The Long Whiteby The Real DarknessChaptersCount Losses LaterThe Carnivore ReturnsHow to HuntHer Bitter ClawsDon't Forget to LiveCascade of ColorsThriveTo C or Not to CCount Losses LaterEquestria has long since been in control of its own weather, that allowed ponies to have generous time to plan things and natural disasters were unheard of. That solves that problem. He'll never be a problem in our manes again. So Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn came when they planned for them to come. Magic was a great tool in that endeavor as well, it let them change orbital distances to cycle into a different season. Crops were always bountiful. Sister, something seems to be wrong, why is it slightly smaller? I...I can't control it. Send for Twilight! Help me, Luna! Magic also allowed the citizens of Equestria to enjoy some machinery powered by it. It made Kacie all that more comfortable when he was whisked to Equestria as part of a magic anomaly. Life in Equestria was easy, everything was habitable. I-I can't do anything either, not even with you two! I'll teleport Cadence here right away! King Sombra did manage to return from under the icy wastes and endless snow of the Frozen North, but Celestia had decided it was time for the enslaving unicorn tyrant to meet his end. Death was common, murder wasn't. None of us can do anything! We have to make this public, find somepony who can come up with a solution! I know! Starlight Glimmer might know something! Good idea, go get her, Twilight And the dark unicorn was banished to the sun where he meet a quick death, melting in the harsh temperatures before he could realize it. His spirit burned second in the great star and it left a curse. What?! I...I can't teleport! Twilight! I can't teleport! I can't even levitate...levitate anything! Equestria changed drastically and it caused many sudden deaths of those who could not handle the unnatural harsh cold. The Crystal Empire was formally declared lost, governments vanished within a matter of days, frozen corpses were covered over in blankets of snow and ice. Barely any single pony survived that day, most of them unicorns. The survival rate for them hit almost zero the next day. Magic is gone. He took our magic, he cursed us with his final breath. The Carnivore ReturnsIt was established that ponies were at the top of the food chain, they could provide for other animals in more civil ways. When Equestria's infrastructure shattered, so did the idea that some carnivores were friendly. That let the one most prepared resident of the nation unleash his old colors and turn his back from the vegan diet he uptook for the satisfaction of ponykind and the sake of harmony. Kacie knew some good survival methods already, of course he did he was training to follow his father's footsteps, but some of what he learned was only book knowledge. Who knew if he could do it all on his own without a teacher. "And on the third day...God created the Snow and said it was the only thing the world ever needed," he sarcastically laughed as he trudged through Ponyville, coming to the giant crystal tree castle that Twilight called home, "wasn't here earlier in the morning, second day after this blizzard, let's try again." He banged on the door, shivering in his blue jacket and jeans, "god...why didn't I at least get teleported into this land with some kind of sweats or better pants. Fucking freezing." And that's when he felt the chill. "Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception." - Carl Sagan Not the chill of the cold or the wind that blew his body heat away. Not the snow seeping into his sneakers. The chill that nobody would answer the door. The chill that told his mind what his body already knew. Act or die. And so he heaved the crystal doors open, as hard as he could, feeling warmer the moment he crossed through to the other side. With the wind chill out of the way, he could feel a bit better, but his fingers and toes were still numb just from the walk over here. “Even though there’s no wind...the castle is still cold, why? Why hasn’t magic done anything?” Kacie waltzed further into the castle, “Twilight?! It’s the second day! Everypony already evacuated Ponyville and went to Canterlot!” He started shouting, “what the hell is happening?!” No response, not in the forms he’d want. “She’s gone, went to Canterlot,” a soft, rigid mare spoke up, an unwanted soothing tone in her voice, “before everypony evacuated out of Ponyville. We’re the only two still here, human.” Kacie stopped in the middle of the foyer and looked around, seeing a beige coated and raspberry maned pony trot down from the railings, clad in a lot of fabrics, some even actually being winter clothes. “She...left?” “I took the last train I could when I heard the rumors that the princesses couldn’t fix this,” she met him, having descended fully, “all my flowers died, all of them, even the hardiest in the cold. I’m sure you know the horror of seeing your life’s work vanish.” Kacie could feel the need for sympathy, “listen, we’ll make it out of this just fine. I know some deaths have been reported, but-.” “All cities were frozen over by last night,” she interrupted him, “and it’s just a matter of time before things erupt in Canterlot. We have only food stockpiles! We’re all going to starve!” She yelled, a little in desperation and a little in hope that something would hear her and take pity. “My dad was a ranger,” Kacie fired off back, plainly without hesitation. “Huh? What does-.” “My dad. Was. A. Forest. Ranger. I can do this, I can make it through this Winter or whatever this is, nature doesn’t just stop like this,” he was stern now, “I can make it through this.” “Well, that’s nice. The alien’s confident in himself. Can’t you find somewhere else to hole up until you starve?” Cynicism was a good sign that somebody was hiding something. He sighed out, “I’m gonna make a shelter out here, too. There’s plenty enough room and you won’t even notice me around. I’ll be spending a lot of time cooped in a room or outside gathering supplies.” “Supplies? What is there to gather?” “I still don’t know your name,” he offered a more civil conversation. “Roseluck.” “Kacie, but call me K. People only use my full name when they’re angry at whatever mess they got themselves into,” he didn’t ask, he took the mare’s hoof and shook it himself, “I’m gonna go find something to wear to get warm,” and he marched past her and up the steps. “What...what do you plan to do?” “Survive.” Kacie had gone in and out of countless rooms, turns out ponies did wear sock and while loose, they did fit a good potion of his legs. Two pairs went on under his sneakers, reaching almost to his groin. He did take some scarves and beanies, wraping his neck and face thoroughly and pulling two beanies over the scarves to ensure they held in place. Now, he had taken a guest suite, containing its own fireplace inside of the giant castle. He sat down with many more scarves and a lot of sowing supplies along with some blankets. “There you are!” Roseluck trotted in through the open door, now having saddlebags atop her back, “had to search all over for you.” “Roseluck,” he addressed her, arranging scarves into different positions, trying to plan something out. “You have zero sense of color or taste,” she opened her saddlebag with her mouth and fetched out a couple water bottles, throwing them next to Kacie along with a bunch of fresh vegetables. Kind of fresh vegetables, it would only be a matter of time before these disappeared altogether regardless if they were sitting frozen in some home or not. Real wildlife would get to them eventually. “Hey...thanks,” he looked up to her. “Sorry for being so...mean when you first came in here. I know I had an opinion of you when you first got to Equestria, but seeing as we’re the only two in Ponyville....I should be a bit nicer.” Kacie drank a bit greedily before he took a huge bite out of a head of lettuce, talking with food still grinding in his teeth, “Roseluck, I need to be honest with you...have you seen the wolves and deer...bears, birds, and maybe more wildlife that’s been coming closer and closer to town?” She nodded her head, “something happening to them?” “No, they’re reacting to all this. You ponies were caretakers of them for the longest time, now you can’t even keep your own populace handled. They’re returning to baser instinct, they’ll be eating any fruits, veggies, and kind of food they can find in Ponyville.” “But-,” “It gets worse. Those wolves and bears, they might even make a go for you or me if they get desperate enough.” “How can you be so sure?” Roseluck laid near him as he kept eating and sowing proper winter clothing out of the scarves he collected to work with. “When everything is on the line and survival becomes paramount, everything returns to its baser instinct. That can include us. So uh...remember that. I had a request for you,” Kacie started. “What...what is it? Don’t try to get too cozy with me.” “I want you to go out into town, gather as much produce as you can and bring it back, keep it in the coldest most secure room you can find in the castle, bag all of it separately in portions. The quicker you can do this, the less risks you take and the higher chance of surviving we have.” “You really are demanding, I’m trying to work with you and you’re just being bossy,” Roseluck turned her nose up at him. “I’m trying to save your life and give you valuable information and instructions. I’ll...I’ll leave almost all the produce to you, my species is omnivorous, so...I’ll be out hunting whatever I can or fishing if that’s even possible still,” Kacie sighed, “and while I’m out doing that stuff, I’ll come back with firewood so we don’t freeze and we can cook things so it’s safe to eat them.” Roseluck nodded, “I...I’ll be back, Kacie.” “Call me K.” Author's Note The story will contain quotes of peoples/medias used in the game and references to the actual game, they will be denoted in the quote format that you saw in this chapter. Next one will be a bit more gritty and lonely. How to HuntKacie had finished sowing all he could, Roseluck had left an hour ago or something like that. No clock worked, at least not the ones around the castle, such a small observation really pointed to how much magic was intrinsic to Equestrian society. The young ranger stood up from the bed, looking over himself in the mirror as an amalgamation of colors. Scarves sown together layered his arms and chest along with his legs like some kind of shoddy woolen bodysuit. He had cut a hole out of a blanket and shoved his head through it just to drape it over his body. The corner were binde3d with needle and thread so it could better cover him. “I’m gonna need so many more things,” he sighed out to himself. With the light snowfall outside, he couldn’t be out too long in case it turned to a blizzard again, “not windproof, not waterproof,” he still walked out of the room he laid claim and back out to the foyer where he could see packaged and bagged vegetables being shoved next to the front door. "You know, I once read an interesting book which said that, uh, most people lost in the wilds, they, they die of shame. Yeah, see, they die of shame. 'What did I do wrong? How could I have gotten myself into this?' And so they sit there and they... die. Because they didn't do the one thing that would save their lives. Thinking." - David Mamet, The Edge He nodded with a smile, “good,” and left through the front door to greet the cold outside with absolutely nothing useful in hand. The chill in the evening air met him, but what warmth the farther sun granted Equestria gave him some time before night came to try and extinct more creatures out. Kacie wasted zero time, leaving the castle and opting to search out home after home after home, trying to recall what he could about the ponies that lived there. Along the way, he was piling supplies in each home in a horribly organized stack in case Roseluck came by so she could easily see them and take them. He was finding some valuable things as he went, firewood in some homes that he was also setting aside for later collection. Kacie did sneak some bites of cold fruits and vegetables as he went, making sure to hide the corpses of produce in snow outside. Starvation was his first enemy and searching for supllies his second. Being in and out of buildings helped to maintain his heat under all his fabric, but the light wind was still slowly knocking it from him. Survive. He finally came across a home that contained something he could use. A bow enthusiast’s home, rather that’s probably what their cutiemark was in. Targets were used as decorations on the walls, but to find what he hoped for Kacie had to search. And of course, the owner took the good ones, but Kacie still found a decent wood bow with a good number of munition for it. He didn’t take count, pulling the quiver onto his hips and the bow into his hands, he left the home, swiftly returning back to Twilight’s abandoned castle. “Bow, eleven arrows, some kind of clothing,” he breathed in, feeling a little wet at the scarves that now had cold water in them along with the ebanie he wore, “fuck. I’m gonna need to be conservative and find some tools for hunting and firewood, get everything ready.” Roseluck entered back into the castle shortly after him, “what’s with the bow?” she wheeled a cart in and Kacie immediately ignored her question. “No no, that’s not,” Kacie took off into the castle with no further explanation. “Okay, bye?” Roseluck started to unload the cart of frozen produce. “You’re not doing that,” he returned with a large sled from a storage room he had passed by and some rope. He pulled a tent stake out from under his elbow and a hammer as well, “a cart is a good idea, but it’s gonna tire you out, wheels aren’t meant for snow.” “Aren’t you just a know it all?” The florist scoffed at him, shaking her head in agitation. Kacie punched six solid holes through the edge of the sled using the tent stake and hammer. Then he strung rope through on the first two holes at the top of the sled on either side. He looked at the cart’s railing and took mighty wings of the hammer, knocking the wood loose and completely off. “What the hay are you doing?!” Roseluck didn’t move to stop him, but her hooves stomped on the crystalline floor in worry. The cart didn’t take too much damage, but Kacie only took two long pieces of lumber from it. He tied them to either side of the sled, hooked to the rope, “if I had the time, I’d hand drill you a hole for the rope so it’s more secure, but this’ll do,” and he created a loop on the other side of the lumbers, one that Roseluck could easily fit her head through, “wheels don’t work in