.

The zebra and the ghoul both went down at the same time. The ghoul was now headless. Xeyal, on the other hoof, was bleeding from multiple bullet wounds. I rushed over to her and looked her over. Shallow breaths… but breathing.

Levitating the shotgun I swung it around to the last ghoul. "Willow! Open these cages now!" I shouted in distress. I could feel my heart rate spike and my voice shook.

"No. I already told you to kill me." He said sternly. "You may as well be a monst-"

I looked to see Coffee Bean nearby. "Keep him in check, I'll do it."

He gave a quick solute and so I turned back and ran over to a working terminal. I ran the cable from my pipbuck to an input on the control board. My pipbuck screen came up with its decoding program. Several words were available. Maybe this one? I picked one and the screen flashed with "Access Denied" in red letters. I tried a different one and it gave the same message. taking a deep breath I guessed again and in green it read "Access Granted".

"Thank goodness, I'm in!" I shouted. Quickly navigating options. I turned off the magic suppression systems, opened all the cell doors and turned the security threat level to zero. "Coffee! Start opening these cells!" I instructed him as I bolted for the nearest cell.

Inside were two of the security guards, I recognized as Vivid Glare and Espresso Cream. Both were bound by rope and their muzzles taped shut. I quickly undid their ropes with my magic. I didn't wait for them, moving straight to the next cell and saw my mother bound and taped with none of her gear.

Seeing her like this, wide eyed and tearful. Her mane and tail, a total mess. She wiggled and looked up at her horn. A metal ring with a gemstone in it was on it. "Don't worry mom, I'm here to help, but Xeyal just got shot. She needs you now." I told her as I unbound her hooves.

As soon as her hooves were free she took the ring off her horn and threw it across the little cell. Using her magic, she took the tape off her muzzle while jumping to her hooves. On her way out of the cell, her eyes met mine for a brief moment but we both knew this was not the time for talk.

She started to speak to Coffee Bean, but I didn't listen. I was stuck looking at the spot where I had found her. The floor was freshly stained and the cell smelt sour. That gave me a bizarre sense of clarity. My thoughts and emotions swirled as time ticked by even more slowly.

Mom shouted, "She's lost a lot of blood, but the bullets are out. Now we need a healing potion!"

I could feel tears rolling down my cheeks and seeing my mom like that will probably be a moment frozen in the back of my mind. Before I turned away I levitated that little horn ring to me and stowed it in my bag.

Footnotes
Level Up! Lv. 2
Perk Unlocked: Sweet Talkers' Tongue - Rank 1
Communication is a key after all.
+25% Speech skill

Perk Unlocked: Scavenger's Delight
You see the value in everything you gather. Be it for practical use or monetary gain.
+2 Luck when looting in a new location.