Fallout Equestria: Baltimare Heights

The elevator doors opened to the main lobby. Stepping off, I noted that the room looked completely different in good light. I took in the sight. Beyond the stained glass walls were decrepit and utterly destroyed city streets and buildings. Above it were rolling green hued clouds that threatened to rain. A semicircular step separated the waiting seats and the door from the receptionist desks. The lower floor was filled with white skeletons that had long rotted into the carpeted floor.

I looked over at the door to the teleporter. I could see Xeyal sitting next to the door just watching me. The shocked expression she wore was uncommon for sure, she didn't speak but she did knock on the door. That was followed by Silver Torrent stepping out and looking over at Xeyal then to me. At that point, I promptly fell on my face, spilling the earth pony onto the floor before me.

"Glimmer!" I heard my mom shout, but I couldn't be bothered to move any more. Everything hurt. My mind swam in pain, but I could relax now. My eyes closed and the commotion that followed sounded distant.

"...the hell happened to them?"

"...that blast we felt shake…"

I could feel myself being lifted by magic. I could catch bits and pieces of what they said…

"...first degree burns…"

They laid me down and I could feel my gear being removed.

"...she's lost a lot…"

"...an anesthesia spell on her…"

A fog set in and the pain ebbed away.

Blinking, I found myself walking along one of my favorite halls in Stable 109. I was passing by observation windows that looked in on our orchard to my left and one of the gardens on my right. Something about this felt a bit off and I couldn't quite put a hoof on what it. Deciding not to worry about it, I continued walking. The views and the hall came to an end leaving to go left or right.

I turned right and found myself back where I had started, looking into the orchard and the gardens. "What the-" I muttered and studied the rooms beyond the glass. Both were well lit, and the life inside was as vibrant as ever. Everything seemed to be right but… not.

I looked down at my pipbuck as I realized my E.F.S. was off… my foreleg was bare and striped, black and white. I looked over myself, my legs were all striped as was my belly and most of my sides. The stripes were vertical, jagged and thick, I looked up and realized what had been missing. There were no zebras beyond the glass.

Breaking into a sprint, I galloped the length of the hall and took a left this time to find myself back where I had been before. Looking into the orchard, the leaves on the trees were brown, orange and yellow. The grass had changed too; the same conditions were reflected with wilted crops in the gardens.

Racing around the corner, I peered through the windows in horror. The plants were dead and rotting, trees barren and grasses all gone. I hadn't slowed my sprint as I reached the end of the hall. Rounding the corner however forced me to a dead stop. Fear forced my heart to leap into my throat. The hall before me was almost unrecognizable: Most of the lights were blown and others flickered. Some hung halfway to the floor which was cracked and covered in debris. I walked the hall slowly. Past the glass were flickering lights and red emergency lights.

Something moved around inside both those eerie rooms. By accident, I kicked a chunk of rubble that echoed throughout the hall. Momentary silence befell me as I watched yellow glowing eyes peered out at me from all directions accompanied by a cascade of guttural howls and screams.

Sure enough, I'd found the zebras…

Several dozen ghoulified zebras charged the windows from both sides, Hooves smacked on the reinforced glass. Their snapping jaws scraped against the glass as they tried for me. I watched them beat on the windows for a moment as I continued to walk down the hallway.

Coming to its end and turning yet another corner, I found myself staring down a dark tunnel, with very few flickering lights. The windows were shattered, and glass covered the floor, catching bits of light. I walked forward, feeling something warm and thick surround my hooves. Lifting my hoof up, I could see that my white stripes were now drenched in thick red blood.

I stopped and took in the sight. The silence was overwhelming, and I felt my mane prickling with anticipation.

I closed my eyes for a moment and everything changed. I found myself standing amongst the skeletons in the main reception. I was standing just inside the doors to the Ministry of Arcane Science. I looked up to see the stained-glass image of Twilight Sparkle.

A warmth bathed me as the pale sunlight shone down on me from between the buildings. Looking around, I noted that the bones were bathed in a rainbow of light.

"Glimmer…"

I spun around in a heartbeat. Before me stood Coffee Bean, Nasty bare red burns oozed blood from over half his body.

"Wake up…"

____________

With a jolt, I rolled onto my belly and pushed myself upright. In as much of a hurry as my tired body would allow for, I took in my surroundings. It was just me, my mom and Xeyal. Only Xeyal was awake.