snow. This, while it might be a horrible example of a travois, will be very efficient for you.” “But my cart can carry more!” “And how much do your hooves ache from trying to pull it as it got stuck?” He noted back and she went quiet, “listen, I know it might seem like I’m arrogant, but I’m doing these things for you, your survival. Wasting energy will make you eat more and mean we can’t live as long as we could.” “And what would that matter?” She mumbled, “we’re bucked anyway.” “I don’t believe that and if so, we can find a sustainable way to live. I um,” Kacie began to broach a hard topic, “did leave some produce stacked neatly in some houses so you can grab it easily. I do have a bit of a confession,” he broached, “I might have to have some fruits and vegetables now and again to supplement my own diet or I might become too feeble to do anything.” “I see...just remember that it’s the only thing I can eat,” it wasn’t that she was ungrateful, but she was a bit prideful, “thanks, Kacie.” “Just K, not sure how many times I have to tell you that. You asked about my bow, I uh...intend to go hunting as soon as I get some tools in my hands, and probably better in the morning.” “Do you not have something to eat?” Roseluck asked, trying on the new piece of equipment made for her and pleased that it fit well enough. “Some candy and snacks I picked along my way. These are what I’m eating first, they’ll go bad quick. I know you’ve done a lot today. I’m not gonna lord over you, your decisions are your own to make, but always make some decision,” Kacie spoke gently, revealing the stack of wrapped candy bars and other sweets in a pocket along with crushed bakery items in an unholy amalgamation that party ponies would convict him for or raise him as a genius. “I’m...I’m done for the day,” she resolved, “I’ll go back to my own room,” she gathered some of the food and drink she ahd brought back, trotting up the stairs. “Goodnight, Roseluck.” “Goodnight K.” "The foraging for food and water, the struggle for life in a world without masters, housed in a body that man had made dependent on himself." - Richard Matheson, I Am Legend Kacie was tired, but he refused to just be a burden. He grabbed a simple kitchen knife, sharpest he could find. That late evening, he exited the crystal tree, bow in hand with an arrow ready. He was...competent enough in using it, but not an expert archer by any means, “let’s see if I can really walk my talk.” He ventured far from Ponyville, heading into outskirts of where a river once ran freely. The water was fully frozen over, but he saw exactly what he wanted to see and he crouched low, staying behind a shrub line. He drew his bow back, letting an arrow loose into snow alone a couple of yards off to test his aim, letting it sink almost silently into the white powder. Kacie retrieved it and began to advance toward the closest cervus, no antlers. He went from tree to tree, remaining as quiet as he could as the deer feasted on dried grasses for what little nutrition it had. He eventually had placed himself downwind, behind a tree, only twenty or so meters off, a bit of a challenging shot. Lungs, go for the lungs. He slowly crept out from behind the tree, pulling an arrow back and letting it loose as the deer raised it’s head to look about. Schhthunk He hit his mark, watching as the deer whined and galloped away, blood trailing it while fellow members of its herd scattered in a different direction. This was the relatively easy part. Her Bitter Claws "What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question." - Margaret Atwood Next was the tracking, the awful part of hunting as his dad explained on his first trip. That was with a rifle, not a bow. His dad also took that shot and down the animal right then, not awaiting a couple minutes. Kacie didn’t take off after it, but after a time he felt was fifteen minutes, he ran as quick as he could, following the bloody trail the deer left. He could feel the wind chill through the clothing he wore, robbing his heat. The gales were picking up and his makeshift winter gear was showing that it had no worth in the harsher aspects of the new climate. Kacie had to fight to plant his feet into the snow the correct way, burning more and more calories, losing more and more energy, “in hindsight, should have waited to go hunting.” Never take unnecessary risks. Sure, do it in financial endeavors, do it in any kind of gambling hall, take a risk on whether that fast food mexican will keep you on the toilet for an hour. Out here, don’t take that risk. It was something he learned many times watching other people out on trails suffer from slight dehydration, low hunger, some prolonged cold, and heatstroke. It was a lesson he was learning the hard way because of his stubborn nature. The only man in Equestria finally happened upon the deer as a light snowfall began and he quickly looked around, using the deer as a land mark, some nearby trees in the snowy wasteland, “god, fuck,” the bitter cold was sinking into his fat, his muscles, it had long clawed past his clothing and skin, “fast, fast,” he took the kitchen knife, stabbing into the deer and starting with the pelt first and going quick, a bit sloppily, but that was something he could fix later when he got to sowing and punching. His head snapped up and he noted the location and direction of Twilight’s abandoned castle, home, shelter, sanctuary. The knife was going, not as quick as an actual hunting knife would, but his strenght made up for that, “gonna be dull as fuck, abusing a knife like this,” and he started butchering the skinned carcass, carving chunk of meat after chunk of meat and placing them in the inside of the pelt before he just yanked intestines and guts out, cutting them as if he was swinging the knife to attack the cold that was killing him. Panicking, this was panicking, but it was a productive anxiety driven action, not just a waste of resources and needless higher blood pressure. Kacie’s lungs burned, the cold was eating him from the outside and now the inside. He finished his harvest and began to book it back to Twilight’s castle in...the direction he... believed was right. ”FUCK ME!” He bellowed as he pounded his feet as quick as he could in the crosswind of the now raging blizzard. If he had a mouth to laugh at the last curses he brought ponykind, Sombra would surely be heard three times around the world. In this blinding white hellscape, he quickly lost track of how long he was walking, ensuring he was remaining on a straight path by checking the quickly fading footsteps behind him. Five feet of vision was all he was afforded while Nature bore her full fist aimed at him, everything outside the countless powdery punches was still white. “How much longer?” He swore it was an hour or two that he had been trudging, not that the clocks in the castle would tell him how long it really was. The snow crunched until it didn’t, or he just couldn’t hear it outside the wind howling. The wind howled for a very long time, until it didn’t. Or he just couldn’t hear anymore. Is being frostbitten a possibility for him? Of course it was, if he was getting close to that, who knew if he was already hypothermic or not. He shoved one of his hands into an armpit, trading off with the other as he gripped the pelt filled with meat and guts with alternating hands. “Shit...tired...go,” he mumbled. Every step was a mountain, every time he bent his knee it was an entire staircase climbed in the single movement. He was exhausted. “Where...castle, right?” And his cognition sucked. Salvation was in sight now that he saw the purple base of the crystal tree. He went around, climbing the steps with the strength he still had and the will to make it all this surviving work. Kacie was not in any good condition, but he managed the door open and shut it behind him, feeling some warmth return from his own body’s effort. He threw the filled pelt down and looked through some of the other kinds of supplies Roseluck had brought back once he looked at his bare fingers. No yellow, no ghostly white or bruising, skin had just the right amount of cushy give; he was frostbite free. He wiped the wet blood onto the scarf around his neck, throwing it off of him and peeled the dried red off his hands. He grabbed a blanket from the randomized supply pile and willed his diaphragm to heave a bellow through the castle. “Roseluck!” His voice echoed off the crystal walls as he began to uncloth his core, taking the head punched blanket off and all the colorful sown together scarves before his shirt. He wrapped himself in the new, warmer only in relativity blanket and watched as the earth pony mare came barreling, now wide awake, down from the balcony of the foyer and toward him. “K! What-what’s going on?!” She shouted as she galloped down the stairs and to him. Kacie opened the blanket, revealing the pale torso underneath, “h-hey, keep your clothes on! It can’t-,” and he wrapped the mare in the blanket with him, bowling her over to the floor in his exhaustion, “what the b-buck are you doing?!” Roseluck manage to shout at him, “you’re freezing!” “Sorry,” he voice mumbled out, “sorry. Don’t let me...sleep until warm,” his mind was a haze that his mouth had to rip every word out of. “You owe me, human,” Roseluck sighed out, volunteering to hug him with her hooves in an effort to better warm his body, a blush overtook her body as they exchanged heat and cold. The earth pony kept shaking him, watching every now and then to make sure he was blinking. Hours had passed, hours that Roseluck desperately wanted to use for her own sleep. She instead was stuck holding to this human she had just gotten acquainted with. Thankfully, her ordeal was over as he stood from her and put his clothes back on along with the weird scarf shirt thing he had made and the blanket poncho. Kacie nodded his head, “thanks, I...need your help still. Get some matches,” coherency is a good sign in the face of frigid weather, “and some firewood and go to my room,” he took another blanket from the stack of supplies and wrapped all the meat into it, leaving the pelt and guts out in the open air to dry out properly. “I...okay,” this time there wasn’t any real hesitation in her words. Clutching to someone on death’s door, rather clutching to anyone, could make some kind of a trust between them. Kacie mad ehis way, slowly, to his own room, watching Roseluck head off a different direction from the foyer. Shortly after he arrived, there she was and he took a book, cracking it open and riping a couple sheets out into a loose wrinkled roll, “light the match,” and she did. He took the roll of paper and lit them with the match before setting it onto the book, watching the book pages catch flame. He transferred the book to the empty fireplace, setting a piece of firewood atop and watching it light before he followed it with two more pieces of firewood. "Sometimes even to live is an act of courage." - Seneca “Smart,” Roseluck complimented his firemaking method. “Our survival comes before theirs, Twilight will understand,” Kacie placed, on the stone of the fireplace in the crystalline castle, meat. Venison would cook right there for him to eat over the next days. “And that’s grisly.” “I would never...never eat you or any other pony. This...just, I have to. I don’t want to eat the only thing you can eat also,” Roseluck smiled at his words while he sat with glassy worried eyes. “No no, I get it. I’m thankful you’re even doing this now when you almost ended up dead from this blizzard tonight. Try not to get yourself killed, though.” “What do you care?” He asked, turning back to the fire, “what changed? You were rather indifferent about me even being here.” “I...don’t know. I think I’ll just live better with you here,” that came from the pony inside the panicky florist. That was Roseluck after her thorns. “That’s a sweet sentiment,” Kacie commented, feeling warmth come back to him proper while he sat in front of the fire. Roseluck came over to sit next to him, right in front of the flames to get that extra bit of heat, too, “you...you owned a flower shop before all this, right?” Don't Forget to Live "No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes." - Cormac McCarthy, The Road “A florist, I was Ponyville’s florist and of course I owned my own shop,” Roseluck proudly spoke, “but all those flowers are dead. What did you used to do before all this...well before you even came to Equestria?” Kacie smiled at her question while he watched the meat begin to sizzle, “I was following in my dad’s steps. He was a forest ranger and he was teaching me everything I needed to know. Then I started getting a degree in environmental science and forestry, but it wasn’t too long after I started that I wound up here.” “If you ask me, you don’t need any degree. You’re amazing enough at survival that managing and watching wildlife would be easy for you,” her own lips curved upwards. “Thanks, I’ve not really been told that a whole bunch.” “Well, maybe you’ll get another chance at your degree, K.” “If I do, I’ll help you build back up your greenhouses and shop first,” he nudged the mare. Neither of them had said it, but the two were growing more as friends, as beings who wanted to understand and look out for each other. “So...is it hard? Hunting?” Roseluck returned to the earlier situation. “That blizzard came out of nowhere,” Kacie yawned, feeling actual fatigue instead of the impending cold to claim him. He stretched, flipping over the pieces of venison, “I went to the river, because the water plants should still be above the snow and easy for any potential prey to feast on. It was pretty plentiful of deer. I took my shot and well...” That’s when it dawned on him, “oh fuck.” “Something the matter? You’re warm now, right?” Roseluck peered over to him, looking away from the flames. “I...I left the bow out there,” he shook his head, “god I’m an idiot. I’m gonna have to go back out there and get it.” “You won’t be leaving for a while, not until you cook all this...whatever,” she cringed at the red meat in the room, “tell me why you have a deer skin and guts in the foyer.” “That bow is what’s going to see me through most of this until I can start making my own things, like a proper coat with the skin down there.” “Making your own things?” “You’ll see, Rose. You’ll make it through this horrible cold apocalypse,” Kacie smiled, blinking sleep away as he monitored and moved the venison pieces. “K, I appreciate your knowledge and the sled...thing, but you don’t have to make sure I live,” Roseluck argued, “that’s my job.” “Having a goal, some kind of goal in mind, can be a source of resolve and that’s life or death in a survival