Fallout Equestria: Baltimare Heights

We hadn't let the time pass us by. Xeyal, mom and I had taken the elevator back down to the ground floor reception hall and were waiting for nightfall. Outside was a dull golden green fog thick enough to obscure everything beyond the glass. "I think this will work out. Mom and I will head up and try talking to them once you're gone."

Xeyal stood as tall as ever, I had given her the extra pistol I had. "I look forward to making my report to the elders. I'm sure they have anticipation built by now."

"You will radio me and update us once you have, correct?" Mom asked her in a concise tone.

Xeyal dipped her head slowly but wore her usual nonchalant stoicism. "Of course I will. I do hope no one takes notice of me. I worry that security may be higher now, now that the ghouls' presence is known."

Looking out the windows, I spoke slowly at first. "So, Grace told us which floor to go to, hopefully to regroup and convince the ghouls we are needed here as much as they are." I groaned knowing this wouldn't be easy. I'll probably get shot again… I just know it's coming. So long as mom's okay, this will work? I think this will work… It's got to!

I gave a soft sigh, "I hope you'll be okay, Xeyal. Please contact us as quickly as you can."

The tall zebra trotted over to me, promptly sat and pulled me into a surprise hug. "I'll be okay. You, however, are reckless. Be careful and listen to your mother. She has far more experience than you expect."

I dumbly nodded, my chin barely above her shoulder. "I can do that." I mumbled.

As soon as she let me go, I stumbled back to all fours and my mom chuckled a little. "Twelve hours." she told Xeyal. Silver looked out the windows from near the teleporter room's door. "I think we're good to go, it's almost 9:00pm so the guard shift should be switching soon."

With that, all of us moved into the teleporter room, I spectated as mom got the system started up and Xeyal got ready to go back. She had the stealth cloak readied to be put on. She smiled and waved, both of us waved back.

Just before she disappeared, I saw her toss the cloak over herself and she was gone. I looked over to see my mom quickly shutting down the systems. "We have to move quick now, and we don't want anyone using this so I'm going to override the door lock once we're out."

I nodded; feeling the gravity of our situation settle over us like a blanket. Once she was done the two of us made our way back out of the room. Mom paused and turned back to the keycard lock. Plugging her pipbuck into she got to work. "I'm adding a layer of encryption that will require my pipbuck to unlock this door. Since it's the only teleporter here that connects to the stable."

Once she had finished, she turned to me, an almost sad look about her. It prompted a "What?" from me.

She sighed, averting her gaze to the windows behind me. "It's nothing," she told me as she started toward the elevator. I joined her just as she called it down. "You know the rebellion that took place all those years ago? I was secretly working with the zebras on that. The elders needed my expertise and I freely helped for the sake of the stable."

She sighed and the doors opened in front of us. We stepped in side by side, and she pressed the button and the doors closed. "Your father and I were in love. True, it had been forbidden for as long as the stable's had a population, but that was just a stupid rule to us. Now though, I wish my heart could have found someone else..."

I could see tears streaming down her cheek and dripping from her chin. "We love who we love, and nothing should get in the way of that…" she pressed on, stopping only to give a sharp inhale. "You see, if it weren't for my love for your dad, I wouldn't have you and you looked so much like him as a foal… You have no idea."

She readied Temptation and that prompted me to ready my .45mm revolver, stow it and opt for the combat shotgun. Double checking my magazine. Still full. "Mom, I'm not mad about it. We went over all this just the other night, didn't we?"

She sniffled and began drying her eyes. "True… but I just…" she stopped and inhaled deeply then slowly released the breath. "Okay. Try not to kill any of them if they don't attack first. We have to find Misty Grace first and foremost."

Watching the lights count up and feeling the elevator slow I readied my shotgun. "They probably know we're on our way. I'll guess there to be thirty or forty left. probably two-thirds of them want us all dead."