She was watching me struggle. Great."You're awake. I'm glad to see it."

"Is Coffee Bean okay?" I wearily asked her. I slowly stood, putting weight on my hind leg didn't hurt as bad as expected. A small relief, but nothing compared to Bean's condition.

Shrugging her shoulders, she stood and walked over to my mom, giving her a gentle rock with a hoof. She turned back to me, "His condition was extreme, but he was breathing. Silver Torrent and I both stayed here with you, but his father and the rest of the team returned to the Stable."

Mom stirred and sat up, blinking and rubbing her eyes, she gave a yawn. "Is Glimmer awake?"

"Hi Mom." I offered as confirmation.

She stood and walked around the teleporter to me. Pulling me into a tight hug, she cried into my shoulder. "I'm glad you made it."

I wrapped a hoof around her rigid shoulders and patted her back. "It… I… Did he live?"

With a sniffle and a step back, she nodded. "He will live, His father and I have set up coms so he can keep me updated. Him and the others have reported all three of us dead to the Overmare."

That made sense. It meant that Coffee Bean wouldn't be punished for helping Xeyal and I escape. "Good. I want to talk to these ghouls. Surely not all of them want to kill us. We need to go back up and talk to Willow Sky."

Xeyal spoke up, "what would this accomplish?"

"Well, they know this place better than any of us do." I shrugged, "it wouldn't surprise me if they tried to kill us all again. We may as well beat them to the punch, right?"

My mom spoke again, "I overheard them talking about progress on some project, but they weren't specific, but I do believe we can go up to floor thirty-four." She turned to the terminal and got the teleporter ready. The three of us stepped in the glass cylinder and after a flash of magic, we stepped off into a tattered and broken room. Broken glass surrounded us accompanied by scorch marks and plenty of dried bones.

I picked my steps toward the door, as did Xeyal. "Guess we aren't going to talk to Willow Sky?" I asked them as my mom teleported to meet us at the door.

She sighed, "He broke out of the cell two days ago after you saved Coffee." She sighed, "I went up there that same day to talk to him and he was gone."

That caught me off guard. "I was out for a full two days?"

Xeyal nodded standing beside me, "yes, you ended up with a fever after that fight."

My mom wore a sad smile and trotted out into the hallway. "I'm just happy you recovered fully. Right, we need to catch some of these ghouls and question them."

The three of us sifted through several offices and collected a healthy stock of food, drink, and other odds and ends. We circled the floor and opted to avoid the laboratory which occupied the center of this floor. The first door we had seen for it was boarded closed and blockaded.

It had taken us a few hours to get through it all. We finally settled in a break room that had a kitchen nook and a bathroom. First thing Xeyal did was close the blinds like she had in every room that looked out over the sundered city. She hadn't said why, but I felt it too. The openness of it all made me dizzy and nauseous.

The room had been emptied out a long time ago, only a bent up can of baked beans was left. My mom had gone about preparing that can of food along with a few others we'd scavenged in a pot on the stove. Xeyal and I munched on a box of old cereal called Sugar Apple Bombs as well as a box of Fancy Buck Cakes. Of course, we saved some of them for the cook.

Xeyal looked from me to Silver Torrent. "Do you two believe that my family will be freed once we succeed?"

I could see that Xeyal's black ears had begun to droop, her eyes focused on her Fancy Buck Cake in front of her. She nudged it with a hoof and I was left without an answer for her. My mom luckily joined us just then, levitating three pairs of spoons and bowls with a pot of vegetarian chili. "I believe freedom will come to your people and some of us pony folk will be able to help maintain the lower floors."

Giving my chin a tap, "so what is the plan you have worked out?" I really needed some clarity on this.

She took a seat and ladled out the food for us. "You see, the weapons are to be secured in security, however, they believe we are all dead. Once this tower is secured, we will have our opportunity, with the help of Espresso Cream and the others, to convince the Overmare to step down from her position and establish proper counsel."

The zebra gave a sigh "I believe this to be well-wished and foolish. Even if Overmare agrees, the ponies will not. The zebra will not either. Without understanding, fighting will break out in time. Even with this tower as a new space, I do not believe peace is achievable in our current state."

I nodded my agreement. "The rift is deeper now than ever before and it's not something that'll be easy to right." I started eating my food while I thought about it. I found myself surprised when Xeyal gave an exotic yet happy little squee as she tasted my mom's cooking.