situation.” Roseluck paused before she spoke, “did your dad say that?” “Yeah, he uh always said he was living for me,” Kacie sheepishly muttered out. “And you?” “I was living to make him proud.” “No wonder you needed a new goal, already achieved that one,” Roseluck ushered in an awkward silence. Kacie let out a breath, “thanks. I’m not very socialized, but...that means something to me.” Time passed by in silence until all the meat had been cooked and Kacie ate, drank, and slept in the bedroom. Roseluck had dragged an entire mattress into the already fire heated room to sleep more comfortably. An earth pony was strong, no matter their talent it would seem. It was already night again, tomorrow would bring new light and a little warmth. That morning, Kacie awoke, taking the bloody pelt and guts to what he would use as a storage room in the castle, hanging all of it up to dry out and cure for his own use. The blizzard had ended and he was already wrapped in the warmest clothing he could manage and he bounded out of the castle nad back to the frigid wastelands, hoping to find the deer still in place as a marker for the bow. “Never again, never gonna leave that sit again.” And in short order he found the deer, covered in snow and ice and definitely frozen. Maybe the ice made the gore less...gorey? That wasn’t even what had his focus, what did was the wolf standing over it, trying its hardest to get at the frozen meats left. Wolves, he remembered being told that animals were peaceful with Equestria’s harmony, but that harmony was all gone now. Seemed as wild as back in his world now and thank god it wasn’t a timberwolf. He wondered if they even existed now that the world changed so harshly here. K’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of growling, the wolf had noticed him and took time to bare its teeth and tell him to ‘fuck off’ and let him eat. So he thought and thought, he had a knife and was thickly covered. He could fight off a wolf, but he’d probably be worse for wear. Wolves were known for being cowardly though and after having scored an easy meal, it might be easier to scare off. So how to go about doing that? “Alright, I don’t care if you got the deer, my bow is in the snow over there somewhere and you need to move,” he mumbled to himself while he drew the kitchen knife he still had and went to the other side of the deer, giving the wolf a large birth. He went to the trees, next the river and fetcheda large branch that had fallen, lugging it over his shoulder as he came back up, staring right at the wolf, not more than twenty feet off. The growling started again and the moment it did, Kacie slung the branch in a wide horizontal arc and the would be firewood nail the wolf in its side. The bash was enough to send it fleeing and whining away. “Good,” and Kacie didn’t waste a moment apporaching and shuffling through the fresh fallen snow, freezing his fingers some more before they bumped the polymer bow. He clutched it tight and ran right back to the castle, shoving the door open and putting the bow next to it on the inside. He had some free time and a store of calories, so that meant he could prep himself up some more. And he did jsut that, taking any shelves, chairs, decorative curtains, and even just cabinet doors in the castle kitchen and started to break them down with his body force alone. Sure, a hatchet would be handier, but he didn’t want to waste a tool if he didn’t have to. He didn’t even know if there was one in the entire castle, but Roseluck was surely being productive somewhere and would notice one if she saw it, right? They were in this together after all. He had killed many hours doing that and even took many more hours to sow something cloth onto his hideous scarf wrap...thing. Now it wasn’t nearly as loose and wouldn’t snag on much, with a bonus of being a bit warmer. “Wonder if I could get and down feathers, would be especially handy. I’d probably want a shotgun for that and Equestria hasn’t had a single gun anywhere,” he mumbled while he looked at the drying skin in the storage room, “boots, that’s what I’m gonna make first, some good warm boots.” The sun was setting yet again, “probably gonna need to catch another deer then for that,” he heard a door slam from further in the castle, it sounded like this one actually came from the basement. Kacie jumped and looked about at the sound, noticing colorful lights coming from outside of the large windows. “K! Kacie! Kaaaay!” Roseluck galloped to him, holding some kind of cylindrical object with a widened...butt? Butt! Stock! “Holy shit! Is this a rifle?!” It looked like on, sure, but it was shaped really weird and the receiver and trigger mechanism was very bulky and made almost entirely of intricately carved steel. Cascade of Colors "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." - Charles Darwin The object resembling a rifle was humming, ticking, and glowing with a purple magic. “I’m not sure what a rifle is, but I read about these a loooong time ago. Twilight must have made one herself! It’s a boltcaster!” Roseluck pushed it toward Kacie, “I...won’t have much a use for it, but you can probably work it better. They’re mostly designed for pegasi and unicorns to fire. Earth ponies like me can’t stay stable when firing one.” Kacie took the magic arms and looked it over before holding the stock to his cheek and aiming down the barrel while he finger rested on the primitive trigger. His forearm was bulked out by the giant steel center. “Looks like you already know how to use and hold it.” He lined up every part of the iron sights, “hell yeah I do. Dad made damn sure I could fire one of these with a good consistency during my stays out in the woods with him. A boltcaster? So it runs on magic?” “Yeah, but magic has been gone sense the first day of this blizzard. The train sent to canterlot hasn’t even come back yet.” “Does it have bullets? Ammunition?” Kacie was hoping to get the full story about the weapon he held. “Yeah, they’re called magic cartridges. There are only a couple in the basements that I saw. Twilight has or had a bunch of dangerous experiments going on down there.” “How many shots does each cartirdge have?” Kacie continued to drill the mare on the entire projectile weapon. Nine shots in each cartridge, can’t load the shots into a different cartridge like a traditional firearm from Earth. Kacie had a stupid grin as he looked at the weapon, he was in business now. They only came in one caliber, so that didn’t even matter, but they were once used in a short conflict somewhere lost to history and then banned in any warfares as they were deemed too cruel. Sounded like the perfect hunting tool to him and Roseluck had even said they were very accurate and effective over long distances. “So, they need magic to work and magic is gone from our world, but why is it making sounds like it’s functioning now?” Kacie asked. “No clue,” Roseluck shrugged, “but maybe it has something to do with whatever’s outside.” Kacie stopped her from putting on winter gear to head outside, “wait wait. If I need to reload the cartridge, how do I do that?” Roseluck point to a hidden button on the side of the receiver, “push that,” and he did, the ticking stopped in the weapon, “then push that center block.” He pushed on what she pointed to, where a normal rifle’s receiver would be a the giant steel block fell out the other side of the rifle and Kacie barely caught it. K loaded it back in on the otherside and the pushed down button popped back out and the ticking resumed. “Okay okay, let’s go.” "No one can tell what goes on between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side." - Stephen King, The Stand The two of them stood outside in the cold and saw blaring colorful lights coming from inside homes and under the snow and ice in some places. It was a painted rainbow across ponyville, spots of colors everywhere. “Wow, that’s kinda pretty,” Kacie noted. “I...I don’t think so, that’s,” Roseluck swallowed hard, “a magical glow. Those are unicorns in those houses and under the snow.” “But nopony else here is alive, so that means?” They were quiet at Kacie’s question. “A magic surge, that would explain why the boltcaster is working.” “Reminds me a bit of an aurora,” K commented and numerous howls sounded into the air, “but animals sure don’t like it. “Not animals,” Roseluck could tell with her superior hearing and pointed to their left, “timberwolves. They can sniff out magic.” “Looks like they see us,” Kacie heft the rifle a little higher, bracing himself against the railing of the entry staircase. “What are you doing?! We need to go inside!” “If those things get inside, our home is gone. Besides, I need practice and four timberwolves would be a could practice for that,” he took aim at the stalking wooden wolves. “Fine! Fine! You can die out here and then they won’t come after me!” Roseluck swifted herself inside. Kacie could feel the cold biting down on his fingers, but he steadied his breathing and the barrel of the boltcaster. The circle iron ring of the sight fell on one timberwolf and the front sight lifted, lining up perfectly on the wolf that must have been a hundred or so feet out. He pulled the trigger and a loud sound of gases exhumed at the cartridge, creating an a high pitched sigh sound. A purple bolt of magic zipped across the snow and hit the timberwolf squarely, blasting wood out for yards. “Too cruel? I’m inclined to agree,” he took aim at another wolf and attempted to fire again, but the trigger didn’t move. He pulled again, “hold on...a jam? What? That shouldn’t be possible for this thing,” he noted lavender wisps of magic leaking out the cartridge top, the steel block seem to have an opening along the edges and the smallest of hooks to grab. Kacie pulled the hook to the side and the lavender magic whooshed out quickly all at once and he could see a glowing purple core through a small slat he opened, “ah, bolt action, got it,” he slid the hook back and the slat closed. Fwoo-aaaaah He fired the weapon again and cycled the exhausted magic out while the second timberwolf he shot was blasted to smithereens. The other two took to running off toward the frozen Everfree forest, “how’s that dad? A gun is a gun is a gun,” he nodded firm. And then opportunity came calling, if he could easily take out those timberwolves, then he could bag another deer and be that much closer to proper clothing. So Kacie went back inside, ignored every bit of Roseluck’s protests, and grabbed the cartridges from the basement, slapped it on the sled he made here and was out the door to the river again. He went and deer were sure enough there, so he waited, waited a while for the perfect opportunity, when the deer all drew close together. The iron ring of the rear sights captured all the deer in it, “okay Kacie...rapid fire, get the skins and meat fast...not gracefully, fast,” he breathed out and let the front sight picket line up on one deer’s head and he shot. Direct hit, cycle. Direct hit, cycle. Miss, cycle. Two deers laid in the snow this night while he himself was getting colder. The only human in Equestria raced over and drew the kitchen knife, cutting into the first deer. All this meat would mean he could focus on gathering firewood for coming days and even help Roseluck search. He could expend as many calories as he wanted doing what he needed to. The first skin was cut free and then the second skin followed easily enough, he was learning the faster nuances of gutting. Then the actual intestine and guts followed. He heard howling and whipped his head up and to the left, seeing another pack of Timberwolves enclose. The boltcaster was in his hand again, aimed and ready, but his shivering made it harder to pick a target. “F-f-fuck,” he fired and cycled, blowing one timberwolf of five away. The sights leveled again onto another timberwolf and fired, watching his shot go wide. “Shit shit shit shit shit,” he cycled the expended magic essence again, fire and a miss and the timberwolves started to approach in earnest, the wooden bodies were clacking. Fwoo-aaaaah Another miss, cycle. Miss, cycle. Kacie pulled the trigger and nothing happened, not a shot, there was no humming, just ticking. Those timberwolves were getting awfully close. He overcame the shivering and pressed the release button, shoving the spent case out and slamming another in. This shot landed and so did the next, thanks to the closer proximity. The remaining two timberwolves who got a stone’s throw away fled at his display of power and he cycled the new cartridge again. K wasted no time and gathered the rest of the guts and skins and placed them on the sled, carving giant hunks of meat out of the deer haphazardly before he put the sled harness into his hands and ran. Ran with all his might carrying the heavy sled, “c-c-cold, wolves,” the only thing in mind was reaching home again. He was a risk taker, that was sure. ThriveHe almost reached the castle, but there was another issue and he dropped the sloppy travois not even made for him. He lifted the boltcaster with seven shots left and crouched low, taking aim and bracing himself, preparing to become the fastest shooter Equestria would never know. "Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it." - Robertson Davies A black bear was approaching him, lights of overloaded unicorn behind the beast, “god fuckin’ help me,” the massive creature had to sniff him out and he had taken too long of course. He took aim at the bear, lining sights up and knowing that while it blew apart timberwolves, it act far more like a large bullet against actual flesh and bone, the deer just fell over when they were shot. It could be that timberwolves aren’t held together by a strong force. The bear had charged at him, shaking with all its shaggy fur. Kacie had a good idea of where his strike would land, but he wasn’t certain for sure. Fwoo-aaaaah He missed and cycled the expended magic out. The bear was charging him and he breathed out and inhaled again, holding that breath. Resolve lived inside us all, but you needed to know how to dig for it. A cream colored coat and raspberry mane came to his mind, so did his dad, and the grass. The green green grass, Kacie would see it. There was no contestation that would stand against that. He fired again and cycled immediately without moving the sights of the gun. A sudden dexterity popped into his hands and he fired a third and exhumed magic a third time. Both shots hits, but he didn’t stop until his had finished the cartirdge and he quickly popped the button and slapped a new one in, it was only when he looked down the sights again that he saw the bear was unmoving, its face was a sight he would remember. Only a few