//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: The Mare 
// Story: Fallout: Equestria- Forsaken Heroes 
// by Dj Scratchjack 
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Chapter 5: The Mare

"Like I always say, onwards and upwards!"

I’d imagined the inside of the house being anything but clean, but I stood dumbfounded. The place looked better than the barracks at the Outpost. The walls were stain-free, the furniture was pristine and clean, and the carpet was only slightly dotted from rot over the years (some things couldn't be helped, I guessed).  We walked through the kitchen, and I saw my reflection gleam off the steel counter-top.  

"This is the Crossroads Inn. Used to be a great attraction from before the war, I hear."  He looked up at me, as if for confirmation.  I just shrugged.  "I heard about it,"  I replied. He just shrugged back and smiled.  "Well, I found it in so much disrepair that I didn't think it would be any use.  ‘Til Cin and I got in a fight, that is.  She was telling me I couldn't fix it, and I told her I would prove her wrong."  He smiled a bit bigger at the last part. 

"Wait, are you and Cin-" I was about to ask until he held up a hoof.  "No, just old traveling companions.  Now hold up here for a sec, be right back."  He wheeled around the corner and disappeared.  I sat down and waited.  I fiddled around with my new leg, admiring the metalwork.  The grey shine was still brilliant for 200 years of floating in bio-fluid.  I checked through my bags with my Pipbuck, finding nothing out of the ordinary, though my photograph was gone.  I stood up and paced around the kitchen.  I never could stand or sit in one place for long, and I never did understand that.  Dad always said I was always a child at heart, never destined to grow up.  Guess I learned that the hard way.

Whip came back around the corner in a flash.  "Come on, bro."  He waved me over and disappeared again into the little hall.  I heard a hush and a few small giggles, but followed anyway.
What the-

"SUPRISE!!!"

I was knocked back on my rump by the screams of thirty or so ponies.  A big sign hung from the ceiling with "Welcome to the Home for Misfits!" painted across it in bright blue lettering.  Balloons hung from tables and lamps.  My jaw hit the ground at the unexpected party laid out before me.  Ponies ranging from foalhood to young stallions and mares my age stood in the room, just grinning and giving me a heart attack. Whip Leash sat in front of the crowd.  

"I do believe that you’ve made a few more friends."  He spun his chair around to park beside me and continued.  "Alright everypony, this here's Broken Reign.  He's kinda new to all of this, so give him some slack on the work, please."  He picked me up from the ground and spread his hooves wide, giving the group the biggest smile I’d seen from him yet.  

"Let the party begin!" 

What followed was another cheer that could have been heard for miles.


* * * * * * *



The festivities were a glorious sight to behold. I met almost every pony in the room before ten minutes went by.  I gave hoofshakes and, oddly, autographs to some fillies and colts.  I was even given presents.  Presents!  I wondered after that what exactly those two slavers had done to this town.  Doctor Stein and Cinnamon Twist even came to the party.  I didn't know that, even in the hell that these ponies had lived in for years, there was always something making them happy.

After a few more introductions I walked out onto the balcony overlooking the valley.  I spotted some lights in the distance to the west.  Apparently the eerie green glow was from the former city of Hoofington, or so I'd been told in the party.  There was nothing much from the mountain where Canterlot was supposed to be, though.  

“I heard that it was bombed, but survived. So where are the lights?" I shook my head as I thought.  Whatever, didn't really matter anymore, did it?  I laid my hooves and head on the railing, looking up to the sky.  The clouds never parted, but it had stopped raining.  That eerie blackness, devoid of even Luna’s moon, seemed to suck the life out of the night.  

I sighed and began to think of what might have happened to my friends.  Did they die peacefully, or in a fiery hell?  What if-


"So this is where you ran off to," an unknown female voice called out from behind me, cutting off my train of thought.  I turned to face...

The most beautiful pegasus I’d ever seen.

Her silky white coat was the color of pearls.  Her light-blonde mane and tail moved along with the breeze exquisitely, and her icy blue eyes seemed to sparkle with intelligence and passion.  It was overpowering.

"U-uh, hi!" I sputtered (or shouted, I don’t know).  If I could’ve become any paler this is when it would’ve happened.  I facehoofed.  The mare cocked her head in confusion.  

"Um...okay? Whip Leash wanted to talk to you about something.  Come on, I'll show you to him."