Mom gave a small chuckle and enjoyed her own bowl. "There is more, eat it while you can."

While we all ate, I decided to turn on my pipbuck's radio. There were a lot of available broadcasts, none of which were from Stable 109. I shrugged and started from the top, which was labeled, 'Riverbase Estuary'.

Static crackled briefly followed by a stallion's deep voice, it sounded rigid and scripted. "To everyone still in Baltimare, we have horrible news. Do not drink the water! Do not touch the water! Do not be near the water!" zztchzz "The bombings have heavily contaminated all water in the ci-" kchtzzzcktzzch "Radiation levels are so high that you will-" zzchk "Message will repeat. To everyone still in Baltimare…"

I changed it to the next station labeled 'SysLink2MWTpublic'. This one had a serious-sounding mare speaking. "City evacuation routes can be found in the metro tunnels. All trains running in the city center have been rerouted to the Ministry of Wartime Technology base north of the city. Please be patient in the stations, please be orderly in the stations, please do not push or shove. All stations will be rerouted to the Ministry of Wartime Technology base north of the city. Repeat Message. City evac-"

I changed it to the next station and continued to eat. This station was labeled 'Emergency!Help!' and it was unintelligible static with a stallion crying and pleading periodically on repeat. I skipped it and went to the next broadcast, 'Classical'. This one offered soothing tones of stringed instruments.

There were only three other options, they were called 'MASEBSBaltimare1' 'HeightsNews', and 'MayhamMall'. I wondered about that last one, so I turned to it.

An old buck sang a song to the tune of a stringed guitar, it had a slow saunter to it, but otherwise wasn't too catchy.

"A storied killer from the far far west,
a living whirlwind in the city of death,
He's a wanderer in a crimson vest,
Here to hunt the hunters' last breath."

I turned the volume down as the old stallion played and continued to eat. It didn't take long for the song to end, it must have been near done when I tuned into it. After a moment of silence, a stallion spoke up; smooth but raspy. "Evening everyone! The time is eight p.m. and another has come to an end."

We all paused and listened in, so I turned up the volume. "To all those ponies with no homes and no caps, if you are good with your gun but need to get better, come on over to the Mayhem Mall. We sell everything you'll ever need and if you are capless, you can participate in our daily festivities, Bullet Brawls." The radio pony took a moment before he continued. "In other news, tensions have been a brewin' amongst the gangs. So if you're traveling, it's recommended that you swing wide and avoid the western suburbs and market street."

After that, the music returned with some fast-pace music. The ponies' vocals were strong and unintelligible growls and scratches. With that I turned to a different channel. "Crappy music." Xeyal chipped in as she refilled her bowl. "This soup is delicious, Silver."

"Thank you, I did the best I could with what we had." Mom answered and I tuned into Heights News on my radio.

A mare was in the midst of a speech. She had an elegant voice and had a certain snooty pitch to it that made me want to change the channel right away, but I didn't. "Trading caravans have been constantly raided heading north-west along the city's outskirts and to any travelers heading that way, we recommend giving Route 505 a wide berth or deal with the raiders there. In other news, The Heights have been looking for any unicorns who are willing to assist in further expansion work. So, do I need a job? Come on up."

With that the transmission switched to slow waltz with piano. I turned it off. "There's only one other station here, the 'MASEBSBaltStat1' station."

"Play it, I don't mind learning more about this city." Silver offered. "So far, we have a ganger brawl pit and trade center called Mayhem Mall, and some community called The Heights and apparently there are trade routes and raiders, well, raiding. We may as well see if this last one is a dead station."

Tuning into the radio station, we caught the last notes of a song before a brief silence. Then the deep silky-smooth voice of a stallion, "Good Evening to all the children of Equestria, this is DJ Pon3 here to give you the good news. As many of you already know, the Equestrian Wasteland is a very dangerous place. Between the beasts and the baddies, you're likely to pass through some radiation or even taint in some places. Don't let that get to you though, just be sure you have Rad Away. Yeah, I know what you may be thinking, 'that orange stuff that tastes like brahmin dung?' You would be wise to drink it anyway, because it might save you from a slow and probably painful death."

He gave a small cough for emphasis. "Now, fillies and gentlecolts, if you happen upon a place where you think the radiation levels are high, you might feel severely sick rather quickly. In which case, you'll either go through all your Rad Away very fast, or you could just get the hell away from there. So be careful if you're scavenging and avoid any place with radiation signs or barrels of radioactive materials. That's all from me for now. Be safe and fight the good fight everyone."