feet away. He put the boltcaster back and skinned the entire bear in the next hour, exhausted. Adrenaline had popped his veins out in his hands as they shook in the bitter winter wind again. Kacie didn’t bother to take any meat from the bear, save his stomach from even the slightest chance of any parasites. The human plopped the bear skin onto the makeshift travois and slid it into the castle where Roseluck stared at him with wide open eyes. “You...you..that’s,” she eyed the sled behind him and Kacie had already started getting to work, hanging skins up and even putting weights on them this time to make them a little more pliable when he would go to make new clothing, “Kacie.” “Yeah, yeah, I’m some kind of rabid animal. I have no intention of ever hurting anypony, most of all you,” he assured the mare.” “Wh-why aren’t you going to eat the bear?” She questioned. “Because if I do, there’s a chance I get some nasty critters in my stomach and there’s not a hospital that could solve that anymore.” Kacie took the meat up to his room, lighting another fire and using the reclaimed wood from countless broken furniture to fuel it why the somewhat sitll fresh venison roasted away. He started cleaning up himself and his hands, pouring boiled water over them and soaping as best he could without wasting too much of it. Water. Water has fish. Kacie resolved it was time to find the hardware store in town when he next could, see if he couldn’t find something to make ice fishing a possibility, “hey, K?” Roseluck called from his bedroom door. “What’s up? Something wrong?” “When do you think this’ll end?” Roseluck asked the obvious question. “I know it’s rough and probably lonely, but I have no idea when this snow will melt and the sun will properly warm us again.” A silence broken only by the sizzle of meat and the crackle of fire filled in. “We should go.” “Go where?” Kacie asked, flipping food over. “Canterlot. We have to, we can find the princesses and see if they’re wroking on something to fix this. Equestria’s never been in a disaster this long without the Elements saving the day,” she plead. Roseluck didn’t know why her tone came out that way, but she was begging him. “We can go there, but I have some conditions,” Kacie dropped his hopeful tone, “you have to wait until I can make some proper gear, some real clothing for me so I can go all the way there with you.” “How long will that take?” Kacie looked to his hands, moving them around in the air before molding them over his legs and then his body, “give me a month, then I’ll be ready for anything.” “A-a month?!” “One month, maybe less. I need to have proper thermals, pants, a working hat, gloves...and tools like an actual hatchet and a strong knife. And preferably, some kind of deterrent for wildlife,” Roseluck nodded rather understandably. “W-well, it’s not like I’d make it there without your help, the train’s not here, it’s in Canterlot.” Kacie looked to her with a smile, “is that where everypony you knew headed?” He asked and she nodded, “hey...weird question, but does Equestria have any fruit trees? Or Orchards?” Roseluck tilted her head. “There is the cherry rrchard in Dodge Ju-.” “Holy shit,” Kacie breathed out, “oh man...what I’d do to make a cherry pie.” “You can bake?” Roseluck’s eyes beamed. “Humans can be incredibly talented, Rosie. You know...after I cook all this up and I go out tomorrow, I’ll come back with a treat for you.” “A treat?” She came into the room, sitting next to him at the fire. “Something to really look forward to,” he nudged her, “and thanks for sitting with me, I know you don’t exactly like the smell of this cooking, but-.” “No no, it’s alright. I got a little used to it now I think. You’re kinder than you let on, K.” To C or Not to CSkins, that’s what he needed a lot of now to make the journey. Those would come naturally over time, but the tools, he’d need a real axe, something to actually use and other tools to help save his and Roseluck’s ass were something to happen along the way. Kacie had gotten up that morning, cleaned the travois completely for Roseluck to use and even sanitized it. “A bag, a backpack would sure be helpful for this,” he mumbled to himself as he picked up the boltcaster and knife from the foyer of the abandoned castle and was gone out the door. First up, tools, so he went wandering around Ponyville, looking at each building he could to spy any hint of what he needed being in one of them. His goal was the commercial street. A howl chilled his spine, wolves were moving into this area and they were bound to get more and more desperate in their attempts for food. He was a predator in competition with them after all. And he did eventually come across a hardware depot, a larger building in Ponyville. His unprotected hands wrapped around the door handle and he yanked, staring the closed sign down with something akin to hatred. The door didn’t budge and he tried again, harder, thinking the snow piled in the front might be making it harder. The door didn’t budge, had to be locked. But with no magic in Equestria, he didn’t think he’d have to worry about wards stopping him from entering. He reared the butt of the boltcaster up and smashed it into a window. The glass caved easily enough and he climbed through, feeling a bit warmer already. “Ooookay, spooky. Kinda dark as hell in here with few windows, but let’s get to looking,” he wandered about, pulling everything he thought was useful and chucking them over by the broken window. Kacie did find a hatchet, a splitting axe, and a much tougher knife, looked like it was specifically meant for woodcarving, definitely a hooby of many ponies. Though the blade was shorter than a usual hunting knife, that would’nt matter too much. If it could carve wood, it could carve tendons, joints, and ligaments, too. “Goddamn freezing even in here...breaking that window might not have been the best idea.” Lucky for him, there was still an abundance of whetstones and those were carefully transported to the window unlike everything else. The stores had saddlebags and some kind of faux leather, maybe woven fabrics, cut out into pieces and strips. They wouldn’t be much good for keeping warm, but he could fashion something out of them. Kacie took time to do exactly that and started modifying three of the small saddlebags into a proper multi-pocket backpack. He brought along some sewing material specifically for this, but after a while, his hands start to shake from the cold. Even in the afternoon, it was frigid for him still. Survive, that was the big picture and he had a bunch of small little puzzle pieces to fit into it. “Need to finish up here I guess.” And he went past the “no customers beyond this point” door. It was a living room, plain and simple like every other house. Not much for him to really use here, but the bedroom was a different story. Two ponies laid in it, wrapped in winter gear and blankets. Cold to the touch. “Some just...just don’t think and they just give up, huh?” He somberly patted to the frozen corpses, taking a moment to look them over, “guess that fuckin’ figures,” he pulled the keys to the store out of the stallion’s pocket, “’spose I’m lucky enough to know how to start a right proper fire.” He left the bedroom after going through every drawer and even the closet, nothing useful to him. He made a final effort to pile all the food fore Roseluck up at the front counter before he wrapped a moving blanket from the store around all his loot and started to drag it on back to the castle. It was still afternoon, thankfully, and that meant he had more time. Roseluck wasn’t present and neither was the travois, so she must had been out in a different part of town to stockpile things up. Kacie lit a fire in his bedroom to recouperate heat, during which he finished punching and sewing together something like a backpack. It fit comfortably enough, sturdily enough. He even took time to make little loops for his hatchet and knife. The boltcaster even got a strap that he could use to hang it around his shoulder or neck. “Alriiiight, now we’re in business,” he made a point to set some of the woven and treated fabrics aside so he could make something specifically for bringing back harvested game maybe that night or the next day. Kacie left out again with the sun hanging over a little later than he liked, but he had a goal. “Forests, needs some shady dampish places to grow,” so off he went to the Everfree Forest. Not the smartest move to make, but he needed to make it. In reality, he didn’t need to make it right this moment, but for morale sake, he did. His dad also taught him not to go back on his word. He stood at the edge, most of the fern, brush, and twiggy plants were stripped of every green fiber they had. This made it very easy to see unlike when he first saw it in Equestria. Foraging for the right things would easily be a breeze in here. “Now...let’s dig in,” he entered into the forest, keeping the boltcaster close to his abdomen and his finger right next to the trigger. Many things thought he’d be an easy snack before in here, that’s probably still true. He didn’t struggle to find much of the things he wanted, pulling buds from bushes and scrapping mushrooms off stumps and trees. Most people wouldn’t dare to think about eating let alone foraging plants in the wilderness. Accidentally poisoning oneself was enough to keep most foragers away. But K’s dad made sure he developed a taste for this stuff, it’d be like a little yellow brick road to home for his tongue. Kacie guessed a couple hours had been going by and with his bag now filled to the brim of foraged buds and mushrooms, he returned back to the castle without issue. An easy outting at last. It took him far less time to prep the plants he brought back and he started making a large bag for meats and skins that he would bring back from the fabrics he took out of the hardware store. This would make hunting easier and meant the travois was dedicated to Roseluck only. “Let’s see...three deer skins, that’s a pair of boots and the start of some pants. A bear skin that I can easily pull into a whole coat,” he whispered to himself, “gonna need to down two more deer, maybe a moose if I’m lucky. Get a nice hat and some mitts from a bunch of rabbits,” he kept whispering aloud, “check a firehouse or police station around town for something to keep wildlife off.” He turned to the bow in his room. He could eat all the meat he was gathering for a store of calories while he ran about trying to collect proper wood to dry out for arrows and feathers for fletching. As for coal, the train’s not here and they’d have to hoof it to Canterlot so that would be the best place for some hotter burning fuel then he could properly mold out some arrowheads from the many pots, pans, and other metals around Ponyville. A plan was coming together quite nicely. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms." - Henry David Thoreau, Walden If he ever did see Twilight again, he’d have to thank her for being a bit of a doomsday prepper and hobbyist. “Hey! Hey! I know that smell!” A voice came from the other side of his door and he set the bag down that he was working on, pieces of fabric strewn messily over the floor. Roseluck opened the door a little too excitedly and trotted her way over after it banged on the wall. “No waaaay,” she sat down next to him, looking into one of two pots and seeing a deep red liquid steaming in front of her. “Pour yourself a cup, Rosie,” Kacie smiled to her, pouring a cup of yellowish brown liquid himself. Roseluck took a sip from the mug she had just poured while Kacie moved the pots away from the fire he had built, “rosehip tea! I...I can hardly believe it!” The man smiled even wider, taking a sip from the savoury but bitter tea he made himself, “glad you like it. It’s all yours, the whole pot.” Roseluck threw her hooves around him, squeezing tightly, “I used to have this so many times before bed. Thank you, thank you, thankyouthankyou!” She cried into the echoy ceiling, “K, you’ve gotta be the nicest stallion in all Equestria.” He patted her back, rubbing up and down with his hands, “well, let’s hope I’m not the only one. Something else to look forward to when we get to Canterlot.” She kept a huge grin as she released him, sitting close, “I can definitely make it through a whole month of waiting with this. What are you having?” “Reishi tea,” he answered, “high in vitamin C, the one deficiency that’ll turn deadly for me real quick,” he took a sip, “and doctors...at least on Earth, found that it can be a good antimicrobial natural medicine,” Kacie rolled his eyes, “annnnnd my dad made sure I knew what it looked like, how to prep the fruiting body, and he got me addicted to the taste.” Roseluck laughed as she stared at the fire, “addicted? To drinking mushroom water?” She shrugged her hooves, “worse things have happened than that,” Kacie moved his cup in front of her lips and she took a sip before sputtering and clearing her palate with the red drink, “euugh, what is that? It’s so bitter. I think your dad was trying to kill you, K.” “To each their own, Rosie. You ever make a tincture from burdock root? Or how about birch bark?” She cringed at his words, “you don’t get to be too picky in the wild,” he took another long drink from it, “how goes your scavenging around Ponyville?” “I have a good stock of tools in the basement and a huge pile of food,” Roseluck answered, “If it all stays forzen I could eat for...years maybe by rationing.” Years, that’d be a long time to live like this. That wasn’t a thought that crossed Kacie’s mind until she said it. Now he needed to mentally prepare for that possibility. “Hey, what if we can’t fix this? What if the princesses can’t fix this?” Kacie started. “What do you mean?” “What if we’re stuck like this?” He clarified, “in the blinding snow?” Roseluck let her head fall, “I don’t know, K. Maybe I’d give up.” “I sure as hell wouldn’t let you. I’ve only been surviving with you for like a week, but you’re not going anywhere on me,” he nudged her. “Then maybe you could teach me some of your tricks or knowledge,” she pipped a little. “Well, I just think that eventually we’d have to move to other places. So if Canterlot is a bust, then we should come back here and gear up to go to other places. Like Dodge Junction you mentioned or somewhere big like Baltimare, gotta have a good stockpile we can find in those places.” Roseluck perked even more, “travel all of Equestira?” “Yeah, we could totally do that,” K agreed. He did want to see more than just Ponyville and a glimpse of Canterlot. He did firmly believe that Roseluck was seeing him through that potential possibility as much as he was seeing her through it.
