Fallout Equestria: And None Shall Follow

Days past as we slowly moved away from Fillydelphia. It took longer then getting there, as we strove to move stealthily and leave no trace, while dodging slaver patrols. We had moved into the city with stealth, but since we had managed to alert everyone in the city to our presence, we had to be doubly cautious to get away. The twisted route we took sent us through the worst terrian, winding through small canyons, moving from clump of wizened vegetation to ruin, to rock pile, keeping a careful eye on the sky all the while in case one of Red Eye's griffons chanced to be near.

Finally, we managed to get beyond the borders of the depopulated zone surrounding Filly. We stopped seeing any sign of slaver patrols, and, when I spotted the former city of Baltimare in the distance, I knew that we were likely safe now from slaver patrols. The citizens of Baltimare had learned long ago how to repel slaver groups. They had to, otherwise their probably wouldn't be a pony left here. Still, sooner or later Red Eye would have to set his sights on this place if he wanted to keep up his steady supply of slaves. We headed into the crumbling former suburbs around baltimare. We weren't going into the city itself, just as far as it took to unload a few guns for supplies, get a nights rest, and move on. Still, we had to be careful. I knew a few folks in these parts had decided the best way to avoid enslavement by Red Eye was to be useful to him. They'd act normal, but if they had the numbers on you, they'd capture you and send you off to Filly.

I hadn't been here for quit a while, but I knew of one trustworthy place to stop. A small trading post had been set up where the old highway led into town, mainly to trade with caravans that wandered by. He was still where I remembered, trading fish and dried seaweed. I traded in a gun for enough seaweed to last a while, along with an old healing potion and some caps. Seriously, I was getting to many, and the jingling was going to ruin my stealth. I was going to need to cache some soon. Normally I would have simply gone deeper to trade with others with more appetizing supplies, but I didn't want the spend the day in the round trip. Instead, we simply camped the night out in what remained of an old house, the kid complaining about the taste of seaweed, which he had traded a pack of gum for, but seeming to enjoy his first look at the ocean.

.....

Morning came, and as the kid went out to take care of "business", I stretched out my limbs and munched on a chewy green chunk of seaweed. As I began to slip on my pack saddle, my ears picked up a startled gasp from the kid outside. I turned towards the sound as he spoke again.
"Luna?" I heard him gasp out. Really, on his own for two minutes and now the kid was seeing prewar ali... oh flipping sunspots. I slipped on my packsaddle in record time and ran out the door. Only to skid to a halt in front of a pair of Alicorns standing in the crumbling road. The kid was walking back around the corner, seemingly in awe of the blue Alicorn that proceeded him.

"Its Luna!" he exclaimed to me, before seeming to notice the other two Alicorns. His face brightened in apparent awe before falling to to confusion as he gazed from Green to Blue to Purple Alicorn. "But... what?" he muttered. Yeah, no idea how his philosophy would hold up with three apparent princess's, but right now, I had other worries.

The blue alicorn turned to me and glared. "What are you?" She asked coldly. "You have stripes, but are not Zebra."

I had already begun to slowly back into the house, but a shield of energy jumped into existence behind me. Apparently I was not going to be allowed to leave. "I'm a freaking alicorn princess" I snorted. "I'm a donkey." , what's it to you?"

"A... donkey." The blue alicorn said, almost as if mulling the word. Her gaze went vacant for a moment before she turned it back to me. "We have no recollection of your kind. But we have no use to us. Go. The colt will follow us."

"Luna wants me to go with her and... the others." The kid spoke up. And he actually looked happy that they wanted him. Even though he still seemed confused on the overabundance of "princess's".

"Its not Luna." I muttered at the kid from the corner of my mouth, keeping an eye on he alicorns, who seemed content to just watch us for the moment.

"But... she said she's the Goddess, she said I can join her in Unity." The kid said, now sounding more confused then ever.

"Kid, I don't know what they told you, but these alicorns all call themselves the goddess, anypony they take, they never come back." I hissed to the kid. "Wake up, you see a cutie mark on any of them? You see Celestia? These aren't the Alicorns your thinking of."

"Enough!" Thundered the blue alicorn. "We were sent by the Goddess to find more unicorns to join unity, and this foal has agreed. You are of no use to us Donkey, go. But we shall bring the foal to unity." With that, the shield behind me vanished, and another surrounded the alicorns and the kid.

The kid apparently had gotten suspicious enough that this sudden move caused him to panic.

"No! I changed my mind, let me go!" I could hear him shout through the barrier as he began to thump it with his hooves. I knew I didn't have much time. These freaking bitches weren't getting the kid. After all, I was probably going to need him later when we got the the end of this trail. I pulled out the balefire egg launcher, loaded the egg... and realized that even if I could breach the shield, kid would be blown to pieces. There was nothing I could do. Wordlessly, I raged at them, pounding my hooves on the shield as they simply smirked at me, the purple one gathering magic to her horn. Then, in my mindless fury, I did something I hadn't in years. I opened by mouth to expel a stream of obscenities at the alicorns, and instead, let out a deafening bray.

The shield dropped as the alicorns jerked in shock, the purple ones magic imploding in a flash of brilliant light. When it faded, the alicorns were gone, but the kid sat, shaking. "What happened?" He asked, clearly in awe, and a bit confused.

"I have no idea." I said, not quit believing it myself. "Um, we should probably run before they come back." We moved, heading south out of baltimare, out into the wastes.

....

That night in camp, I explained what I knew about alicorns to the kid.

"Yeah, they started showing up about ten years ago." I explained. "At first, folks thought it was the return of the princess's or some crap like that." The kid looked offended, but I just continued. He needed to know this stuff after all. "From what I heard, they started out asking ponies to "join them in unity" or something. Except nopony ever came back from that. Folks started getting hostile after that. Especially the griffins, since the alicorns had always been hostile to them. Apparently they weren't fit for unity or something. And the alicorns stopped asking and just dragged unicorns off. A couple of settlements they just wiped out. So now everyone knows that if you see an alicorn, you ether shoot or run, no other option."

The kid seemed to take his time thinking this over, then asked "S how did you surprise the alicorns?"

I could only shrug.

"I just brayed at them. Don't know why that worked." I said. Seriously though, I really hadn't expected that to work at all, much less as well as it did. "Heck, they just vanished."

"I've never heard one before." The kid admitted. "It made me jump." He paused for a moment, in thought. "I think you interupted a teleportation spell."

"Huh?"

"A teleportation spell." He explained. "Teleports you instantly anywhere. Really wish I could do one. Mom..." His voice broke for a moment, before he managed to continue. "She said wait until I was older before trying it. If you can't concentrate on where you are going, you can end up anywhere."

"So... I brayed, the alicorn couldn't concentrate, and teleported randomly?" I asked. Well, I guessed it made sense. If magic ever made sense.

The kid nodded. "Where did you learn to bray like that?" He asked eagerly.

I facehooved. "Kid, I'm a freaking donkey. We just can. Now get to sleep." I kicked dirt over the fire until it went out, then I turned in for the night.

End chapter

Level up!

New Perk Added: Brave Sir Robin: You've gotten a lot of practice running away lately. +1 agility.