The seductive pony voice chuckled, "Oh! One last thing. I want to give a big thank you to the small group of ponies who have been taking out raider nests along the south side of Manehatten. Now for some of Sweetie Belle's classics."

With that the soft sounds of a piano began to play, accompanied by the sad soft voice of a mare. I turned it off at that point.

We sat in silence for what I could only guess was an eternity. We all finished eating, the clanking of our dishes the only sounds in the dusty room. Xeyal broke our vigil. "I have to ask you a question, Glimmer."

I waited for the question, but her silence made me realize she was waiting for permission, "sure." I said, wondering why the security pony hesitated.

Xeyal gave a nod, "Did Coffee Bean assist you with those ghouls that ambushed the two of you?"

Her question gave me a chill as I remembered it. "No."

She and Silver shared a look. Silver spoke up, "The office you were in was completely destroyed. How did you escape that?"

I opened my mouth to answer but failed to answer right away. Chewing on my cheek, I thought about this and realized the two of them had both gone back up there while I was out. "I teleported."

My mom smiled, while Xeyal nodded. "I'll assume then that you alone took down all those ghouls. You know, that is actually scary."

Okay… "I was stressed, hung over, and when I saw those grenades fly through the door…" I felt tears in my eyes. "I wanted to get him out of there, but I couldn't. So, I had to get rid of them, so I could get him safe."

My mom tapped a hoof on the table drawing my attention. "You did what you could and for that he will live. I don’t know if he’ll regrow his coat, but he’s in one piece and breathing. You provided sufficient medical attention to stabilize him until he could get to the infirmary.” She gave a small sigh. “I looked him over immediately upon your arrival. From what I could tell, you would have had to attend to his burns within minutes of that explosion or he would have bled out. I can’t imagine how you managed that.”

I felt a numbness tingling my hooves. “It wasn’t an easy fight.”

“You took a shotgun blast, in full, to your hip and flank, and from the direction of how it hit you, you had managed to avoid taking that to the chest at close range.” My mom told me. “I know, I had to dig the beads out.” She looked at me and took a breath. “You’ve always been quiet, but I never would have guessed you to be good in combat. It surprised the two of us is all.”

I shrugged. “Let’s change the topic, please?” I was getting tired of this and this tower by conjunction. “Are we going to see what’s in that laboratory?”

Xeyal frowned. “That room has four entrances and all four of them are boarded up and barricaded from the outside. I, for one, do not want to explore that room.”

My mom shook her head. “I vouch we note it for later. We haven’t seen any ghouls here and we really need to find them.” She opened up one of her Fancy Buck cakes and ate it before stowing the other two in her bag. After that she went and laid down on the couch. “I think we should rest for now, while we have a safe space.”

I gave a yawn, “Sleep does sound good.”

Xeyal gave a sigh, “I suppose that means I’ve got first watch.”

I walked over to an adjacent couch to where my mom already slept. “Sounds good, night!” Watching her reaction made me chuckle. Despite the zebra’s best efforts to maintain a stoic demeanor.

Her jaw hung for a moment before she gave a smile and a snort. “Sleep well, you will have the next watch.”

My little triumphant grin floundered. “Fine,” I tossed a hoof toward my mom, it just flopped against the front of the couch, “She needs the sleep anyway.” It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep at that point. I watched Xeyal sitting at the table, she’d taken to cleaning it off. I heard her gently put the dishes in the sink before returning to the table. At this point I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, my full belly making me pretty tired. I could still hear her as she, I’d guess, set about checking her weapons over.

I was gently nudged awake and I blinked away the dreamless rest I had. Looking up at Xeyal, she gave a weary smile. "It is your watch, trade me spots, please."

Giving a yawn, I nodded and begrudgingly stepped off my warm couch. Turning about, I saw the zebra had already taken my spot. She only wore her blue and gold stable jumpsuit, the rest of her gear rested against the couch front. "Get some good rest."

She gave me an "uh-huh" while yawning. I went about regearing myself and walked over to the table, opening my inventory sorter. Withdrawing all the weapons I'd collected and laying them out on the table, I figured it would be wise to study them. Once everything was out and sorted, I had three 9mm, a six-shot .45 revolver, and a combat shotgun. I also had most recently picked up a combat knife from one of the offices.