Count Losses LaterEquestria has long since been in control of its own weather, that allowed ponies to have generous time to plan things and natural disasters were unheard of. That solves that problem. He'll never be a problem in our manes again. So Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn came when they planned for them to come. Magic was a great tool in that endeavor as well, it let them change orbital distances to cycle into a different season. Crops were always bountiful. Sister, something seems to be wrong, why is it slightly smaller? I...I can't control it. Send for Twilight! Help me, Luna! Magic also allowed the citizens of Equestria to enjoy some machinery powered by it. It made Kacie all that more comfortable when he was whisked to Equestria as part of a magic anomaly. Life in Equestria was easy, everything was habitable. I-I can't do anything either, not even with you two! I'll teleport Cadence here right away! King Sombra did manage to return from under the icy wastes and endless snow of the Frozen North, but Celestia had decided it was time for the enslaving unicorn tyrant to meet his end. Death was common, murder wasn't. None of us can do anything! We have to make this public, find somepony who can come up with a solution! I know! Starlight Glimmer might know something! Good idea, go get her, Twilight And the dark unicorn was banished to the sun where he meet a quick death, melting in the harsh temperatures before he could realize it. His spirit burned second in the great star and it left a curse. What?! I...I can't teleport! Twilight! I can't teleport! I can't even levitate...levitate anything! Equestria changed drastically and it caused many sudden deaths of those who could not handle the unnatural harsh cold. The Crystal Empire was formally declared lost, governments vanished within a matter of days, frozen corpses were covered over in blankets of snow and ice. Barely any single pony survived that day, most of them unicorns. The survival rate for them hit almost zero the next day. Magic is gone. He took our magic, he cursed us with his final breath.
The Carnivore ReturnsIt was established that ponies were at the top of the food chain, they could provide for other animals in more civil ways. When Equestria's infrastructure shattered, so did the idea that some carnivores were friendly. That let the one most prepared resident of the nation unleash his old colors and turn his back from the vegan diet he uptook for the satisfaction of ponykind and the sake of harmony. Kacie knew some good survival methods already, of course he did he was training to follow his father's footsteps, but some of what he learned was only book knowledge. Who knew if he could do it all on his own without a teacher. "And on the third day...God created the Snow and said it was the only thing the world ever needed," he sarcastically laughed as he trudged through Ponyville, coming to the giant crystal tree castle that Twilight called home, "wasn't here earlier in the morning, second day after this blizzard, let's try again." He banged on the door, shivering in his blue jacket and jeans, "god...why didn't I at least get teleported into this land with some kind of sweats or better pants. Fucking freezing." And that's when he felt the chill. "Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception." - Carl Sagan Not the chill of the cold or the wind that blew his body heat away. Not the snow seeping into his sneakers. The chill that nobody would answer the door. The chill that told his mind what his body already knew. Act or die. And so he heaved the crystal doors open, as hard as he could, feeling warmer the moment he crossed through to the other side. With the wind chill out of the way, he could feel a bit better, but his fingers and toes were still numb just from the walk over here. “Even though there’s no wind...the castle is still cold, why? Why hasn’t magic done anything?” Kacie waltzed further into the castle, “Twilight?! It’s the second day! Everypony already evacuated Ponyville and went to Canterlot!” He started shouting, “what the hell is happening?!” No response, not in the forms he’d want. “She’s gone, went to Canterlot,” a soft, rigid mare spoke up, an unwanted soothing tone in her voice, “before everypony evacuated out of Ponyville. We’re the only two still here, human.” Kacie stopped in the middle of the foyer and looked around, seeing a beige coated and raspberry maned pony trot down from the railings, clad in a lot of fabrics, some even actually being winter clothes. “She...left?” “I took the last train I could when I heard the rumors that the princesses couldn’t fix this,” she met him, having descended fully, “all my flowers died, all of them, even the hardiest in the cold. I’m sure you know the horror of seeing your life’s work vanish.” Kacie could feel the need for sympathy, “listen, we’ll make it out of this just fine. I know some deaths have been reported, but-.” “All cities were frozen over by last night,” she interrupted him, “and it’s just a matter of time before things erupt in Canterlot. We have only food stockpiles! We’re all going to starve!” She yelled, a little in desperation and a little in hope that something would hear her and take pity. “My dad was a ranger,” Kacie fired off back, plainly without hesitation. “Huh? What does-.” “My dad. Was. A. Forest. Ranger. I can do this, I can make it through this Winter or whatever this is, nature doesn’t just stop like this,” he was stern now, “I can make it through this.” “Well, that’s nice. The alien’s confident in himself. Can’t you find somewhere else to hole up until you starve?” Cynicism was a good sign that somebody was hiding something. He sighed out, “I’m gonna make a shelter out here, too. There’s plenty enough room and you won’t even notice me around. I’ll be spending a lot of time cooped in a room or outside gathering supplies.” “Supplies? What is there to gather?” “I still don’t know your name,” he offered a more civil conversation. “Roseluck.” “Kacie, but call me K. People only use my full name when they’re angry at whatever mess they got themselves into,” he didn’t ask, he took the mare’s hoof and shook it himself, “I’m gonna go find something to wear to get warm,” and he marched past her and up the steps. “What...what do you plan to do?” “Survive.” Kacie had gone in and out of countless rooms, turns out ponies did wear sock and while loose, they did fit a good potion of his legs. Two pairs went on under his sneakers, reaching almost to his groin. He did take some scarves and beanies, wraping his neck and face thoroughly and pulling two beanies over the scarves to ensure they held in place. Now, he had taken a guest suite, containing its own fireplace inside of the giant castle. He sat down with many more scarves and a lot of sowing supplies along with some blankets. “There you are!” Roseluck trotted in through the open door, now having saddlebags atop her back, “had to search all over for you.” “Roseluck,” he addressed her, arranging scarves into different positions, trying to plan something out. “You have zero sense of color or taste,” she opened her saddlebag with her mouth and fetched out a couple water bottles, throwing them next to Kacie along with a bunch of fresh vegetables. Kind of fresh vegetables, it would only be a matter of time before these disappeared altogether regardless if they were sitting frozen in some home or not. Real wildlife would get to them eventually. “Hey...thanks,” he looked up to her. “Sorry for being so...mean when you first came in here. I know I had an opinion of you when you first got to Equestria, but seeing as we’re the only two in Ponyville....I should be a bit nicer.” Kacie drank a bit greedily before he took a huge bite out of a head of lettuce, talking with food still grinding in his teeth, “Roseluck, I need to be honest with you...have you seen the wolves and deer...bears, birds, and maybe more wildlife that’s been coming closer and closer to town?” She nodded her head, “something happening to them?” “No, they’re reacting to all this. You ponies were caretakers of them for the longest time, now you can’t even keep your own populace handled. They’re returning to baser instinct, they’ll be eating any fruits, veggies, and kind of food they can find in Ponyville.” “But-,” “It gets worse. Those wolves and bears, they might even make a go for you or me if they get desperate enough.” “How can you be so sure?” Roseluck laid near him as he kept eating and sowing proper winter clothing out of the scarves he collected to work with. “When everything is on the line and survival becomes paramount, everything returns to its baser instinct. That can include us. So uh...remember that. I had a request for you,” Kacie started. “What...what is it? Don’t try to get too cozy with me.” “I want you to go out into town, gather as much produce as you can and bring it back, keep it in the coldest most secure room you can find in the castle, bag all of it separately in portions. The quicker you can do this, the less risks you take and the higher chance of surviving we have.” “You really are demanding, I’m trying to work with you and you’re just being bossy,” Roseluck turned her nose up at him. “I’m trying to save your life and give you valuable information and instructions. I’ll...I’ll leave almost all the produce to you, my species is omnivorous, so...I’ll be out hunting whatever I can or fishing if that’s even possible still,” Kacie sighed, “and while I’m out doing that stuff, I’ll come back with firewood so we don’t freeze and we can cook things so it’s safe to eat them.” Roseluck nodded, “I...I’ll be back, Kacie.” “Call me K.” Author's Note The story will contain quotes of peoples/medias used in the game and references to the actual game, they will be denoted in the quote format that you saw in this chapter. Next one will be a bit more gritty and lonely.
How to HuntKacie had finished sowing all he could, Roseluck had left an hour ago or something like that. No clock worked, at least not the ones around the castle, such a small observation really pointed to how much magic was intrinsic to Equestrian society. The young ranger stood up from the bed, looking over himself in the mirror as an amalgamation of colors. Scarves sown together layered his arms and chest along with his legs like some kind of shoddy woolen bodysuit. He had cut a hole out of a blanket and shoved his head through it just to drape it over his body. The corner were binde3d with needle and thread so it could better cover him. “I’m gonna need so many more things,” he sighed out to himself. With the light snowfall outside, he couldn’t be out too long in case it turned to a blizzard again, “not windproof, not waterproof,” he still walked out of the room he laid claim and back out to the foyer where he could see packaged and bagged vegetables being shoved next to the front door. "You know, I once read an interesting book which said that, uh, most people lost in the wilds, they, they die of shame. Yeah, see, they die of shame. 'What did I do wrong? How could I have gotten myself into this?' And so they sit there and they... die. Because they didn't do the one thing that would save their lives. Thinking." - David Mamet, The Edge He nodded with a smile, “good,” and left through the front door to greet the cold outside with absolutely nothing useful in hand. The chill in the evening air met him, but what warmth the farther sun granted Equestria gave him some time before night came to try and extinct more creatures out. Kacie wasted zero time, leaving the castle and opting to search out home after home after home, trying to recall what he could about the ponies that lived there. Along the way, he was piling supplies in each home in a horribly organized stack in case Roseluck came by so she could easily see them and take them. He was finding some valuable things as he went, firewood in some homes that he was also setting aside for later collection. Kacie did sneak some bites of cold fruits and vegetables as he went, making sure to hide the corpses of produce in snow outside. Starvation was his first enemy and searching for supllies his second. Being in and out of buildings helped to maintain his heat under all his fabric, but the light wind was still slowly knocking it from him. Survive. He finally came across a home that contained something he could use. A bow enthusiast’s home, rather that’s probably what their cutiemark was in. Targets were used as decorations on the walls, but to find what he hoped for Kacie had to search. And of course, the owner took the good ones, but Kacie still found a decent wood bow with a good number of munition for it. He didn’t take count, pulling the quiver onto his hips and the bow into his hands, he left the home, swiftly returning back to Twilight’s abandoned castle. “Bow, eleven arrows, some kind of clothing,” he breathed in, feeling a little wet at the scarves that now had cold water in them along with the ebanie he wore, “fuck. I’m gonna need to be conservative and find some tools for hunting and firewood, get everything ready.” Roseluck entered back into the castle shortly after him, “what’s with the bow?” she wheeled a cart in and Kacie immediately ignored her question. “No no, that’s not,” Kacie took off into the castle with no further explanation. “Okay, bye?” Roseluck started to unload the cart of frozen produce. “You’re not doing that,” he returned with a large sled from a storage room he had passed by and some rope. He pulled a tent stake out from under his elbow and a hammer as well, “a cart is a good idea, but it’s gonna tire you out, wheels aren’t meant for snow.” “Aren’t you just a know it all?” The florist scoffed at him, shaking her head in agitation. Kacie punched six solid holes through the edge of the sled using the tent stake and hammer. Then he strung rope through on the first two holes at the top of the sled on either side. He looked at the cart’s railing and took mighty wings of the hammer, knocking the wood loose and completely off. “What the hay are you doing?!” Roseluck didn’t move to stop him, but her hooves stomped on the crystalline floor in worry. The cart didn’t take too much damage, but Kacie only took two long pieces of lumber from it. He tied them to either side of the sled, hooked to the rope, “if I had the time, I’d hand drill you a hole for the rope so it’s more secure, but this’ll do,” and he created a loop on the other side of the lumbers, one that Roseluck could easily fit her head through, “wheels don’t work in snow. This, while it might be a horrible example of a travois, will be very efficient for you.” “But my cart can carry more!” “And how much do your hooves ache from trying to pull it as it got stuck?” He noted back and she went quiet, “listen, I know it might seem like I’m arrogant, but I’m doing these things for you, your survival. Wasting energy will make you eat more and mean we can’t live as long as we could.” “And what would that matter?” She mumbled, “we’re bucked anyway.” “I don’t believe that and if so, we can find a sustainable way to live. I um,” Kacie began to broach a hard topic, “did leave some produce stacked neatly in some houses so you can grab it easily. I do have a bit of a confession,” he broached, “I might have to have some fruits and vegetables now and again to supplement my own diet or I might become too feeble to do anything.” “I see...just remember that it’s the only thing I can eat,” it wasn’t that she was ungrateful, but she was a bit prideful, “thanks, Kacie.” “Just K, not sure how many times I have to tell you that. You asked about my bow, I uh...intend to go hunting as soon as I get some tools in my hands, and probably better in the morning.” “Do you not have something to eat?” Roseluck asked, trying on the new piece of equipment made for her and pleased that it fit well enough. “Some candy and snacks I picked along my way. These are what I’m eating first, they’ll go bad quick. I know you’ve done a lot today. I’m not gonna lord over you, your decisions are your own to make, but always make some decision,” Kacie spoke gently, revealing the stack of wrapped candy bars and other sweets in a pocket along with crushed bakery items in an unholy amalgamation that party ponies would convict him for or raise him as a genius. “I’m...I’m done for the day,” she resolved, “I’ll go back to my own room,” she gathered some of the food and drink she ahd brought back, trotting up the stairs. “Goodnight, Roseluck.” “Goodnight K.” "The foraging for food and water, the struggle for life in a world without masters, housed in a body that man had made dependent on himself." - Richard Matheson, I Am Legend Kacie was tired, but he refused to just be a burden. He grabbed a simple kitchen knife, sharpest he could find. That late evening, he exited the crystal tree, bow in hand with an arrow ready. He was...competent enough in using it, but not an expert archer by any means, “let’s see if I can really walk my talk.” He ventured far from Ponyville, heading into outskirts of where a river once ran freely. The water was fully frozen over, but he saw exactly what he wanted to see and he crouched low, staying behind a shrub line. He drew his bow back, letting an arrow loose into snow alone a couple of yards off to test his aim, letting it sink almost silently into the white powder. Kacie retrieved it and began to advance toward the closest cervus, no antlers. He went from tree to tree, remaining as quiet as he could as the deer feasted on dried grasses for what little nutrition it had. He eventually had placed himself downwind, behind a tree, only twenty or so meters off, a bit of a challenging shot. Lungs, go for the lungs. He slowly crept out from behind the tree, pulling an arrow back and letting it loose as the deer raised it’s head to look about. Schhthunk He hit his mark, watching as the deer whined and galloped away, blood trailing it while fellow members of its herd scattered in a different direction. This was the relatively easy part.