Mom didn't reply as the elevator came to a stop. The doors opened to reveal an empty hallway, so we slowly peeked out into the hallway. Nothing. Shit.

I looked back to see my mom almost mimic my head turn. Her eyes had a stillness to them, a piercing gaze. There was an almost spooky calmness about her. She gave a quick tilt of her head and started moving down the hallway as quiet as a cat. I followed her trying to keep my hoof falls as quiet as hers. It didn't work.

We went just far enough to dip into the first office we came across, closing the door behind us. Looking at her, "Didn't she say they occupy the laboratory on this floor and that Fulsome guy stays up on floor thirty-two?" Maybe everyone on this floor may be friendly then.

"Yes," she started as she searched about the office space. "I have a sneaking suspicion that the ghouls occupy several different floors in smaller groups."

Without much luck in the way of food or drink, we moved back into the hallway and found our way to the next office. We didn't speak, simply dug through the office and found some Fancy Buck cakes and a few really old bottles of water. We took the time to eat and drink before moving onward. One office only offered a bloodstained window and some ammunition for the gun near a unicorn skeleton. Another office had a vault with several boxes of different well-preserved foods, as well as some ammo. allowed us to overhear the ghouls inside. On my EFS I could see several little yellow orbs appear along my compass, I could assume she saw that as well. I moved my weapon out of view and kept it vertical beside the door. Mom did the same, keeping Temptation close to her side and out of potential view.

Pushing the doors fully open, we took in the view. The laboratory was a large open space, along the walls and in the rooms, corners were several computers that were connected to large glowing cylinders filled with some kind of liquid. Along the walls were also several cabinets and stations for everything from washing things to washing ponies. Throughout the room were several long tables equipped with all sorts of science-y stuff. Everything just seemed too clean in here.

The ghouls in the room were maintaining the centerpiece of this lab, a large tree that seemed to be growing rainbow apples. Several apples were laid out across worktables, some sliced up, others being tested with various methods. One of the ghouls finally took notice of us and gave a screech, drawing the attention of others. “Dwellers! Protect the tree!” Several of the ghouls scrambled to find weapons, one levitated several scalpels, another had a pistol, but the rest opted for blunt objects, just caught completely unprepared for a fight.

This would be easy… I thought briefly before dropping back onto my haunches and waving both hooves before me in a frantic display. “Wooh! Now hang on there, we didn’t know there was a tree here!”

Silver Torrent gave an audible sigh, mimicking my positioning, weapons floating behind us. Her hooves went up nice and easy. “She’s a bumbling fool, if you can’t tell. We’re alone and we came looking for one of your ghouls. She offered to help us with a problem, and we were hoping she would be here.” All the tension washed away and all the dots on my compass changed back to red and then back to yellow. Except for one which remained red. The ghoul with the scalpels walked toward us as the rest gathered nearby. I was just happy that the one with the pistol was yellow for now.

“What’s your purpose? Who are you looking for?” His voice was rough, but I ignored that. Mom put her hooves down and I followed suit.

We both sat in the doorway side by side, none of these ghouls appeared to recognize us, and considering that reaction… Maybe Grace had spoken with these ponies? “We aren’t here to take any of this from you, and we aren’t evil, please can we speak without weapons?” Silver’s calm voice was warm yet measured.

With that, the last red dot turned yellow and the leading ghoul put down his tools, following his lead the other six ghouls began putting their makeshift weapons back. “Fine, now who are you and why are you here?”

“Straight to the point then?” Mom gave him a smile. “Are you the leader here?”

“No, I’m not,” he answered.

I sighed, “I’m Glimmer Stone and this is my mom, Silver Torrent. We are from the stable, but right now. Your turn, who are you and are you in a senior position here?” I had tried to measure my words to make them authoritative and strong, I wasn’t wanting to intimidate, but I wanted to offer him the respect he probably deserved.

