Oh Deer

Chapter 9...

Today marks the first snow-fall of the year. The autumn colors of bright, fiery orange and neon red have all dissipated, now giving way for the white flurries.

Today, I thought extensively about my mother. I thought extensively about Swirling River. I sobbed to myself the whole morning. Not a single thought of breakfast passed my mind. I stared out my window, watching the flurries fall down in organized fashion as a quiet, chilly breeze brushed through the tree branches.

Today marks the day of my one true discovery about my father. Not only did he sell his soul and well-being to the ponies and abandon my tribe afterwards, but also took the life of my mother in cold blood.

Today, I learned something more about myself. That I am gullible, pliable, moldable. I have been convinced for twenty years that the timber wolves were the enemy, when instead it was my own father all along.

Today marks the day that I can no longer even trust my own kind. Where has the joy gone? Where has the love gone? The love and care for each other? The love for family? The love and friendship that kept us all together?

Today, I look out the window, I see Reed’s house right across the path. I get up, my hooves know my deepest feelings more than I do, and I follow them to the next destination.

Today, I visited his hut. I knocked on the door. I expected him to shout “one sec” from across the hut again. But, there was no call, no stir. Nothing. I knocked again, harder. Nothing at all. Was he out somewhere?

I knocked several more times. It got to a point that my hoof got sore from all the knocking. I sighed slowly at my failed attempt. I knew that it was ultimately useless to try and make it up to him at this point, he would just berate me again about how we, as stags, must procreate with does, and does only. Then, I tried opening the door, and it was unlocked.

A feeling of deep apprehension filled my soul all at once. An unlocked door meant a vacant hut. I felt myself hover around the empty hut like a ghostly figure spectating from another life. It felt like I was merely peering through a window… nothing felt real.

I looked around, to my left was an unprepared fire-pit. In the center lay a round dining table. Just behind it, Reed’s bookshelf, now empty of all its books about the fall of Equestria. To my right, a small pile of my woven baskets… the countless baskets I had given him throughout the years of our friendship. Whether for his birthday, or for just the sake of it. They were the only things left behind.

By now, I had expected Reed to come out and greet me with a plate of his grandmother’s wonderful cooking. I had expected Reed to come out by now and rant endlessly about… something… anything. I had expected him to come out of his hiding spot by now, I had expected his grandmother to do the same. Instead, I found myself standing in the room of a vacant, hollow hut, now, no different from every other hut that was left in this village.

I slowly entered the next room, the kitchen. All of the pots had been taken. All that remained was a small table. On the table laid a note. The hoof-writing was barely legible, and a few stains of what I assume to be water adorned the off-white sheet of paper, which in itself was a torn page from “Equestria’s Demise”,

Deer Cinnamon,
I am writing this because I have left the village. Me and my grandmother are only taking our most important things along.
I will be honest, the number one thing that kept me in this village was her… Sap-Joy. At one point I felt a guilt for feeling entranced by a member of my own blood, but she and I both knew that there wasn’t much left we could do… for us…
You, Cinnamon, were great. You are great. You are my best friend and I will forever cherish that. You are the one that understood me the most throughout my forty-two and-a-half years of living in this world. Sometimes… I even looked up to you when things became tough.
At this age, though, I feel like I must move on. Simply put, I have entered a new chapter in my life, and I will continue on my journey to be with and love the next doe I can cross paths with.
She and I will hold hooves, she and I will boop noses, she and I will make love! She and I will cherish each other for eternity, and create the next healthy generation. I am hopeful that I will be given another chance to save our race, and perhaps start a new chapter in the health of our WhiteTail Tribe.

I had left four hours ago, and I will not provide where I am. Not because I am trying to avoid you, but because I am trying to avoid such an awful mistake that you and I had made. These feelings I feel toward you are not natural… I cannot accept them as such, even if my body tends to say otherwise. Therefore, I shall lead a new path, and me and the next doe will live until a ripe, old age. And we’ll watch our children have children of their own, and so on.
I encourage you to do the same. I encourage you to find a cherish a beautiful doe. I encourage you to start, or rather, to continue the forever-spanning lineage of your wonderful family.
Goodbye, Swirly. My friend forever and even beyond life.

-Reed-Tail

I cycled through the letter a second time.

Then a third time.

Then a fourth time.

“Reed…” This… isn’t a real letter. This isn’t. But… it’s in his hoof-writing…

“Reed…” I’m sobbing, holding the letter… to my face.

“Reed… please… please…”

“You… should’ve just told me… you should’ve just told me…”

“I told you… we’re not-”

“We’re not broken.”

“WE’RE NOT BROKEN!”

I stormed out of the hut, I landed onto the white snow. I smothered my snout into the cold snow. It stuck to my face as my hot tears melted it away. The coldness that shivered through my body shot through me in waves. A gust of wind signaled an impending blizzard. I sobbed harder as if to beg the world for mercy. The trees warped to the wind so much that they appeared to dance freely amidst the gusts. Another gust of wind followed, this time it rocked my body back and forth as another brutal jolt of pure, jagged coldness shot down my spine.

The wind roared angrily through the trees, tree branches fell near and around me. I lifted up my head, the snow particles were whirling around me like they were fascinated by me. I screamed. I sobbed at the falling snow.

I rose up and went full throttle into a gallop down the snow path. My hooves felt light, they felt warm within the ice. I felt free for a moment, I stuck my tongue out and licked the falling snow particles from the air. I kept galloping. I kept sobbing. By now, I passed all the huts, and I found myself galloping deep and far into the thicket of the woods. The wind began to gust with such power that it slowed my gallop. My legs felt deeply sore, and I stumbled over. I bit my tongue whilst hitting the ground with my bottom jaw. My sob morphed into a soft laugh. I just laid there, my body went from feeling extremely cold to soft and warm. I felt myself fade away, I felt everything around me fade away as well. For a moment, I thought I could hear a cold neigh from the sky.