Her Bitter Claws "What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question." - Margaret Atwood Next was the tracking, the awful part of hunting as his dad explained on his first trip. That was with a rifle, not a bow. His dad also took that shot and down the animal right then, not awaiting a couple minutes. Kacie didn’t take off after it, but after a time he felt was fifteen minutes, he ran as quick as he could, following the bloody trail the deer left. He could feel the wind chill through the clothing he wore, robbing his heat. The gales were picking up and his makeshift winter gear was showing that it had no worth in the harsher aspects of the new climate. Kacie had to fight to plant his feet into the snow the correct way, burning more and more calories, losing more and more energy, “in hindsight, should have waited to go hunting.” Never take unnecessary risks. Sure, do it in financial endeavors, do it in any kind of gambling hall, take a risk on whether that fast food mexican will keep you on the toilet for an hour. Out here, don’t take that risk. It was something he learned many times watching other people out on trails suffer from slight dehydration, low hunger, some prolonged cold, and heatstroke. It was a lesson he was learning the hard way because of his stubborn nature. The only man in Equestria finally happened upon the deer as a light snowfall began and he quickly looked around, using the deer as a land mark, some nearby trees in the snowy wasteland, “god, fuck,” the bitter cold was sinking into his fat, his muscles, it had long clawed past his clothing and skin, “fast, fast,” he took the kitchen knife, stabbing into the deer and starting with the pelt first and going quick, a bit sloppily, but that was something he could fix later when he got to sowing and punching. His head snapped up and he noted the location and direction of Twilight’s abandoned castle, home, shelter, sanctuary. The knife was going, not as quick as an actual hunting knife would, but his strenght made up for that, “gonna be dull as fuck, abusing a knife like this,” and he started butchering the skinned carcass, carving chunk of meat after chunk of meat and placing them in the inside of the pelt before he just yanked intestines and guts out, cutting them as if he was swinging the knife to attack the cold that was killing him. Panicking, this was panicking, but it was a productive anxiety driven action, not just a waste of resources and needless higher blood pressure. Kacie’s lungs burned, the cold was eating him from the outside and now the inside. He finished his harvest and began to book it back to Twilight’s castle in...the direction he... believed was right. ”FUCK ME!” He bellowed as he pounded his feet as quick as he could in the crosswind of the now raging blizzard. If he had a mouth to laugh at the last curses he brought ponykind, Sombra would surely be heard three times around the world. In this blinding white hellscape, he quickly lost track of how long he was walking, ensuring he was remaining on a straight path by checking the quickly fading footsteps behind him. Five feet of vision was all he was afforded while Nature bore her full fist aimed at him, everything outside the countless powdery punches was still white. “How much longer?” He swore it was an hour or two that he had been trudging, not that the clocks in the castle would tell him how long it really was. The snow crunched until it didn’t, or he just couldn’t hear it outside the wind howling. The wind howled for a very long time, until it didn’t. Or he just couldn’t hear anymore. Is being frostbitten a possibility for him? Of course it was, if he was getting close to that, who knew if he was already hypothermic or not. He shoved one of his hands into an armpit, trading off with the other as he gripped the pelt filled with meat and guts with alternating hands. “Shit...tired...go,” he mumbled. Every step was a mountain, every time he bent his knee it was an entire staircase climbed in the single movement. He was exhausted. “Where...castle, right?” And his cognition sucked. Salvation was in sight now that he saw the purple base of the crystal tree. He went around, climbing the steps with the strength he still had and the will to make it all this surviving work. Kacie was not in any good condition, but he managed the door open and shut it behind him, feeling some warmth return from his own body’s effort. He threw the filled pelt down and looked through some of the other kinds of supplies Roseluck had brought back once he looked at his bare fingers. No yellow, no ghostly white or bruising, skin had just the right amount of cushy give; he was frostbite free. He wiped the wet blood onto the scarf around his neck, throwing it off of him and peeled the dried red off his hands. He grabbed a blanket from the randomized supply pile and willed his diaphragm to heave a bellow through the castle. “Roseluck!” His voice echoed off the crystal walls as he began to uncloth his core, taking the head punched blanket off and all the colorful sown together scarves before his shirt. He wrapped himself in the new, warmer only in relativity blanket and watched as the earth pony mare came barreling, now wide awake, down from the balcony of the foyer and toward him. “K! What-what’s going on?!” She shouted as she galloped down the stairs and to him. Kacie opened the blanket, revealing the pale torso underneath, “h-hey, keep your clothes on! It can’t-,” and he wrapped the mare in the blanket with him, bowling her over to the floor in his exhaustion, “what the b-buck are you doing?!” Roseluck manage to shout at him, “you’re freezing!” “Sorry,” he voice mumbled out, “sorry. Don’t let me...sleep until warm,” his mind was a haze that his mouth had to rip every word out of. “You owe me, human,” Roseluck sighed out, volunteering to hug him with her hooves in an effort to better warm his body, a blush overtook her body as they exchanged heat and cold. The earth pony kept shaking him, watching every now and then to make sure he was blinking. Hours had passed, hours that Roseluck desperately wanted to use for her own sleep. She instead was stuck holding to this human she had just gotten acquainted with. Thankfully, her ordeal was over as he stood from her and put his clothes back on along with the weird scarf shirt thing he had made and the blanket poncho. Kacie nodded his head, “thanks, I...need your help still. Get some matches,” coherency is a good sign in the face of frigid weather, “and some firewood and go to my room,” he took another blanket from the stack of supplies and wrapped all the meat into it, leaving the pelt and guts out in the open air to dry out properly. “I...okay,” this time there wasn’t any real hesitation in her words. Clutching to someone on death’s door, rather clutching to anyone, could make some kind of a trust between them. Kacie mad ehis way, slowly, to his own room, watching Roseluck head off a different direction from the foyer. Shortly after he arrived, there she was and he took a book, cracking it open and riping a couple sheets out into a loose wrinkled roll, “light the match,” and she did. He took the roll of paper and lit them with the match before setting it onto the book, watching the book pages catch flame. He transferred the book to the empty fireplace, setting a piece of firewood atop and watching it light before he followed it with two more pieces of firewood. "Sometimes even to live is an act of courage." - Seneca “Smart,” Roseluck complimented his firemaking method. “Our survival comes before theirs, Twilight will understand,” Kacie placed, on the stone of the fireplace in the crystalline castle, meat. Venison would cook right there for him to eat over the next days. “And that’s grisly.” “I would never...never eat you or any other pony. This...just, I have to. I don’t want to eat the only thing you can eat also,” Roseluck smiled at his words while he sat with glassy worried eyes. “No no, I get it. I’m thankful you’re even doing this now when you almost ended up dead from this blizzard tonight. Try not to get yourself killed, though.” “What do you care?” He asked, turning back to the fire, “what changed? You were rather indifferent about me even being here.” “I...don’t know. I think I’ll just live better with you here,” that came from the pony inside the panicky florist. That was Roseluck after her thorns. “That’s a sweet sentiment,” Kacie commented, feeling warmth come back to him proper while he sat in front of the fire. Roseluck came over to sit next to him, right in front of the flames to get that extra bit of heat, too, “you...you owned a flower shop before all this, right?”