I emptied out all the munitions and inspected each of the guns. All of them were in relatively good shape. I went about fully reloading the spare clips and reloading one of the three 9mm pistols. Out of the three, I chose the one that had been modified. Its handle had been etched on and had an extended barrel.

Unfortunately, with at least another three hours to go, I put everything away and began pacing. Willow had said there were about fifty of them left. Maybe thirty or so of them were left.

I stopped my pacing and sat down still pondering on how many ghouls may actually side with us. I was unknowingly watching the two of them sleeping. I sighed and turned the radio on, choosing to listen in on DJ Pon3's station. It was playing more of Sweetie Bloom's music. I found it to be peaceful, despite her song being a sad one.

I laid down and waited as song after song played, listening and waiting. Just waiting. It was after the fourth song began that I decidedly stood and paced about again. That's it, I hate waiting around.

With nothing to do, I sat at the table and fiddled with my pipbuck. I opened up the map and was pleasantly surprised by it. Now it showed a map labeled 'Baltimare' and at my location it showed an icon that was labeled 'MAS: Baltimare Hub'. Zooming out, I found that 'The Heights', 'Mayhem Mall', and 'MWT Base' were labeled as well. We weren't actually too far from The Heights. It was about a mile or two west of us, still in the city center.

Zooming out even further, I could see that the city of Manehatten had been labeled and resided to the north of Baltimare. Highway 505 was labeled and was a winding road that seemed to connect the two cities. Everything else was just a dark shade of blue with no distinguishable detail.

I switched away from the map to my inventory, and with a bit of sadness, I'd realized I only had one book with me. The Big Book of Arcane Science. I pulled that out and flipped open to my bookmark, I was on chapter 9 labeled, Magical Barriers and Spells that Heal.

I went about reading the chapter, I reread the chapter once I'd finished. It was mostly out of habit and by the time I finished my second reading it was time to wake my mom for her watch. As much as I wanted to let her sleep, this break room only had two couches.

I put my book away and stood, I sauntered over to Silver and gave her a gentle shake. "Mom," When she grumbled and repositioned, I pressed against her charcoal shoulder again. "Mom, wake up."

This time she slowly came to and shook off her dreams. "Wha- what time is it?"

"It's your turn to watch." I told her. "I'm ready to get a bit more rest."

She stood on the couch and stretched out like a cat with a big yawn. "Fine, fine. I'll put on some tea."

"We don't have any." I thought aloud. I had already sifted through the cabinets and hadn't seen anything.

She gave a small chuckle as she got her gear on. "I found some a while ago as well as a kettle. I always have tea." She gave me a glance over her shoulder with a clever smirk. "You get some rest, hon."

With that, I took her warm spot and smiled to myself. I hadn't bothered to take my stuff off; I just didn't see the point in it. Taking a deep breath, I recognized her scent and it brought back memories as I fell asleep.

Waking up to the sound of gunfire wasn't ideal, but it did the trick. Both I and Xeyal bolted off our couches, almost bumping into each other. We shared a look and then shared a glance at the open door of the break room. "Get ready." I told her as I drew my 9mm semi-automatic pistol. It levitated close to my side, pointed at the floor and I flipped the safety off.

Moving to the door, I poked my head out and heard two more shots ring out, followed by a ghoulish screech.

I swiftly moved out and down the hallway and rounding the nearest corner I almost ran into my mom's tail. She was creeping along close to the wall and didn't look back at me. I rounded about to the opposite side of the hall and caught a glance of what she was stalking toward. Up ahead a unicorn ghoul in a lab coat and both his hind legs were blue and frozen solid, a spot on the floor not far behind him was also coated in frost surrounding a bullet hole.

Looking over at Silver Torrent I saw that she had Snow Crisps pistol, Temptation. She held it in her magic and held it firmly before her as she kept him in its sight. She wore an expression of complete focus as she stocked slowly forward. I for one found it a little unnerving.

The ghoul hastily trying to escape opened a door and dragged himself inside, as soon as he rounded the corner, Silver vanished and reappeared in the doorway, stopping it from closing with her gun, then she shoved it back open with the barrel. "Damn, she's scary." I muttered running over to catch up to her. Entering the room behind her, I focused my pistol on the ghoul that was curling up in the middle of the office.

"She was spying on us." Mom told me before I could ask, "Who sent you and what do you all want of us?"

