Stories of love, loss, radioactive winters, friendships, hardships, comfort, pain, pleasure, and all sorts of goodies await those who wish to read.
Stories of love, loss, radioactive winters, friendships, hardships, comfort, pain, pleasure, and all sorts of goodies await those who wish to read. But of course, take heed of the stories themselves. For each story that exists within this Anthology is meant for more than entertainment. Each story is a chance to live for a few moments in the life of those it is about.
Greeting Reader! If you're reading this then I, or at least the pony that helped write this, believe that you're interested in finding out more about what has happened since the war. Contained in this volume is a collection of tales from all across Equestria. They are the tales of ponies that have lived in this wasteland, dealt with the hardships, and at times even found hope.
So, I invite you to read their words. Who knows, perhaps gaining an understanding of their stories will help give you some insight to your own story.
The sound of something heavy, and metal, dragging on the concrete echoed down the hall. Swift held his breath as he leaned against the wall. The feel of the double barrel shotgun in his magic brought him some comfort, but not nearly what he had hoped. It was supposed to be a different kind of day today. He was supposed to be with friends, he was supposed to be enjoying a good laugh, or even just enjoying the company of his friends there with him. Instead his day had gotten incredibly difficult.
He floated a mirror, a small thing, nothing more than something somepony would have picked up for a bottlecap, but it had saved his rump more times than not. He floated it just around the corner, just far enough to see what was coming. He caught a glimpse of it. A Gryphon hen, She was a crow head, something that was rare among the Gryphons, at least he heard it was. Her black feathers met a dark brown fur where her lion half was. She was wearing some leather armor, an eye patch over the eye he guessed was ruined, and a heavy well used Minotaur axe that was dragging along beside her.
He’d seen one like it used before. A large Minotaur had fought off a few Raiders with it, and then apparently he traded it in for something a little more long ranged. That axe had hung in Cheap’s store for nearly two years. He hoped that the axe she had was just one that was similar and not the same axe. He hoped that, because if it was the same one then Cheap was gone. That old Earth Pony wouldn’t have sold that axe. He believed it was too good of a conversation piece to simply let go.
“Come out horn head!” the scratchy voice of the Gryphoness shouted, “If you come out now I promise it’ll be quick. If you make me work for it, I’m going to take my time!”
Swift swallowed. This was not the day he wanted. He pulled the mirror back, slowly, trying not to get any more attention, opened the shotgun and checked to make sure it was loaded. Two shells, both buckshot, and with any luck at all it’d be enough to put her down. He moved, looking around and noticing that the building he was in pretty much had him horned anyway he went. He still didn’t know why he chose to run into the storehouse. With the exception of the manager’s office was nothing but a mostly open space that was only separated by a few steel columns.
Deciding that getting behind a column was better than sitting on the corner near the end of the hall the manager’s office was on he moved. He moved and heard the scraping of the ax getting louder, he hunkered down in the shadow, watching as the Gryphoness looked at where he had been. She felt the cement and then looked around. He wasn’t sure, but it almost looked like she was smiling.
“I know you’re in here poppet. Offer still stands. I’ll make it quick if you come out now, but please, don’t do it for me. I like the hunt.”
He swallowed, felt the shotgun in his magic, readied himself, and looked around to see that the Gryphoness was gone. He swallowed again, fear raging inside of him. He moved only to hear the sound of that axe hitting the cement where he had been.
“Found you Poppet!”
He screamed, his bladder lost all control, and he fired his shotgun. The first blast missed the Gryphoness completely, but the second got her wing as she tried to take off. She let out a screech of pain, her failed takeoff causing her to land ungracefully on the floor. Her axe sliding away from her and coming to a stop near him. He looked at the axe, and his heart sunk as he realized it was Cheap’s axe. He felt it with his magic, lifted it, and the Gryphoness began getting to her feet in time to see the floating weapon she had planned on using.
She tried to scramble back, get to the safety of the dark, but Swift wasn’t letting her off that easy. This was Cheap’s axe, this was his friend’s axe, and he wasn’t letting her get away with whatever she had done to get it from him. He tested it, feeling how heavy it felt in his magic, and then he looked at the Gryphoness who was trying to get away. He moved forward, his lips pulling back in an angry sneer. He moved toward her, the axe lifting up high, his green aura glowing brightly around it as he neared her. He couldn’t know what she saw. He only knew what he was. He was a Unicorn living in the old mining town that had been stationed at Mt. Gloom back before the war. A town now called Gloomy Gus after the new founder.
He was caramel brown, black mane, green eyes, a cutie mark that showed a pair of wings wrapped in magic, and in truth perhaps one of the most unremarkable specimen of a Unicorn anypony could ever hope to meet. There wasn’t much special about him, not really, at least there wasn’t until he had that axe up in the air, ready to bring it down on the Gryphoness. She squawked as her rump bumped into a column.
“Just do it!”
Her good eye closed, and he readied himself, “This is for killing Cheap and ruining my Birthday.”
Her eye opened, she looked at him, and shook her head.
“Killing… I didn’t kill anypony named Cheap!”
He stopped, “What?”
She sighed, “You’re not a raider, are you?”
He shook his head.
“Gawd, Damn it!” she looked at him, “I’m a Talon, and I was contracted to hunt down a group of raiders. The pony that hired us gave me this axe. He was hurt, and I left him with one of my group. They should be patching him up,” she looked at him with her good eye, “Did you duck in here when they came through?”
He nodded, feeling sheepish.
“Well, that explains why you’re alive. And you must have thought that I was one of them,” she laughed, “Well, the good news is that I’m not. I’m just here to hunt raiders, and make sure that they pay for what they did to your little town. Which to be honest… you ponies sure did choose a place to be way off of the map. There’s not really that much radiation out here.”
He grinned, “I know, sorry about your wing.”
She waved it off, took the axe, strapped it back to her side, “It’s fine. A healing potion and it should be good. So, birthday huh?”
He nodded, “Yeah, twenty-second one, kind of a milestone I guess.”
She laughed, a sound he found actually pretty nice, “In this day and age, yeah, it’s a good milestone. Not sure there’s much left to celebrate with, but I think your friend has some beer he was willing to sell cheap. How about I buy you a drink to make up for trying to hunt you down?”
He grinned, “Sounds nice. I’m Swift by the way.”
She stretched out a curled up claw, “Schütze, nice to meet you Swift.”
