AN: Oh my gracious! Thank you to IShipItAllAndThenSome, koryandrs, and crossoverqueenlovesPnFMPL, my three beautiful reviewers who more than doubled the amount of reviews I had! Hugs and cookies and whatever you three sweet people want, thank you so much! TuT
Punky Print's Log: Day 8
I started today feeling so light, I could almost float. After we howled, Jawbones stopped and the world went quiet. Inky and I quickly fell asleep after that. This morning I woke up refreshed and pulled my cloak on, ready for another day working at the farm. I ran over and knocked at the door. Instead of Lemon Grass, who opened the door yesterday, it was his father who opened the door. I stared up into his stern face and shrank into my cloak. He stood in the doorway, blocking my way like one of the gatekeepers at the wall.
"Sir?"
"Punky," He started warily, the bags under his eyes making him look so tired, as if he couldn't sleep despite Jawbones' silence, "My family and I appreciate your hard work on the farm yesterday, but I think you should find new employment."
"What?" My voice cracked and broke, smaller than it had already been. He didn't blink.
"Yes, we no longer want your help. We want you away from Lemon Grass; you're trouble young filly, and I don't want my son involved. Good day," he said, and closed he door behind him before I recovered from being too stunned to speak. Once I did, I walked away from the large farmhouse's porch. I looked back and saw Lemon Grass through the one circular window of the top floor. Once we locked eyes he tilted back his head and howled, but I couldn't hear it through the window pane. Once he was done his sad eyes landed on me again, and I waved meekly before walking away to find new work.
I walked from the cliff bottom to the sealed opening in the wall, but I was lucky if anypony came out of their house to refuse me work face-to-face. Most simply closed their curtains and locked their doors with a click that carried into the street. After walking to the cliff and back again, I found that still there was nopony who wanted anything to do with me. As I slowly trudged back to my house by the wall's opening, I looked up at the swollen gray clouds above the wall's reach that hides everything inside the wall from the dragons above. Absently, I wondered how the creatures never thought that this permanent cloud cover was strange or secretive. In a book I read once, dragons were described as completely consumed by greed. But still I thought it was strange that the dragons never thought of it, even once.
Finally, I reached the door to my house, my head hanging low in shame. When I opened the door, Inky was nowhere to be found. I went to the door of her room and looked inside. She was sitting on her bed, surrounded by worn old books. I took the hood off my head and stepped into her room. She looked up and smiled.
"Hey, Punky, guess what? You know that journal you're keeping? Well it turns out, pretty much all the other inhabitants inside the walls have, too." She held up the one she had been reading, labeled with the name Hyacinth Bloom written on it like the names on the sides of all the houses. "I guess I should write one, too, huh?" Inky looked a second time at me, and saw that something wasn't right. "Punky?" I sighed.
"Inky Pie, I... I've lost my job. Lemon Grass' dad, he... he said I was trouble, that he wanted me to stay away from his family." I sniffed back tears, and Inky rushed off of her bed and hugged me.
"It's okay, Punky. Don't worry, we'll think of something, and everything will be alright. I'll take care of it, I promise." I cried even harder at that.
Have I ever mentioned how I feel helpless? Well, this is why. Even when we were with our parents, it was never me who was expected to look after anypony. Mother always told Inky to watch out for me, never the other way around. Whenever mother and father fought, or Inky and mother, or even if somepony made a rude joke I didn't understand, I was always shielded, always told I didn't need to know. Maybe that's why I wanted to know the truth behind that book so badly. I wanted to know because I was tired of living in blind ignorance 'for my own good'! But now I've faced a princess and a bone wolf, and yet still I'm something delicate to be protected. No matter what anypony has said to me over the past few days, I am a weakling and a coward, and nothing I've done has changed that.
I hate this.
After I stopped crying, I went back to my room. Cursive was nowhere to be found again, perhaps he went out to find food for himself, seeing as I can't give him any anymore. He's still out now, in fact. It's well past noon now, and neither Inky nor myself have eaten since breakfast. My stomach just rumbled, it almost sounded like a growl. My stomach hurts from emptiness, but I've been hungry before, and in at least an hour I'll be so hungry that the hunger pains stop. It's strange, but I know it always happens eventually. I just have to wait.
Somepony's knocking at the door. I don't think Inky Pie heard, she gets so absorbed in her books. I'll go check, and who knows? Maybe somepony has decided to give me work after all.
AN: HAPPY NEW YEAR, MY LITTLE PONIES! So, who's at the door, do you think? Tell me what you think is going on, I want to know how your beautiful little minds work! (Okay, no lie, that sounded unnecessarily creepy.)