The Long White

by The Real Darkness

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.