Don't Forget to Live "No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes." - Cormac McCarthy, The Road “A florist, I was Ponyville’s florist and of course I owned my own shop,” Roseluck proudly spoke, “but all those flowers are dead. What did you used to do before all this...well before you even came to Equestria?” Kacie smiled at her question while he watched the meat begin to sizzle, “I was following in my dad’s steps. He was a forest ranger and he was teaching me everything I needed to know. Then I started getting a degree in environmental science and forestry, but it wasn’t too long after I started that I wound up here.” “If you ask me, you don’t need any degree. You’re amazing enough at survival that managing and watching wildlife would be easy for you,” her own lips curved upwards. “Thanks, I’ve not really been told that a whole bunch.” “Well, maybe you’ll get another chance at your degree, K.” “If I do, I’ll help you build back up your greenhouses and shop first,” he nudged the mare. Neither of them had said it, but the two were growing more as friends, as beings who wanted to understand and look out for each other. “So...is it hard? Hunting?” Roseluck returned to the earlier situation. “That blizzard came out of nowhere,” Kacie yawned, feeling actual fatigue instead of the impending cold to claim him. He stretched, flipping over the pieces of venison, “I went to the river, because the water plants should still be above the snow and easy for any potential prey to feast on. It was pretty plentiful of deer. I took my shot and well...” That’s when it dawned on him, “oh fuck.” “Something the matter? You’re warm now, right?” Roseluck peered over to him, looking away from the flames. “I...I left the bow out there,” he shook his head, “god I’m an idiot. I’m gonna have to go back out there and get it.” “You won’t be leaving for a while, not until you cook all this...whatever,” she cringed at the red meat in the room, “tell me why you have a deer skin and guts in the foyer.” “That bow is what’s going to see me through most of this until I can start making my own things, like a proper coat with the skin down there.” “Making your own things?” “You’ll see, Rose. You’ll make it through this horrible cold apocalypse,” Kacie smiled, blinking sleep away as he monitored and moved the venison pieces. “K, I appreciate your knowledge and the sled...thing, but you don’t have to make sure I live,” Roseluck argued, “that’s my job.” “Having a goal, some kind of goal in mind, can be a source of resolve and that’s life or death in a survival situation.” Roseluck paused before she spoke, “did your dad say that?” “Yeah, he uh always said he was living for me,” Kacie sheepishly muttered out. “And you?” “I was living to make him proud.” “No wonder you needed a new goal, already achieved that one,” Roseluck ushered in an awkward silence. Kacie let out a breath, “thanks. I’m not very socialized, but...that means something to me.” Time passed by in silence until all the meat had been cooked and Kacie ate, drank, and slept in the bedroom. Roseluck had dragged an entire mattress into the already fire heated room to sleep more comfortably. An earth pony was strong, no matter their talent it would seem. It was already night again, tomorrow would bring new light and a little warmth. That morning, Kacie awoke, taking the bloody pelt and guts to what he would use as a storage room in the castle, hanging all of it up to dry out and cure for his own use. The blizzard had ended and he was already wrapped in the warmest clothing he could manage and he bounded out of the castle nad back to the frigid wastelands, hoping to find the deer still in place as a marker for the bow. “Never again, never gonna leave that sit again.” And in short order he found the deer, covered in snow and ice and definitely frozen. Maybe the ice made the gore less...gorey? That wasn’t even what had his focus, what did was the wolf standing over it, trying its hardest to get at the frozen meats left. Wolves, he remembered being told that animals were peaceful with Equestria’s harmony, but that harmony was all gone now. Seemed as wild as back in his world now and thank god it wasn’t a timberwolf. He wondered if they even existed now that the world changed so harshly here. K’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of growling, the wolf had noticed him and took time to bare its teeth and tell him to ‘fuck off’ and let him eat. So he thought and thought, he had a knife and was thickly covered. He could fight off a wolf, but he’d probably be worse for wear. Wolves were known for being cowardly though and after having scored an easy meal, it might be easier to scare off. So how to go about doing that? “Alright, I don’t care if you got the deer, my bow is in the snow over there somewhere and you need to move,” he mumbled to himself while he drew the kitchen knife he still had and went to the other side of the deer, giving the wolf a large birth. He went to the trees, next the river and fetcheda large branch that had fallen, lugging it over his shoulder as he came back up, staring right at the wolf, not more than twenty feet off. The growling started again and the moment it did, Kacie slung the branch in a wide horizontal arc and the would be firewood nail the wolf in its side. The bash was enough to send it fleeing and whining away. “Good,” and Kacie didn’t waste a moment apporaching and shuffling through the fresh fallen snow, freezing his fingers some more before they bumped the polymer bow. He clutched it tight and ran right back to the castle, shoving the door open and putting the bow next to it on the inside. He had some free time and a store of calories, so that meant he could prep himself up some more. And he did jsut that, taking any shelves, chairs, decorative curtains, and even just cabinet doors in the castle kitchen and started to break them down with his body force alone. Sure, a hatchet would be handier, but he didn’t want to waste a tool if he didn’t have to. He didn’t even know if there was one in the entire castle, but Roseluck was surely being productive somewhere and would notice one if she saw it, right? They were in this together after all. He had killed many hours doing that and even took many more hours to sow something cloth onto his hideous scarf wrap...thing. Now it wasn’t nearly as loose and wouldn’t snag on much, with a bonus of being a bit warmer. “Wonder if I could get and down feathers, would be especially handy. I’d probably want a shotgun for that and Equestria hasn’t had a single gun anywhere,” he mumbled while he looked at the drying skin in the storage room, “boots, that’s what I’m gonna make first, some good warm boots.” The sun was setting yet again, “probably gonna need to catch another deer then for that,” he heard a door slam from further in the castle, it sounded like this one actually came from the basement. Kacie jumped and looked about at the sound, noticing colorful lights coming from outside of the large windows. “K! Kacie! Kaaaay!” Roseluck galloped to him, holding some kind of cylindrical object with a widened...butt? Butt! Stock! “Holy shit! Is this a rifle?!” It looked like on, sure, but it was shaped really weird and the receiver and trigger mechanism was very bulky and made almost entirely of intricately carved steel.
Cascade of Colors "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." - Charles Darwin The object resembling a rifle was humming, ticking, and glowing with a purple magic. “I’m not sure what a rifle is, but I read about these a loooong time ago. Twilight must have made one herself! It’s a boltcaster!” Roseluck pushed it toward Kacie, “I...won’t have much a use for it, but you can probably work it better. They’re mostly designed for pegasi and unicorns to fire. Earth ponies like me can’t stay stable when firing one.” Kacie took the magic arms and looked it over before holding the stock to his cheek and aiming down the barrel while he finger rested on the primitive trigger. His forearm was bulked out by the giant steel center. “Looks like you already know how to use and hold it.” He lined up every part of the iron sights, “hell yeah I do. Dad made damn sure I could fire one of these with a good consistency during my stays out in the woods with him. A boltcaster? So it runs on magic?” “Yeah, but magic has been gone sense the first day of this blizzard. The train sent to canterlot hasn’t even come back yet.” “Does it have bullets? Ammunition?” Kacie was hoping to get the full story about the weapon he held. “Yeah, they’re called magic cartridges. There are only a couple in the basements that I saw. Twilight has or had a bunch of dangerous experiments going on down there.” “How many shots does each cartirdge have?” Kacie continued to drill the mare on the entire projectile weapon. Nine shots in each cartridge, can’t load the shots into a different cartridge like a traditional firearm from Earth. Kacie had a stupid grin as he looked at the weapon, he was in business now. They only came in one caliber, so that didn’t even matter, but they were once used in a short conflict somewhere lost to history and then banned in any warfares as they were deemed too cruel. Sounded like the perfect hunting tool to him and Roseluck had even said they were very accurate and effective over long distances. “So, they need magic to work and magic is gone from our world, but why is it making sounds like it’s functioning now?” Kacie asked. “No clue,” Roseluck shrugged, “but maybe it has something to do with whatever’s outside.” Kacie stopped her from putting on winter gear to head outside, “wait wait. If I need to reload the cartridge, how do I do that?” Roseluck point to a hidden button on the side of the receiver, “push that,” and he did, the ticking stopped in the weapon, “then push that center block.” He pushed on what she pointed to, where a normal rifle’s receiver would be a the giant steel block fell out the other side of the rifle and Kacie barely caught it. K loaded it back in on the otherside and the pushed down button popped back out and the ticking resumed. “Okay okay, let’s go.” "No one can tell what goes on between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side." - Stephen King, The Stand The two of them stood outside in the cold and saw blaring colorful lights coming from inside homes and under the snow and ice in some places. It was a painted rainbow across ponyville, spots of colors everywhere. “Wow, that’s kinda pretty,” Kacie noted. “I...I don’t think so, that’s,” Roseluck swallowed hard, “a magical glow. Those are unicorns in those houses and under the snow.” “But nopony else here is alive, so that means?” They were quiet at Kacie’s question. “A magic surge, that would explain why the boltcaster is working.” “Reminds me a bit of an aurora,” K commented and numerous howls sounded into the air, “but animals sure don’t like it. “Not animals,” Roseluck could tell with her superior hearing and pointed to their left, “timberwolves. They can sniff out magic.” “Looks like they see us,” Kacie heft the rifle a little higher, bracing himself against the railing of the entry staircase. “What are you doing?! We need to go inside!” “If those things get inside, our home is gone. Besides, I need practice and four timberwolves would be a could practice for that,” he took aim at the stalking wooden wolves. “Fine! Fine! You can die out here and then they won’t come after me!” Roseluck swifted herself inside. Kacie could feel the cold biting down on his fingers, but he steadied his breathing and the barrel of the boltcaster. The circle iron ring of the sight fell on one timberwolf and the front sight lifted, lining up perfectly on the wolf that must have been a hundred or so feet out. He pulled the trigger and a loud sound of gases exhumed at the cartridge, creating an a high pitched sigh sound. A purple bolt of magic zipped across the snow and hit the timberwolf squarely, blasting wood out for yards. “Too cruel? I’m inclined to agree,” he took aim at another wolf and attempted to fire again, but the trigger didn’t move. He pulled again, “hold on...a jam? What? That shouldn’t be possible for this thing,” he noted lavender wisps of magic leaking out the cartridge top, the steel block seem to have an opening along the edges and the smallest of hooks to grab. Kacie pulled the hook to the side and the lavender magic whooshed out quickly all at once and he could see a glowing purple core through a small slat he opened, “ah, bolt action, got it,” he slid the hook back and the slat closed. Fwoo-aaaaah He fired the weapon again and cycled the exhausted magic out while the second timberwolf he shot was blasted to smithereens. The other two took to running off toward the frozen Everfree forest, “how’s that dad? A gun is a gun is a gun,” he nodded firm. And then opportunity came calling, if he could easily take out those timberwolves, then he could bag another deer and be that much closer to proper clothing. So Kacie went back inside, ignored every bit of Roseluck’s protests, and grabbed the cartridges from the basement, slapped it on the sled he made here and was out the door to the river again. He went and deer were sure enough there, so he waited, waited a while for the perfect opportunity, when the deer all drew close together. The iron ring of the rear sights captured all the deer in it, “okay Kacie...rapid fire, get the skins and meat fast...not gracefully, fast,” he breathed out and let the front sight picket line up on one deer’s head and he shot. Direct hit, cycle. Direct hit, cycle. Miss, cycle. Two deers laid in the snow this night while he himself was getting colder. The only human in Equestria raced over and drew the kitchen knife, cutting into the first deer. All this meat would mean he could focus on gathering firewood for coming days and even help Roseluck search. He could expend as many calories as he wanted doing what he needed to. The first skin was cut free and then the second skin followed easily enough, he was learning the faster nuances of gutting. Then the actual intestine and guts followed. He heard howling and whipped his head up and to the left, seeing another pack of Timberwolves enclose. The boltcaster was in his hand again, aimed and ready, but his shivering made it harder to pick a target. “F-f-fuck,” he fired and cycled, blowing one timberwolf of five away. The sights leveled again onto another timberwolf and fired, watching his shot go wide. “Shit shit shit shit shit,” he cycled the expended magic essence again, fire and a miss and the timberwolves started to approach in earnest, the wooden bodies were clacking. Fwoo-aaaaah Another miss, cycle. Miss, cycle. Kacie pulled the trigger and nothing happened, not a shot, there was no humming, just ticking. Those timberwolves were getting awfully close. He overcame the shivering and pressed the release button, shoving the spent case out and slamming another in. This shot landed and so did the next, thanks to the closer proximity. The remaining two timberwolves who got a stone’s throw away fled at his display of power and he cycled the new cartridge again. K wasted no time and gathered the rest of the guts and skins and placed them on the sled, carving giant hunks of meat out of the deer haphazardly before he put the sled harness into his hands and ran. Ran with all his might carrying the heavy sled, “c-c-cold, wolves,” the only thing in mind was reaching home again. He was a risk taker, that was sure.
