Punky Print's Log: Day 13

When I woke up this morning, I was exhausted. I don't know when the wolves stopped howling, only that they still were still doing it when I fell asleep. One moment there was howling, the next the sun's light was burning through the clouds and my eyelids. I dragged myself from my bed and put my black bow in my mane, and with a yawn I donned my cloak. As I headed for my door, there was a knock.

Knock-knock-knock-thump

After the visitor's hoof hit the wood of my porch, I ran to the window and peered out. On my porch stood a unicorn with a long, dark mane and leafy green eyes. I opened the door cautiously, surprised by the smile she greeted me with. She clearly hadn't slept well, which was to be expected, but if anything I had assumed she had come to complain to me about the wolves. Instead, she pulled an ear of corn out from under her hoof-lenght mane with her green magic.

"You need this more than me," she said. I stood there, stunned. She frowned, taking my lack of a reaction to mean a refusal. She floated the corn past me and set it down in the hallway. "No give-backs." I closed my gaping mouth and nodded.

"But, why are you-"

"I saw you stealing from my neighbor's apple tree," she interrupted, "and I know you only did it because nopony will hire you. I feel bad that my parents turned you away, so," she gestured to the corn. I smiled.

"Thank you." As she was about to leave, I asked, "which house is yours?" She tapped her hoof to her chin.

"Follow me." She ran across the main road until she was one house down from the house Candy Coat lives at, and next to one of the houses I stole from yesterday. "This one's mine." As she gestured to the house in front of us I walked around the fence and began carving a crude copy of my cutie mark near to the ground. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Making sure I don't take anything from you by mistake," I replied, still scratching away at the wood. "What is your name, anyway?"

"It's Neko Doodle." Once I finished carving the symbol on the fence I held out my hoof to the smaller unicorn.

"It's nice to meet you, Neko. My name is-"

"No need," she said, "I already know who you are." She shook my hoof and I left for home. When I got there I boiled the corn and waited for Inky to wake up. Once she did, I happily told her about the pony who gave me the corn.

"Wait, so she just gave it to you?"

"Yeah. She saw that we were going through a tough situation and just... decided to help." Inky eyed the corn warily.

"And you're sure she's not up to something?"

"What? Why would you think that?" She turned her head and stared sidelong into my eyes.

"You didn't start howling." I looked down into my corn. "You're afraid of something, or some pony, and it stopped you from howling like everypony was waiting for you to."

"I am afraid," I said quietly. "I'm afraid that the next time I do something like that, the next time I'm different, the guards will take more effective action."

"They can't," Inky said firmly, "Brassheart is the Commander of the guards, if they try to do something worse than they already did he'll stop them."

"Co-Commander," I corrected.

"What?"

"Brassheart is Co-Commander. The other one is the pegasus who ordered that we be thrown out of the wall." Inky's eyes widened.

"Oh son of a-" I nodded. Lemon Grass hadn't understood, but Inky-Pie did. Commander Happy Dagger may have an amount of power equal to Brassheart's on record, but Dagger has the popular opinion of the guards and their sovereign on his side. We both know from experience that in the end, if Brassheart and Happy Dagger ever fight between eachother for command, Brassheart would lose.

"So yes, I'm keeping my head down. But I'm doing it for a reason." We were silent. "But don't worry," I added, "I'll still bring food."

"Yeah, yeah I figured," she said, glaring down at her emptied plate as if it had offended her. Once I washed our plates, a now familiar sound echoed through the house.

Knock-knock-knock-thump

When I answered the door, Candy Coat and Coco were outside, two carrots engulfed in Coco's rich brown magic and two apples held out by Candy's hoof. My own hoof clapped over my gaping mouth as I gasped. My friends smiled sheepishly at me as they held out the food.

"We saw that filly Neko bring you food earlier," Coco explained, "I'm sorry we didn't think of it earlier."

"Don't worry though," Candy added with a smile, "we can help now, and things will get better." Teary-eyed, I grabbed my friends and wrapped them both in a hug.

"Thank you, both of you, so much." When I let go of them, they were smiling.

"Of course." Coco ruffled my mane affectionately.

"You're our friend," Candy said, "and it's no trouble to look out for our friends." The three of us walked away from my house and onto the main road.

"Hey," Coco said, "how come you didn't do the thing?" She and Candy looked to me expectantly, and I sighed.

"I was afraid to get us all into more trouble." Candy looked unsatisfied, but Coco solemnly nodded.

"I guess that makes sense." Candy looked between the two of us.

"What? No it doesn't! We've already been left out in the Badlands to die for creeping out the guards, what else could they do?! We are kind of already imprisoned, what else is there?" Coco grimaced.

"They could actually kill us." Candy palled.

"No. No, we're only fillies. We're too young for them to kill us. Somepony would stop them." Candy began rambling, her eyes wide. "Brassheart! Brassheart would stop them, he's the one in charge! Even if the other Commander ordered it, he could stop them." She looked up at Coco and I. "Right?" Neither of us said anything. Coco, older than the rest of us, understood from age what Inky and I understand from experience. Candy, the most naïve of us, refused to understand it at all. She ran up to the wall as Coco and I chased her, calling out for her to stop. "Brassheart! Brassheart, please! Brassheart come down, I have a question!" The blue eyed pegasus peered down the wall. When he saw us he flew down quickly.

"What is it, girls?"

"You wouldn't let anypony hurt us, would you?!" Candy stared up with watery eyes at Brassheart, who's concerned eyes quickly hardened with conviction.

"No, I wouldn't," he said. "I'd never let anypony hurt you."

AN: Thank you for reading! Especially for everyone who reviews and favorites and follows, you guys are incredibly kind to me. Also, I hope stephanie the neko enjoyed her oc. :)