He gave a smirk, er, at least what he could consider a smirk. He was missing a cheek after all… and an eye… He looks deader than the other ghouls… “You two got some guts.” He told us, waving a hoof and the other ghouls dispersed, returning to their work. “Look, we can go to one of the offices and talk there. If this turns sour, I don’t want this lab damaged. Got it?”

“Works for us, but before we go, who are you?” I asked him.

“Major Starsail. I was here when the tower went on lockdown. Now, let’s go.” He paused and magicked off his lab coat revealing a blue uniform with medals dangling from his breast.

I saw mom’s eyes go wide for a moment before she turned and left the room. I turned and followed her. The doors closed for a brief moment, allowing us to bag our guns before the major stepped out behind us. “I need a drink.” he said, stopping us in our tracks. He trotted between us with a wave of rotten meat washing off him, making me gag a little. “This way. I keep a stash in one of the offices on this floor.”

I accidently gave a burst of laughter and levitated out an open bottle of Wild Pegasus. “Was this yours?”

He stared at the bottle for a long time before nodding. “I see. You’re a thief.” he sighed and continued walking. “I want that back.” He told me but made no move to take the bottle. The two of us followed him back to the office I’d taken the bottles from. Once we were all in the room, he levitated a trio of glasses from a nearby drawer and sat them on the desk.

I took the Wild Pegasus out and filled the three cups before leaving the bottle on the desk for him. “I didn’t know it belonged to anyone, sorry for taking your booze.”

“You’re alright,” he laughed. “I found all the glasses and all those bottles in offices down on the thirtieth floor.” the ghoul took one of the glasses in his magic and levitated it to him. Taking a big drink before continuing. “Being what I am now, alcohol doesn’t have much effect anymore, but I do still remember what it was like all those years ago. Tastes better now too.”

Mom and I both took our glasses and I sipped at mine. Mom just held hers nearby and posed a question, “Major Starsail, you said you were trapped here, right? What’s kept you here?”

He swirled the drink in his glass. “I’ve actually been patiently waiting for your stable to open. The teleporter downstairs was locked from the stable side and so no one could access it until someone came out of there.” He paused for a moment, taking a drink. “You see, I know the city has a lot of secrets and this tower holds a majority of them. This was my last official station and I intend to protect it until I die. I understand that the two of you represent your stable, so I need to ask a few questions.”

I balked but my mom took a sip of her drink and smiled at him. “Yes, we do Major, and we’re thankful you came along. We spoke with a mare named Misty Grace, she said she was sent to keep an eye on us. Was she reporting to you?”

He nodded. “That she was, and she reported to me that you two might come along. My question is simple. How many are in the stable and how adept is the population after all these years?”

I knew this one. “There are currently six hundred and twelve residents in the stable, we’ve followed protocols and maintained a high enough mechanical and historical intelligence to understand our situation. About a third of that population are zebras and the majority of ponies are unicorns. There are plenty of earth ponies there as well. Unfortunately, the Overmare’s of recent have implemented some detrimental policies that we have been forced to maintain.”

Silver Torrent cocked an eyebrow at me for a split second before giving her attention back to the Major. “She’s correct.”

"I, uh... I don't have many friends so I studied the stable a lot," I told them sheepishly.

He seemed to think about that, letting time pass slowly as he drank and refilled his glass. “I see. The current Overseer, are they tyrannical by nature?”

I couldn’t answer, having never actually spoken with her, so I and the Major both looked to Silver for an answer. She cleared her throat, “if she is, she hides it well. Overall, I believe she’s overly cautious and willing to swing her power at anything that threatens her position or her order. She does allow for a good amount of freedom and her policies do carry weight in protecting all of us and maintaining a high standard for the facility as a whole. Her motto is maintaining and endure, so I suppose she’s just doing her job the best way she believes she can. Granted she inherited the position from her mother who was racist and fairly open about it. She does drink, despite having a ban on alcohol production and consumption.” She paused for a moment, placing a hoof to her chin in thought, “I only know this because I’m her doctor,” she added quickly. “That being said, she does show more competence than her mother ever did, so I’ll go with, no. She’s not a tyrant, but I don’t think she’ll be open to any sort of change in her status quo.”