ThriveHe almost reached the castle, but there was another issue and he dropped the sloppy travois not even made for him. He lifted the boltcaster with seven shots left and crouched low, taking aim and bracing himself, preparing to become the fastest shooter Equestria would never know. "Extraordinary people survive under the most terrible circumstances and they become more extraordinary because of it." - Robertson Davies A black bear was approaching him, lights of overloaded unicorn behind the beast, “god fuckin’ help me,” the massive creature had to sniff him out and he had taken too long of course. He took aim at the bear, lining sights up and knowing that while it blew apart timberwolves, it act far more like a large bullet against actual flesh and bone, the deer just fell over when they were shot. It could be that timberwolves aren’t held together by a strong force. The bear had charged at him, shaking with all its shaggy fur. Kacie had a good idea of where his strike would land, but he wasn’t certain for sure. Fwoo-aaaaah He missed and cycled the expended magic out. The bear was charging him and he breathed out and inhaled again, holding that breath. Resolve lived inside us all, but you needed to know how to dig for it. A cream colored coat and raspberry mane came to his mind, so did his dad, and the grass. The green green grass, Kacie would see it. There was no contestation that would stand against that. He fired again and cycled immediately without moving the sights of the gun. A sudden dexterity popped into his hands and he fired a third and exhumed magic a third time. Both shots hits, but he didn’t stop until his had finished the cartirdge and he quickly popped the button and slapped a new one in, it was only when he looked down the sights again that he saw the bear was unmoving, its face was a sight he would remember. Only a few feet away. He put the boltcaster back and skinned the entire bear in the next hour, exhausted. Adrenaline had popped his veins out in his hands as they shook in the bitter winter wind again. Kacie didn’t bother to take any meat from the bear, save his stomach from even the slightest chance of any parasites. The human plopped the bear skin onto the makeshift travois and slid it into the castle where Roseluck stared at him with wide open eyes. “You...you..that’s,” she eyed the sled behind him and Kacie had already started getting to work, hanging skins up and even putting weights on them this time to make them a little more pliable when he would go to make new clothing, “Kacie.” “Yeah, yeah, I’m some kind of rabid animal. I have no intention of ever hurting anypony, most of all you,” he assured the mare.” “Wh-why aren’t you going to eat the bear?” She questioned. “Because if I do, there’s a chance I get some nasty critters in my stomach and there’s not a hospital that could solve that anymore.” Kacie took the meat up to his room, lighting another fire and using the reclaimed wood from countless broken furniture to fuel it why the somewhat sitll fresh venison roasted away. He started cleaning up himself and his hands, pouring boiled water over them and soaping as best he could without wasting too much of it. Water. Water has fish. Kacie resolved it was time to find the hardware store in town when he next could, see if he couldn’t find something to make ice fishing a possibility, “hey, K?” Roseluck called from his bedroom door. “What’s up? Something wrong?” “When do you think this’ll end?” Roseluck asked the obvious question. “I know it’s rough and probably lonely, but I have no idea when this snow will melt and the sun will properly warm us again.” A silence broken only by the sizzle of meat and the crackle of fire filled in. “We should go.” “Go where?” Kacie asked, flipping food over. “Canterlot. We have to, we can find the princesses and see if they’re wroking on something to fix this. Equestria’s never been in a disaster this long without the Elements saving the day,” she plead. Roseluck didn’t know why her tone came out that way, but she was begging him. “We can go there, but I have some conditions,” Kacie dropped his hopeful tone, “you have to wait until I can make some proper gear, some real clothing for me so I can go all the way there with you.” “How long will that take?” Kacie looked to his hands, moving them around in the air before molding them over his legs and then his body, “give me a month, then I’ll be ready for anything.” “A-a month?!” “One month, maybe less. I need to have proper thermals, pants, a working hat, gloves...and tools like an actual hatchet and a strong knife. And preferably, some kind of deterrent for wildlife,” Roseluck nodded rather understandably. “W-well, it’s not like I’d make it there without your help, the train’s not here, it’s in Canterlot.” Kacie looked to her with a smile, “is that where everypony you knew headed?” He asked and she nodded, “hey...weird question, but does Equestria have any fruit trees? Or Orchards?” Roseluck tilted her head. “There is the cherry rrchard in Dodge Ju-.” “Holy shit,” Kacie breathed out, “oh man...what I’d do to make a cherry pie.” “You can bake?” Roseluck’s eyes beamed. “Humans can be incredibly talented, Rosie. You know...after I cook all this up and I go out tomorrow, I’ll come back with a treat for you.” “A treat?” She came into the room, sitting next to him at the fire. “Something to really look forward to,” he nudged her, “and thanks for sitting with me, I know you don’t exactly like the smell of this cooking, but-.” “No no, it’s alright. I got a little used to it now I think. You’re kinder than you let on, K.”
To C or Not to CSkins, that’s what he needed a lot of now to make the journey. Those would come naturally over time, but the tools, he’d need a real axe, something to actually use and other tools to help save his and Roseluck’s ass were something to happen along the way. Kacie had gotten up that morning, cleaned the travois completely for Roseluck to use and even sanitized it. “A bag, a backpack would sure be helpful for this,” he mumbled to himself as he picked up the boltcaster and knife from the foyer of the abandoned castle and was gone out the door. First up, tools, so he went wandering around Ponyville, looking at each building he could to spy any hint of what he needed being in one of them. His goal was the commercial street. A howl chilled his spine, wolves were moving into this area and they were bound to get more and more desperate in their attempts for food. He was a predator in competition with them after all. And he did eventually come across a hardware depot, a larger building in Ponyville. His unprotected hands wrapped around the door handle and he yanked, staring the closed sign down with something akin to hatred. The door didn’t budge and he tried again, harder, thinking the snow piled in the front might be making it harder. The door didn’t budge, had to be locked. But with no magic in Equestria, he didn’t think he’d have to worry about wards stopping him from entering. He reared the butt of the boltcaster up and smashed it into a window. The glass caved easily enough and he climbed through, feeling a bit warmer already. “Ooookay, spooky. Kinda dark as hell in here with few windows, but let’s get to looking,” he wandered about, pulling everything he thought was useful and chucking them over by the broken window. Kacie did find a hatchet, a splitting axe, and a much tougher knife, looked like it was specifically meant for woodcarving, definitely a hooby of many ponies. Though the blade was shorter than a usual hunting knife, that would’nt matter too much. If it could carve wood, it could carve tendons, joints, and ligaments, too. “Goddamn freezing even in here...breaking that window might not have been the best idea.” Lucky for him, there was still an abundance of whetstones and those were carefully transported to the window unlike everything else. The stores had saddlebags and some kind of faux leather, maybe woven fabrics, cut out into pieces and strips. They wouldn’t be much good for keeping warm, but he could fashion something out of them. Kacie took time to do exactly that and started modifying three of the small saddlebags into a proper multi-pocket backpack. He brought along some sewing material specifically for this, but after a while, his hands start to shake from the cold. Even in the afternoon, it was frigid for him still. Survive, that was the big picture and he had a bunch of small little puzzle pieces to fit into it. “Need to finish up here I guess.” And he went past the “no customers beyond this point” door. It was a living room, plain and simple like every other house. Not much for him to really use here, but the bedroom was a different story. Two ponies laid in it, wrapped in winter gear and blankets. Cold to the touch. “Some just...just don’t think and they just give up, huh?” He somberly patted to the frozen corpses, taking a moment to look them over, “guess that fuckin’ figures,” he pulled the keys to the store out of the stallion’s pocket, “’spose I’m lucky enough to know how to start a right proper fire.” He left the bedroom after going through every drawer and even the closet, nothing useful to him. He made a final effort to pile all the food fore Roseluck up at the front counter before he wrapped a moving blanket from the store around all his loot and started to drag it on back to the castle. It was still afternoon, thankfully, and that meant he had more time. Roseluck wasn’t present and neither was the travois, so she must had been out in a different part of town to stockpile things up. Kacie lit a fire in his bedroom to recouperate heat, during which he finished punching and sewing together something like a backpack. It fit comfortably enough, sturdily enough. He even took time to make little loops for his hatchet and knife. The boltcaster even got a strap that he could use to hang it around his shoulder or neck. “Alriiiight, now we’re in business,” he made a point to set some of the woven and treated fabrics aside so he could make something specifically for bringing back harvested game maybe that night or the next day. Kacie left out again with the sun hanging over a little later than he liked, but he had a goal. “Forests, needs some shady dampish places to grow,” so off he went to the Everfree Forest. Not the smartest move to make, but he needed to make it. In reality, he didn’t need to make it right this moment, but for morale sake, he did. His dad also taught him not to go back on his word. He stood at the edge, most of the fern, brush, and twiggy plants were stripped of every green fiber they had. This made it very easy to see unlike when he first saw it in Equestria. Foraging for the right things would easily be a breeze in here. “Now...let’s dig in,” he entered into the forest, keeping the boltcaster close to his abdomen and his finger right next to the trigger. Many things thought he’d be an easy snack before in here, that’s probably still true. He didn’t struggle to find much of the things he wanted, pulling buds from bushes and scrapping mushrooms off stumps and trees. Most people wouldn’t dare to think about eating let alone foraging plants in the wilderness. Accidentally poisoning oneself was enough to keep most foragers away. But K’s dad made sure he developed a taste for this stuff, it’d be like a little yellow brick road to home for his tongue. Kacie guessed a couple hours had been going by and with his bag now filled to the brim of foraged buds and mushrooms, he returned back to the castle without issue. An easy outting at last. It took him far less time to prep the plants he brought back and he started making a large bag for meats and skins that he would bring back from the fabrics he took out of the hardware store. This would make hunting easier and meant the travois was dedicated to Roseluck only. “Let’s see...three deer skins, that’s a pair of boots and the start of some pants. A bear skin that I can easily pull into a whole coat,” he whispered to himself, “gonna need to down two more deer, maybe a moose if I’m lucky. Get a nice hat and some mitts from a bunch of rabbits,” he kept whispering aloud, “check a firehouse or police station around town for something to keep wildlife off.” He turned to the bow in his room. He could eat all the meat he was gathering for a store of calories while he ran about trying to collect proper wood to dry out for arrows and feathers for fletching. As for coal, the train’s not here and they’d have to hoof it to Canterlot so that would be the best place for some hotter burning fuel then he could properly mold out some arrowheads from the many pots, pans, and other metals around Ponyville. A plan was coming together quite nicely. "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms." - Henry David Thoreau, Walden If he ever did see Twilight again, he’d have to thank her for being a bit of a doomsday prepper and hobbyist. “Hey! Hey! I know that smell!” A voice came from the other side of his door and he set the bag down that he was working on, pieces of fabric strewn messily over the floor. Roseluck opened the door a little too excitedly and trotted her way over after it banged on the wall. “No waaaay,” she sat down next to him, looking into one of two pots and seeing a deep red liquid steaming in front of her. “Pour yourself a cup, Rosie,” Kacie smiled to her, pouring a cup of yellowish brown liquid himself. Roseluck took a sip from the mug she had just poured while Kacie moved the pots away from the fire he had built, “rosehip tea! I...I can hardly believe it!” The man smiled even wider, taking a sip from the savoury but bitter tea he made himself, “glad you like it. It’s all yours, the whole pot.” Roseluck threw her hooves around him, squeezing tightly, “I used to have this so many times before bed. Thank you, thank you, thankyouthankyou!” She cried into the echoy ceiling, “K, you’ve gotta be the nicest stallion in all Equestria.” He patted her back, rubbing up and down with his hands, “well, let’s hope I’m not the only one. Something else to look forward to when we get to Canterlot.” She kept a huge grin as she released him, sitting close, “I can definitely make it through a whole month of waiting with this. What are you having?” “Reishi tea,” he answered, “high in vitamin C, the one deficiency that’ll turn deadly for me real quick,” he took a sip, “and doctors...at least on Earth, found that it can be a good antimicrobial natural medicine,” Kacie rolled his eyes, “annnnnd my dad made sure I knew what it looked like, how to prep the fruiting body, and he got me addicted to the taste.” Roseluck laughed as she stared at the fire, “addicted? To drinking mushroom water?” She shrugged her hooves, “worse things have happened than that,” Kacie moved his cup in front of her lips and she took a sip before sputtering and clearing her palate with the red drink, “euugh, what is that? It’s so bitter. I think your dad was trying to kill you, K.” “To each their own, Rosie. You ever make a tincture from burdock root? Or how about birch bark?” She cringed at his words, “you don’t get to be too picky in the wild,” he took another long drink from it, “how goes your scavenging around Ponyville?” “I have a good stock of tools in the basement and a huge pile of food,” Roseluck answered, “If it all stays forzen I could eat for...years maybe by rationing.” Years, that’d be a long time to live like this. That wasn’t a thought that crossed Kacie’s mind until she said it. Now he needed to mentally prepare for that possibility. “Hey, what if we can’t fix this? What if the princesses can’t fix this?” Kacie started. “What do you mean?” “What if we’re stuck like this?” He clarified, “in the blinding snow?” Roseluck let her head fall, “I don’t know, K. Maybe I’d give up.” “I sure as hell wouldn’t let you. I’ve only been surviving with you for like a week, but you’re not going anywhere on me,” he nudged her. “Then maybe you could teach me some of your tricks or knowledge,” she pipped a little. “Well, I just think that eventually we’d have to move to other places. So if Canterlot is a bust, then we should come back here and gear up to go to other places. Like Dodge Junction you mentioned or somewhere big like Baltimare, gotta have a good stockpile we can find in those places.” Roseluck perked even more, “travel all of Equestira?” “Yeah, we could totally do that,” K agreed. He did want to see more than just Ponyville and a glimpse of Canterlot. He did firmly believe that Roseluck was seeing him through that potential possibility as much as he was seeing her through it.
