Punky Print's Log: Day 6
After Brassheart stood up for us to the other guards yesterday, Inky and I went and found a small wooden house with our names painted neatly by the door. Exhausted from walking since the evening before, we simply walked in, found beds, and slept until morning. Today, we went outside to explore the village around us.
Every house is like ours, a one-story wooden building with a name or two written on the side. The houses are basic, there is a kitchen in each with a table, a bathroom and a bedroom. There's a fourth room as well, which either functions as a second bedroom for families or a living room. Inky and I live in a house near the opening in the wall, and at the farthest reach of the wall is a cliff, which where the wall stops. The cliff drops down into the penitentiary colony, and directly at the bottom is a large farm. The name Starsight used to be painted there in a rich purple, but the ponies there now, Starsight's descendants, said that the name faded a while ago. Two new names are painted there now, Golden Grain and Wheaty Fields. They have a colt about my age, perhaps a few years older. He was the first exiled pony we met here.
"My great-great-grandmare was exiled here," he told us as he tossed a blue ball into the air with his yellow-gold magic. "She studied stars, and discovered that they're just like the sun, 'cept they're real far away. She figured if Luna lifted them and the moon into place every night, and Celestia only lifted the one, maybe Luna was stronger." He dropped the ball and began batting it up into the air with his yellow muzzle, his green mane flopping into his matching eyes. "I'm Lemon Grass. Why are you here?" Lemon Grass had begun to bat at the ball so fiercely that he began jumping up to hit it harder.
"My sister found a book about all the bad things Celestia did," I told him. This news didn't stop his bouncing, so I continued, "We went to Canterlot and confronted her about it." Lemon Grass' eyes went as wide as saucers, and the ball bounced off of his still muzzle.
"Huh?" He turned to size up my sister and I. "But, you're just little fillies. How'd you go face a Princess?"
"Hey, watch it!" Inky shoved herself into the unicorn's personal space, her muzzle scrunched up in what she might have thought was an imposing way. "You're the same age as us, aren't you?! Besides, we already have our cutie-marks!" Sure enough, Lemon Grass' flank was like a blank page, whereas Inky Pie's flank was covered by a distinct ink blot pattern.
"Yeah, well what's your sister's supposed to be?" I looked to my curious flank with my sister and the butter yellow unicorn. I should probably explain that my cutie mark is likely the most ambiguous mark in recorded history. Two black loops - circles or ovals or maybe the symbol for infinity, nopony's really sure - are split down the middle by an arrow, or the point of a quill, or maybe a clock hand. The separate parts are already confusing enough, but together they could be a pair of closed scissors or a strange pen, or a knife. I'm not even sure what it is, or what caused it to appear. I don't remember the day it formed, only that it never washed off like a spill or a stain would have. I shrank back, and my sister stomped her hoof.
"It doesn't matter what it is, she has one!" The colt snorted down at my sister, who proceeded to headbutt him.
"Hey, stop it you two!" Quickly I shoved my way between them, breaking up the beginnings of a fight. Lemon Grass sighed, visibly deflating.
"I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't sleep well last night, it was too loud outside." Inky cocked her head in confusion, hostility forgotten.
"Loud? What do you mean?" Lemon Grass looked at her skeptically.
"You mean you didn't hear the howling?"
"Uh, no," I said, "We walked all the way from Equestria for over a day, as soon as we were in our house we fell dead asleep."
"Oh," he said, "well, y'know how there are wolves outside the walls?"
"Yeah, we fought one!" Inky smirked proudly as the butter colored unicorn gaped.
"No way, liar!"
"We did!" Lemon Grass looked to me.
"Didja really?" I let my mane fall over my face.
"Well, Inky was the only one who really fought," I said hesitantly.
"Yeah, but Punky was the one that made it leave us alone!" Lemon Grass gave me a quick admiring glance before turning to Inky to hear the whole story. As my sister excitedly told Lemon Grass about the bone wolf - in my mind I call it 'Jawbones', likely with far more affection than I should have for a ginormous predator that could easily have devoured me - I looked around in the sky, where a pink pegasus was flying under the clouds. As Inky told the story, Lemon Grass looked up at the pink flash and called out.
"Hey, Rainy! Come listen to this! These two took on a bone wolf!" The pink pegasus, Rainy, stopped mid-flight and dove down into a graceful landing.
"What?" The pegasus looked at my sister and me skeptically, then turned to Inky. "I don't believe you."
"It's true!" Inky smiled and told the story animatedly, mimicking the movements of Jawbones as he/she/it scared away the guards and batted away Inky. "...and Punky just stared the thing down until it left, bony tail between its legs!" Inky puled me into the story, staring at me until 'the thing' left. By now, there was a small audience of foals and younger ponies watching us with rapt attention, and I ducked my head in embarrassment.
"I didn't scare it off," I explained, "Jawbones coulda killed us if he wanted..."
"You named it?" A teal filly stared with wide yellow eyes at me, her short stature adding to the aura of awe she gave off. One of the older ponies, a unicorn with a long chocolate mane, threw her head back and laughed.
"You must have some guts, foal," she said, "to be naming a bone wolf like a pet." I blushed harder.
"Not really," I said, my shy eyes focusing on my black hooves. "It just seemed appropriate..." The tall blue unicorn guffawed again.
"'It just seemed appropriate'! Oh, you're a funny one, huh?" She gave me a playful shove. "I like you two," she said with an air of finality. "My name's Coco, Coco Soy." The unicorn trotted off shaking her head with a chuckle. The remaining three ponies seemed equally impressed with us, but a bit closer to our age. The pink pegasus held out a hoof to shake.
"The name's Rainy Cloud. My family got exiled for trying to pull Nightmare Moon out of the moon," Rainy smirked proudly, like this was and impressive tale in and of itself.
"You know Nightmare Moon actually surrendered to Celestia, right?" Inky nodded as the other ponies gasped in surprise.
"I'm Candy Coat," the teal earth pony said. "My granny tried to poison Celestia. She put poison joke into the princess' tea." The other foals all laughed and joked about what would have happened to Celestia.
"I bet she would be able to do everything but raise the sun!"
"No, she went bald!"
"She woulda shrunk to this size!" Lemon Grass held his hoof about two hoof prints above the ground, and everypony fell to the ground in riotous laughter.
"No no, she drank it all down," Candy insisted, "her horn went limp and her wings shriveled up like raisins!" The lot of us fell to the ground, teas streaming down our cheeks. "And her Equestrian voice went all squeaky!" As we laughed, we forgot all about the howling that Lemon Grass had described.
It's dark outside now, but I can hear a solitary howl just outside the walls. If I strain my ears to listen hard enough, I can hear the faintest whistle with every howl.
AN: Christmas break is coming up, and I'm not sure if that will mean more or less updates...
Also, this is the longest chapter I've put up so far! Yay me!
P.S.: Candy Coat, Lemon Grass, Coco Soy, and Rainy Cloud are all my little inventions, so please ask before using them! (As if this fic could ever get that influential, pony please.)