The Long White

by The Real Darkness

Don't Forget to Live

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"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

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“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.