Major Starsail nodded along and sipped at his second drink, making it last a little longer. “Are there any chances that she could be swayed?”

She furrowed her brow and stared down at the floor in thought. “...Maybe…” She looked over at me and I just shrugged my indifference. “Depending on what she’s being swayed from and to, I’d suppose it would be possible if it’s for the good of the stable. We have a population separation issue down there that will be resolved one way or another. She’s not a fan of zebras but she knows how necessary they are.”

He looked back and forth between us. “Do either of you think the stable population would be willing to maintain the MAS Hub’s stability and directives?”

I spoke first, “I believe we need to reclaim access to this place. While I’m unsure what the extent of this hub holds, we are still a part of it, and we shouldn’t be seen as outsiders. We’ve been here as long as you have and with the right direction, many of our ponies and zebras are capable of carrying on our ancestors' work.”

The Major stood and walked around the desk, I could see he still had his cutie mark, it was a pair of teddy bears hugging. It made me snicker a little and provoked a glare from him. “What’s funny?”

Waving a hoof and shaking my head, I declined to answer him. “Moving on, how many ghouls here are on your side? From what Grace had told us, this Fulsome guy has other plans for the experiments here and shouldn’t be trusted.”

“That’s true. There are currently thirty-nine ghouls left here now and only eleven of those have chosen to side with me behind Fulsome’s tail. We’re outnumbered but not outgunned, the issue at hoof is that several of those scientists that have chosen to follow Fulsome’s lead have the knowledge and the know-how of what this tower holds and hides. We can’t allow them to leave, not that they want to, but if worse comes to worse, they either need to be dead or on our side.”

Mom spoke up from beside me, her glass nearly empty now. “What’s the plan you’ve got then? How do we sway them to our side? I’d rather make allies and be absolutely sure that the stable population will be safe.”

“Well, many of them just want to secure the tower. They treat this place and the contents of it as a sacred place. Ever since you’ve turned the power back on, we’ve had someone staged and watching the front doors. That shield protected us from a lot of the danger this city can offer and the last thing we need is raiders storming in here. I believe we can persuade them towards cooperation.” The Major’s voice was like gravel, but his tone was like bedrock. He seemed sure of this.

“Then we shouldn’t dottle. We have a timeline to keep.” I said feeling confident that we’d be able to make this work. “You go back to that lab of yours and convince the other ghouls there not to fear us. Silver and I will go wherever you need us to go. If they attack us, we will win but we will try to offer peace first.”

“To that point, you’ll need to go two floors up. Use the stairs, the elevator is guarded.” With that he added, “Give me back all my drink?” he asked with a smirk.

Rolling my eyes, I saw mom snickering into her fetlock. “Fine…” Out of my bag levitated six bottles of various shapes and sizes. I lined them out on the desk before turning to leave. “Keep us in the loop, let Grace know we’ve spoken with you, Major.”

“Once we’re ready, we will use the elevator and join you up there, so go slow. I want to be there first.” His voice spoke volumes for his planning. “Don’t stop on the floor above us. It’s a dangerous one.”

Silver answered before I could, “Noted, my daughter and I don’t have the time or ammunition to waste. Let’s go already.”

That got us a hearty laugh from him. “Alright then. Thank you for not killing us on sight.”

We passed by a door that had been nailed shut, blasted with a blowtorch, melting the door in place and for an extra measure, someone had at some point brought a desk all the way up to this floor's landing and left it pushed up against the door. Coming up to the door for the floor we needed, we both readied our weapons. “All set. No EFS notice.”

“Shouldn't we have some yellow or red pips by now?” I asked her, feeling a little on edge. I wasn’t ready to get shot at again.

