Fallout Equestria

Ten Years Later

"Then I began, thinking..." she said softly, reading the very last lines of the book. They were also the first lines, although she wasn't sure if any of her listeners had noticed. The story had come full circle.

These were the moments she lived for. Just spending time with the children. Seeing their eager, attentive faces as she read to them. The reading room was like an island of peace. No worries, no pressures, no ponies seeking her advice or counsel. She had never been comfortable in a position of leadership, but the ponies outside had put her on a pedestal. She hated the spotlight, and she knew she hadn't earned the trust they put in her. The reading room was one of her favorite retreats.

"...If I'm going to tell you about the adventure of my life -- explain how I got to this place with these people, and why I did what I'm going to do next -- I should probably start by explaining a little bit about PipBucks."

She gently closed the book, drinking in the tranquility of the ending. Yes, these were the moments she lived for. The peace and quiet before...

"What?" whined the little apricot pegasus sitting in the center of the other foals. "That's it? It can't end there! That's a lame way to end the story!"

"Now Thunder Rush..." she began. Rush was Tracker and Mist's filly, and had inherited her father's disposition.

"I want action!" Thunder Rush interrupted. "And I want Rainbow Dash!"

A timid yellow unicorn offered, "I kinda like the ending."

Rush rolled her eyes at her playmate. "You would."

Well, it was tranquil while it lasted. "Now children..."

"It's a true story, right?" the yellow unicorn, Flower, asked.

Even as she nodded in response, the filly Thunder Rush promptly disagreed.

"Of course not! It's obviously just a fairy tale. Nopony could survive getting shot that much!" The filly rolled her eyes again with exaggerated exasperation. "And come on. You don't really believe there were that many monsters in Equestria, do you?"

"Oh, but there were," she responded, hating to interrupt. "I was there."

The apricot pegasus just crossed her forelegs and sat down with a harrumph.

One of the colts in the back, a brown and white spotted foal, piped up, "Were you really a tree?"

She took a deep breath, fortifying herself to face the question that always came after this one. "Yes, Cliff. It's true."

She heard curiosity in Flower's voice as the filly asked, "What was it like to be a tree?" And there it was. The question.

"I don't want to talk about it," Fluttershy said, the words feeling rehearsed. There were things she couldn't think about too much. And her time as a tree was high on her list of forbidden thoughts.

"Now why don't you all go out and play," she suggested.

Most of the colts and fillies didn't need to be told twice. The far doors swung open, letting in a dazzling blast of sunlight. A miniature stampede left the reading room almost vacant in seconds. She blinked, realizing that little Cliff had stayed behind. The colt galloped up to her on his tiny hooves and threw his forelegs around her. She fought back the urge to jump away and hide.

"You're the best storyteller, Miss Fluttershy!" he said happily. "Thank you for the story!"

Then the colt too was drawn by the pull of the midday sun and scampered off to join his friends.

Fluttershy stood in place for a moment staring out the open doors at the mission and at Junction Town beyond. These ponies, they called themselves the Followers of the Apocalypse. They knew of her past, her great mistakes, but they neither hid from the truth nor hated her for it. Instead, they embraced it as a lesson. And still, astoundingly, looked to her with a reverence she found uncomfortable.