Punky Print's Log: Day 5
We arrived at the penitentiary colony today. It's somewhere deep in the Badlands, near where the dragons migrate to every year. There's a great stone wall around there the ponies live, it's there to keep the dragons out as much as it's there to keep the ponies in. There are guards on the wall that walk around patrolling for danger and rebellions. Most of them look at the ponies inside the walls as just criminals, and look down on us for more reason's than just the height difference provided by the walls.
When Inky and I walked through the Badlands this morning with our guards, we saw the colony guards' contempt firsthoof. When we walked through the barren, rocky wasteland, another type of inhabitant of the Badlands leapt of at us. It was a large wolf unlike any other. It's green eyes had blood-red slits for pupils, and across its eyebrows and up its forehead spiked bones protruded from its skin. Blood stained the fur around its mouth and eyes, and fresh wounds littered its skin. There were parts of this wolf, however, that lacked skin and muscle entirely, such as its undulating bony tail, two of its paws and one leg, and most disturbingly, its jaw was completely stripped of skin and muscle. There was a section of the wolf's ribs that was completely visible, including the throbbing lungs inside.
As soon as the wolf leapt out at us, our guards flew away, and none from the walls moved to help us. Inky ran at the wolf, but was quickly batted aside by the wolf's bony paw. It growled, a slight whistling through its jawbone did nothing to make the wolf unthreatening. It approached me slowly, its semi-skinless mouth curling into a repulsive smile. I wanted to run, or scream, but my fear of the creature paralyzed me. Inky was coming to woozily at my peripheral, and as she opened her eyes one at a time, the terrifying creature sniffed me once, twice, and turned away. It calmly walked back into the distance until it became a blurry spot.
Inky grabbed the black bow in my mane with her teeth and ran for the gate. The guards seemed content to keep the gate closed until a voice on the wall bellowed, "Open the gate, you idiots! What are you waiting for, an invitation?!"
The gates opened just in time for us to run in. The tears I had cried in fear had run dry, and I saw the wolf turn its eyes to the gate. I waved at the wolf with a small smile, all the thanks I could give it for sparing me before the gate closed with a violent slam! A broadly built brown pegasus flew down from the wall, a soft smile on his face. He flew up to my sister and landed at my side. Inky gave him a skeptical sidelong look, wary of the guards who did nothing to help us.
"That was very brave, what you both did," he said, his voice recognizable as the one that ordered the gates opened. "How did you know that the bone wolf wouldn't attack if you stayed still?" He turned to me along with Inky, who seemed curious as well.
"I... I didn't. I was just too scared to move." I looked down at my hooves, ashamed of my cowardice. The pegasus guard laughed, a warm loud sound without malice.
"I don't know," he said with a smile, "waving at the thing was pretty courageous!" I smiled, I didn't think much of waving at the wolf when I had done it. "I'm sorry the guards were taking so long to open the gate," he said remorsefully. Inky smiled up at him.
"It's okay, you got them to open it."
"Thanks," he said. "I'm just glad you two fillies are okay. My name's Brassheart, I'm the captain of the guards here. If you're ever in trouble, I'll be happy to help."
"Thank you," Inky and I said. Brassheart nodded and flew back to his post. As we looked at the village of exiles around us, we heard one of the other guards talking to Brassheart.
"What in the name of Celestia were you thinking, having us open the gate? They're just two orphan exiles, and if the bone wolf had gotten in it would have endangered all of us!" I looked up at the guard and Brassheart, who looked annoyed.
"It doesn't matter who they are or what they did," he said sternly, "We're here to protect them. They deserve our protection, and if you don't think so, you're in the wrong job." The other soldier backed down, and only then did I realize just how large the stallion was. Despite living on our own, my sister and I are still just fillies, and I had only seen Brassheart as bigger than us, which most stallions were, until I was him intimidating the other soldier. Perhaps it would be narrow-minded of me to say that all of the guards of this colony are cruel and derisive. It just seems like all of them but Brassheart really don't care if any of us live.