“I don’t know, I figured the same. Quiet time, come on.” She opened the door, and we entered the hall and quietly made our way through them. As we were checking the office, we came across one that was in absolute shambles. Everything was burnt. Near the door I picked up the nameplate that once sat upon the desk that was now sitting awkwardly against a display case. The name was illegible, and the offices were shredded by some sort of explosive years ago. Across all the offices we checked we hadn’t stumbled upon a single ghoul. Which means they're all probably in the laboratory.

"So what now?" I asked Silver. "We can't just go straight into the lab. Besides, wasn't Major Starsail supposed to meet us here?"

She shook her head. "Perhaps something else demanded his attention." She put her hoof to her chin as she did the math. "How many of those ghouls had you killed?"

I didn't want to think about it, I gave a little grumble and looked at the scorched floor. "Between Xeyal and I… maybe ten?"

She nodded. "Before you saved us, we had killed eight and then after that, there were another seven. I think that leaves maybe twelve or thirteen hostile ghouls."

"mhm," I had guesstimate that too. "Think that's why we haven't seen any? the Major seemed fairly sure they'd be here."

Swaying a bit, she stood and started out the door. "I bet it's a trap. We can't just walk in there. Let's go."

I felt the exhaustion and gave a little yawn. Shaking it off, I followed her out into the hall. "So, what do we do?"

"Well, I have a plan." She told me as I struggled to keep up with her. "They know we're coming, but we can make it more difficult for them to know where from." At that moment she shot a camera that protrude from the ceiling. It froze over before exploding with a shower of sparks.

"Ah…" I mused for a moment, paused and began to trot back the way I'd come. I popped another camera and then another in the corner of the hall. It took some time but by the time we regrouped, I'd taken out a further five cameras including one by the entrance to two of the lab's doors.

"Got them all?" She questioned knowing the answer. She was more focused on reloading her pistol. I did the same before pulling out the matching 9mm semi-automatic I had. Making sure both were full, I let her know I was ready. "Good. Be ready and follow my lead."

"Okay," I told her as I wondered how this would go. I watched a small canister with a pair of yellow bands float out of her saddlebag.

Just then a large bullet ripped through the metal door and tore through the air between our heads. Dropping to the floor in a panic, my heart nearly stopped. I looked over to see that mom had also dropped. We shared the same surprised expression just as two more high caliber rounds tore through the pair of doors.

Warning shots? I thought as I shuffled toward the wall. I used my magic to open the doors. As they opened, I watched her pitch the yellow ribbon grenade into the room. "Close your eyes!" she shouted.

I did so, hearing some ponies cry out in pain as it detonated, I could catch the inklings of the flash of blinding light. "Now!" I heard her say just as she jumped to hooves and raced around the corner. I followed quickly and tried to take in the layout of the laboratory. The pair of us found shelter behind a long lab desk.

In that brief view, I had seen a large cylinder filled with glowing liquid took up the center portion of the room, tons of conduits and large cables running out of it and connecting to a semi-circle of machinery around it. As well as a series of chemical worktables and storage units lined the walls as well as in between the machinery and the walls. Some giant grotesque looking thing bobbed in that tube with dozens of wires and tubes connected to it.

I watched as Silver peeked around the end of the table with her pistol at the ready. Two shots rang from it before she pulled back. "One down, only eleven to go."

I gave a reassuring nod and jumped to my hooves, triggering SATS. I saw one stallion swinging that massive rifle my way in slow motion. Taking aim with both pistols, I focused one shot from each on his head. The spell told me that I low chance of hitting with either shot, so I toggled in a third shot before releasing the spell.

I ducked back down as soon as the shots were taken. Lucky had I because the metal door of the cabinet I sat in front of took four rounds all at once. "Dunno if I got him." I said to no one. She had apparently taken that opportunity to reposition herself.

