Fallout: Equestria - From Ash

by Rosebriar Sunfall

Prologue: Reflection

Prologue: Reflection

My childhood sort of passed in a blur, but the memories are there. I can remember when I was little. I remember how afraid I was. How alone I was. My mother died when I was small. And I never knew who my father was. I always assumed he was just some swine who took advantage of her. Because I remember whenever I had asked her who he was, or where he was, her eyes would glaze over and drain of all emotion. She wouldn’t speak for a long time, then would seem to snap back to reality, and forget that I’d asked. After about the third time, I just stopped asking. Even in my naive youth I knew better.

Day to day our life was hard. We were constantly on the move. That’s one thing my mother always taught me. To keep moving. Because the longer you stayed in one place, the more likely you were to be found. And. These days we didn’t want to be found. True, our world was slowly rebuilding itself after a terrible tragedy that had ravaged our world, but there were always dangers. Creatures that desired a pony for lunch, bad ponies who would rob you, or kill you...or worse. And so many other dangers. Corrupt soldiers. Equestria was a dangerous place.

And thus even after my mother had died, and I’d been no more than a blank flank filly, I’d kept moving. Not trusting anyone… That is until one day I met another filly. Just a bit younger than myself, alone and badly hurt. I was going to leave her there...But. I couldn’t. I couldn’t bring myself to. I took her in, healed her and she became my best friend...We continued to travel together. When we were teenagers, we found another foal….

After a lot of discussion we agreed to take him under our wing. And...It just went on from there. More and more foals showed up over the years and we took them in, and protected them, cared for them. Just as my mother would have. Except...I couldn’t let myself get too close...I was strict, constantly keeping the group moving. Constantly ordering them to be quiet, or hide, or to stop being foolish. I was always looking for food and overnight shelters for the group. I was constantly anxious about keeping them all safe. It was hard to remain unnoticed in a group. It wasn’t easy to be a teenager caring for a bunch of foals, and did not get any easier when I entered early adulthood. In fact. It got harder, and finally it came time to make a very hard decision.

We had to find somewhere safe to settle down. Permanently. Somewhere where we could protect ourselves, and somewhere far away from others. Somewhere with resources and food. And thus began a journey that would forever change our lives as we knew them, and even the lifestyle of the wastelands and its inhabitants. Our decision, though we had no idea at the time, would affect the future of Equestria itself.