The ghoul was looking up at her as she hugged her frosty legs. In a shaken and broken voice, "I- I sh-should… be asking you that! W-we, t-the ghouls here he-have to protect our ho-ome…" Her teeth chattered and the fear in her eyes made me feel for the mare.

I put my pistol away. "For now, you're staying with us, but we can't have you running off right now." Just then Xeyal came in behind us and the mare immediately began pushing herself away from us.

"Th-they said y-ou worked with the zebra! Th-ey were r-r-right! Yo-our all m-monsters!" She got into octaves that were starting to hurt my ears.

I sighed and my mom had put her pistol away. She walked over to the ghoul and used her magic to knock the frightened mare out. "We need some fire to thaw her hindlegs."

Xeyal and I set about building a small fire in a metal waste basket. Laying the ghoul out beside it with her legs nearest the fire. I looked over at my mom once and we had nothing to do but wait for her to awake. "How did you freeze her?"

Silver pulled out Snow's pistol and levitated it between us. "It surprised me. Apparently, there is a spell imbued into the barrel that enchants bullets as they are fired."

"Huh, nifty pistol." I chortled. "Once she's awake, she'll be able to move around freely. Shouldn't we tie her hooves?"

"No. Xeyal, stay in front of the door and lock it." Silver told us as she set about magically removing the bullets and dousing the holes with a healing potion. It didn't take long for the frost to melt away, but she would still probably be numb for a bit.

I watched the holes close themselves and watched as her horn began to glow. She touched her horn to the ghouls' head and the ghoul stirred, scrunching her ragged facial features. Opening her glowing eyes and rubbing her head she propped herself up on her other foreleg. "What happened… I was…" At that point she swiftly leapt away from the two of us searching for an escape route. Then, she paused suddenly.

She stretched her back legs one after the other. At that point she sat and looked at them, then at us, and the fire in the can. "You shot me then healed me? I'm a ghoul, why aren't you scared?"

I pulled out my pistol and held it in my magic, aimed at the floor. "You're an odd one, aren't you?"

The ghoul mare reached a hoof into her pocket and pulled out a small rectangular box. Opening it, she put on a set of glasses then returned the box to her pocket. She was taking deeper breaths, trying to keep calm as she assessed her situation then with a huff, she deflated and sat down, back to the desk. "You caught me."

"No duh." I told her as I walked forward and sat in front of her. "You might be getting my hopes up…" I muttered quietly before addressing her again. "Why were you spying on us and how did you know where we were?"

The ghoul looked from me to Silver and back. "I was told to. We have access to the camera systems and some of them don't trust you stable dwellers. I for one don't care. I just want to keep being me and living here. It's been my home since the day the bombs fell."

I exhaled feeling better, I stowed my pistol. and sat down closer to the ghoulish mare. Ignoring her rotten smell, I gave her a smile. "Hey, hey. There's no reason to fear us. None of us want to hurt you, and we never wanted to hurt your friends. Now, what's your name?"

The mare visibly relaxed and answered my question with her own. "It's impolite to ask that without offering your own name first. What's yours?"

Scrunching my nose, I waved Xeyal over. "I'm Glimmer Stone."

My mom spoke up and waved, "Doctor Silver Torrent."

Xeyal didn't speak or wave, decidedly maintaining her silence. That made the ghoul just repeatedly tossing her sideways glances. Hesitantly, she introduced herself. "My name is Misty Grace, but everyone just calls me Grace

"Okay Grace. I have a few questions for you, because I want to end this conflict and we don't want to displace you all." I paused for a moment to think before continuing. "Do all the ghouls here hate us for living in the Stable?"

She gave a small sigh, "Maybe half, if not more. You all came up here outta nowhere and started killing us off. Seventeen of us, to my count." She gave a small pause, "I just want to live peacefully… Fulsome Quibble insists that you don't belong here. He's the one that wants you all dead."

I was about to speak when Mom cut in. "We were only defending ourselves. We weren't given any other options."

The ghoul gave a slow nod, "Not all of us agree with Fulsome's assessment. Personally, I believe we need more ponies here, this place used to employ almost two thousand ponies."

I gave my mom a glance, she looked back at me and gave a shrug, saying "eh," then she looked back to Misty Grace. "Do you want to help us then? I'm sorry I shot you."

The mare gently kicked a hind hoof as if it were wet. "I wish I could, but I was sent as a scout. this floor's labratory is dangerous so none of us come here. It's probably still in containment and thanks to you returning power to all systems, it's safer now than before."