I heard another shot and saw a stray red dot disappear from my compass. I peeked around the corner of my cover to see a shotgun almost against my muzzle, just then the head behind it turned to ice and the gun fell to the floor. A cold chill ran down my back, that could have been really bad.

Keeping low, I dashed across a gap before popping up again to take aim at a pair of ghouls closest to me, I took aim and fired twice, once from each pistol. One missed and shattered a beaker on the table behind them, but the other bullet hit its mark. The ghoul I hit reeled back on two legs before dropping back to all four and glaring at me. My bullet had caught him in the bottom of his nose. He inhaled sharply and spat a bloody loogie while his companion lifted a hoof and leaned away from him. "Dude," she told him the tune of disgust. "Gross."

A bullet imbedded itself in my shoulder and the explosion of pain sent me toppling to the floor. A ghoul stepped around the corner, chuckling to himself. "Got'chya," he told me as he approached. "We needed some fresh unicorn."

I watched as his head froze over as a bullet passed through his temples. I scrambled back to my hooves and saw that the two I had been focused on had taken cover. "Damnit!" I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore my shoulder, but every step hurt like hell.

Making my way around the outside of the room, I spotted the dull and dirty tail of ghoul barely sticking out past the edge of table. With as much swiftness as I could muster, I rounded the corner with both pistols trained on the pair I had previously shot. The one I had missed was using a pair of tweezers to remove the bullet from the others nostril. She turned to me with a panicked look but otherwise didn't move.

After my hesitation she insisted, "Just shoot already!" The ghoul under her just grunted his agreement. He couldn't answer due to literally having a hoof in his mouth.

I lowered my guns. "Only if you try to kill me first." I fished out a healing potion and sat it on the floor next to them. "I'm sorry about that." I told him before I went about my way continuing on along the wall. On my compass I could see two overlapping yellows as well as four remaining red dots.

I heard the sound of a pair of doors being thrown open. Looking up and across the room, I could see two of the ghouls galloping away. A moment later I saw my move dodge around the corner and disappear through the closing doors. That left two. I out the pair of 9mm pistols away and pulled out the revolver. I knew where they were, so I quickly made my way forward and found myself almost nose to nose with a ghoul mare who had that big rifle levitating beside her.

I hit SATS as quick I could. Seeing the surprise dance across her face was almost priceless and since my revolver was in front of me, I found it directly below her chin. I took aim and twice. Releasing the spell, the top of her head exploded twice, and the rifle hit the floor. I nosed the rifle shoulder sash and swung the gun onto my back. "And then there was one!" I shouted.

That last red dot turned yellow on my compass, a ghoul popped up nearby, "I quit, please don't kill me!"

Just then my mom came trotting back into the room. She saw the ghoul with her hooves up, her pistol leveled in front of her, but she didn't shoot. She trotted over to join me. "Got those two, they weren't interested in talking though. Are these three?"

"I think so," I didn't know if this buck would try something tricky, so I kept a gun on him. "Check on the two over there, they didn't come off as aggressive."

She nodded and went over to them. I moved around the desk and made my way over to the stallion. "Are you working for Fulsome? If so, what's he planning?"

The ghoul put his hooves back on the floor. "I don't work for him, but I do know Fulsome wants tests subjects. He wants to find a cure to reverse ghoulification."

I blinked drawing a blank. "Do you trust him?"

He shook his head. "No, I don't. He's been on the verge of losing himself for two decades now. His fixation on the stable only recently came about. He thinks there is an answer to be found in there."

My mind clicked, "He wanted the stable as test stock? That's insane! So, when he couldn't figure out a way to take over the stable, he started trying to just kill us off?"

The ghoul levelled a cold steely stare that made my skin crawl. "Do I have a choice? It's to deal with you or leave this tower."

My mother walked over to join us. "What's your name? I'm Silver Torrent and this is Glimmer Stone."

He gave a grumble; maybe it was a laugh. Did all ghouls sound like they were gargling on nuts and bolts? "I'm Sandy Quartz, and you are?"