We trotted side-by-side down the hall toward Whip's "study," not saying another word to each other.  The room he named his study was really just another room stuffed full of books.  The inn was filled with the books of the past centuries, mostly burned and unreadable.  Some were repairable, but most ponies didn't care besides Whip Leash, I guessed.  We arrived at the room, seeing him bent over his work with a quill in his mouth. He looked up momentarily to nod a greeting and waved his hoof toward the dusty old couch in the corner. The mare and I sat beside each other, still not saying anything else.

Okay, so I was not good at talking to mares. 

I just stuttered and became the most unattractive pony in the world once a mare talked to me, especially attractive ones!  Renting a room in Vinyl Scratch and Octavia's house hadn't helped, either.  They just laughed at me when Scratch introduced me to a cutie and I started dribbling spit while trying to at least say something.  Or when Octavia brought her colleagues to the house to rehearse, ugh!  It was bad, let’s just say that.


Whip Leash continued his work for a few more minutes, leaving me twitching from sitting too long next to an attractive mare.  He placed his pen on a cloth and wheeled himself around to face us. He took one look at me and my sitting partner and raised a hoof to his face, trying really hard not to laugh. In the corner of my eye, I saw the mare having—hopefully—the same problem I was. 

Whip Leash restrained himself (barely) and crossed his hooves over his chest. 

"So, Reign, are you having fun at your party?" he asked with that trademark grin. I just nodded. "Good. So I see Cloud found you, even if you're not hard to spot in a crowd," he chuckled at his own joke. 

Then his face became a little more serious.  "I'm just gonna get straight to the point. I need a favor. I understand that you’ve been through a lot in the past couple days, but I need your help. We need your help."

He leaned toward me, placing his hooves under his chin. "The doctor has informed me that we're running low on supplies. Normally we have a caravan pass through here at least three times a week, but recently none have come. I fear that it’s raiders, but there could just be a routing issue. I need you and Cloud to go south to the Caravan Company office. It's just a couple hours’ trot, so I'm not asking for much. Will you help me with this?" He looked far too concerned about this, which made it a lot easier to say yes.

"Yes, sir. Just let me gather the things from my room and I’ll be on my way." Whip Leash nodded with a grateful smile.  He turned to the mare. 

"And you?" he asked with a cocked brow. Cloud closed her eyes and sighed, then raised her hoof and nodded. 

"Alright, perfect. Reign, come here. I'll download the location on to your PipBuck and you guys can be off," Whip said as he pushed a few buttons on my leg.  A little marker floated over a piece of the map on the screen. I thanked him and trotted back out into the hall. Cloud followed suit. 

"We’ll meet in five minutes at the door, be there."  Cloud pointed a hoof at me with a stern look in her eyes. I nodded once and headed toward my room. I turned the corner and heard a sharp sigh right as I also let one out.

Then my entire chest exploded with pain. I curled into a ball, retching with the agony that was tearing through my lungs. My breathing came in short bursts. My vision became black and red in flashes, and I felt like I’d rather die right then and there than hurt for one second more.



Then it stopped. Just like that. I got up off the floor shakily and back on my hooves. I wiped my brow free from sweat. That was weird. I'd need to talk to Doctor Stein. I continued on to my room, fearing that the spasm would happen again. I reached around the wall to flick on the light switch.


My new home consisted of two footlockers, a cabinet for my barding, and a makeshift bed made of rotting mattresses and cloth blanketing. I was told that this was the best they could do, and I was extremely happy. They gave me more than I really wanted, actually. I’d insisted that I only needed the bed, but Whip Leash and the others had refused. I opened up the footlocker near my bed and levitated Fang out to rest around my neck, then grabbed my saddlebags and canteens. I walked over to my cabinet and flung it open to see my newly repaired barding, fitted with a little more leather around the torso. I sighed contentedly and lifted the armor to slide my head through.


These ponies were the kindest I’d ever met, even before the war. They were generous to a fault, but also had enough fire in their eyes to beat the piss out of anypony who would mess with them. 

Whip Leash, Cinnamon Twist, Doctor Stein.  They brought my faith back to believing that we hadn't completely failed Luna and Celestia. I looked up at the clock, still ticking from Twilight's little spark battery devices. 

“It's my time to return the hospitality these fine ponies have shown me,” I thought as I slung my saddlebags around my torso, buckled up my barding, and set out to find Cloud.  She was checking through her things over, too. She looked up to see me smiling at her. Honestly, it was the only thing I could do. She scrunched up her face.  “You're acting really weird..." she trailed off as she threw her stuff back into her bags.  "Come on, then. Let's get on with it."  She turned, opening the door and giving me a sight of her beautiful backside.... I slapped myself to break out of the trance before Cloud noticed.

What?  200 years is a long time…