Xeyal asked the question that burned my mane, "what is in there and how is it contained?"

Grace dipped her head, what bits of mane she had fell to block her eyes. "It's a test subject." Looking back up at us. "Just… Just stay out of there and it won't be able to harm you. There are dozens of laboratories in this tower and most of them are extremely dangerous. Each one has specific interaction protocols. We've had a few break loose over the years and its never gone well. Please be careful nosing about and stay out of the labs."

I took note of that. I tapped a hoof on the floor as I thought. In the meantime, Xeyal clicked her tongue twice, drawing all eyes to her. "I assume they knew which floor we are on. Who sent you to us and what were their instructions? Was it this Fulsome guy?"

She vigorously shook her head for a moment. "No, no, no. Fulsome isn't foolish, He's been watching all of you and saw the supplies and weapons your other group took with them. He was surprised when she took down five of his fighters on her own." She waved a hoof at me in the most nonchalant way possible. "I was sent by a friend of mine. She told me to get caught, but she wanted to know why you all came here."

Xeyal and my mom both looked at me sharing the same questionable look. "What?"

Xeyal went back to watching Grace. "Do continue, please."

Grace gave one curt nod. "Well, Fulsome has other ways to kill off the entire stable indirectly, and I haven't a clue how he plans to go about that. Only that he does plan to." She paused, shifting her weight from side to side, she looked ready to faint, but she continued. "Look, I have to go back to floor forty-two, that floor doesn't have a lab and is a security floor. It's got a teleporter and is the highest floor any of us can access. Only Fulsome himself has access to any floor above it."

My mom chortled, "sweetie, you are quite a talkative one, aren't you?"

That made the ghoul bulk and bite her breath. Xeyal chuckled, "We thank you for the assistance. Well, you may as well relay our purpose here."

I waited for her to continue, just watching the ghoul intently for any reactionary expressions… My mom feigned a cough into her wrist, and Xeyal flicked my flank with her tail. My blood pressure suddenly jumped, and not because of that tail flick.

Looking back and forth between them, I put a hoof to my chest, "Me? Why do I gotta explain a thing?"

My mom immediately smacked her forehead with a hoof and held it there as she shook her head. "Just explain to her what's going on…"

"But that's a thing I don't fully understand!" My complaint fell on deaf ears. My head fell back and gave an exasperated grumble. Looking back at the ghoulish mare, "Fine." I attempted to rattle it off as quick as I could, "The systems of the stable have been over-taxed for several years now, leading to whole sections suffering from power surges which in turn have been causing key functionality to become compromised. The surges have been popping talismans left and right, causing issues all across the facility and putting good ponies and zebras at serious risk."

I paused briefly to take a breath and continued, "The blackouts have been becoming more frequent but have only been affecting systems, leaving some ponies none the wiser, however as these blackouts continue to happen, we've been burning through supplies much quicker than before and our reserves have finally hot a critical low, so in essence, we needed to restock supply and figure out what was causing power cuts throughout the stable. We've done that by turning off the hub's magical shield generator and restored the primary power generators as well as lifted the emergency security protocols."

I took a deep breath and continued again. "Now, I don't believe the Overmare actually wants to reclaim the Hub. She would rather keep the stable safe and her security ponies having more weapons and ammunition means she can now enforce stricter rules. Weapons weren't something we previously had a lot of."

Silver Torrent took over following my spiel. "Correction, weapons aren't something we have a lot left of. Most security just have botons now. The previous Overmare had all weapons destroyed after a stable wide…" My mom paused for a moment searching for a word, "...dispute. As for what she'll do with them is beyond us currently, but we're not really fans of hers."

Xeyal looked over her shoulder. "We should let you return now. Time isn't something we can waste. Please speak with those who wish not to kill us. We must secure our homes future."

With that, Misty Grace stood and started walking toward us, the three of us parted to give her room. She paused and glanced over at me. "I will talk to the others; we may be able to take care of those who side with Fulsome. Thank you for the clarity."

Feeling a bit dumbfounded, I gave a simple nod and watched the ghoul go. Xeyal was across from Silver and me. "I agree with you, Silver. She does underestimate her own capability."

Footnote:
Level Up! Lv. 5
Perk unlocked - Reader's Digest
You can read more than just books.
+1 Charisma
+50% chance to reroll a failed speech check.