Touching my chest with a hoof, "I'm Glimmer Stone and that's Silver Torrent." I waved a hoof off towards her. "We didn't ask for this either, but we can't stand by and let Fulsome kill off our home. I'm willing to say that Stable 109 is a part of this MAS hub and so this tower is our home too."

"You all should join Major Starsail down on floor thirty-four. We're going to go after Fulsome." I told him in as much of a commanding tone as I could.

He just cocked his head slight and dug a hoof into his ear. "Sure, but Fulsome's gone. I overheard him and Willow discussing it. They left hours ago, but I was told not to say anything." He gave a shrug of indifference.

My mom joined us, the other pair of ghouls in tow. She sat down and looked back and forth. "What?"

Sandy slapped his forehead. "Fulsome's gone. He left hours ago in secret." He repeated himself then continued, "look, the three of us have a lot of work to do cleaning up this mess, you two should go back and talk to the Major."

I rolled my eyes, "where'd him and Willow go? I'm sure Major Starsail will want to know."

"Probably to the MAS repository research center to the southeast of here, north of the factory district." He told us.

Both Silver and I shared a questioning glance before giving him the same dumbfounded look.

"Check your pipbuck maps later, now either you both can help us clean up your mess, or you can go back and talk to the Starsail."

I looked past him at the behemoth floating in the middle of the room. "I'd like to know what this lab was working on first. What is that?"

He peered over his shoulder for a moment. "Ah, yes. The first unicorn." He sat down and waved the other two ghouls over. "Nova Haze and Aqua Marine. You two were assigned here, want to explain?"

The smaller mare hopped over and the gruff buck sauntered past us. Both of them sat down and the stallion spoke first, his tattered muzzle showing fresh scars where he still had skin. "That hurt a lot by the way." He told me as he rubbed his muzzle.

"Good shot, thanks for that potion," the mare beside him added with a hint of a laugh. "I'm Aqua, he's Nova. And that's the first unicorn."

Nova tilted his head back a little and groaned. After a minute he turned his head to look at Aqua, "That name is inaccurate. The documents call him Stalwart."

She rolled her eyes and ignored him, "Yep! He was the first subject to survive and benefit from the potion once brewed here. However, there's a catch. We ran out of samples of that zebra infused serum a century ago. Now we just study him and use his blood to try and synthesize a weaker version of the Arete Potion."

I scratched behind an ear while my mom asked the question, I'd thought of first. "What's this potion supposed to do? Why was it being developed?"

Nova Haze gave a reluctant gurgle which prompted Aqua Marie to continue her explanations. "The Arete Potion is a powerful magic booster that is supposed to give the subject ten-fold magical capabilities and almost completely remove the possibility of magical burnout."

As if anticipating our next question or three, she took a deep breath, "Stalwart back there," she swept her head back toward the massive beast, "was the first one to survive the treatment. Before him, several unicorn subjects died and the serum was never used on earth ponies, pegasi or any other species. The purpose was to allow our battle mages and medics to be more efficient in the battlefields during the war, but it was later deemed too dangerous. We were later instructed to keep studying it."

I gave a shiver, "If he was the first to live, I don't want to know what happened to the others." I couldn't pull my eyes from the twisted form floating in the tank. He was a unicorn once, but now resembled a massive fleshy monster. He didn't have any hair anywhere and looked to have massive bulges under his stretched skin. In comparison to his size, his head was only slightly larger than a normal ponies. His bald bulbous body appeared to have growths all over and his whole body appeared to be scarred.

Kind of sickening me, I couldn't look away. Pretty sure I'll never forget the sight of this monstrosity.

Footnote:
Level Up! Lv. 6
Perk Unlocked - Ghoul Slayer: Rank 1
You now have a +50% chance to land headshots against ghouls when not using SATS. Your party members also receive half this passive buff.