Punky Print's Log: Day 11

As I walked today, it was so quiet inside the wall. Lemon Grass' mother was buried today, so many ponies were outside the walls, mourning her. She was so kind and warm, motherly to everypony, or so I've heard. I thought she was lovely when I knew her, but I only knew her a short time. There were many guards that were absent from the wall today as well. The most notable for me were Brassheart and the gray guard pony. I didn't know who it was, I still don't.

Today was the perfect day to test what I practiced yesterday, because it was so quiet. Quiet means empty. It means nopony cowering in their homes as they watch me from behind their curtains, waiting for me to commit some atrocity I can only guess at. It means no pony watching me warily from the walls.

Most importantly, empty means vulnerable.

As I walked the empty streets, I soaked up my surroundings like a sponge. At a blind spot between guard towers, there was nopony patrolling the wall. If nopony's patrolling, I thought, nopony's home. Despite the obvious ease of my job in an empty section of this prison town, I still practiced the method that would - hopefully - work with somepony watching.

In the blind spot there stood a house with an apple tree. Now, all the houses have apple trees, Lemon Grass' house has five. But this tree was special, a branch of it grew outside the gate around its house. Without a second glance at the thing, I nipped the stem of a ripe apple from it's branch with a spark of magic. As I had hoped, it rolled down the slope of the ground and towards the main road of town. I smiled as it rolled past me and picked it up with my magic. After hiding it in the folds of my cloak, I moved on to a new stretch of the town.

I did this three times, each in a place with just a few more ponies. As they locked their doors, a single apple fell. Each time, I smiled under my hood in silent triumph. No longer would my sister and I barely eat as we rationed grass and weeds found in the unusable orange dirt of the roads. Once I had the apples tucked away, I walked calmly back home.

When I opened the door, the light of the lamp in Inky's room shone out under her door. I smiled, undoubtedly she had stayed up late reading. As I opened the door to my room, Cursive scurried in through a small empty knot in the wood of the floorboards. As he finished eating the corner scrap of a piece of bread, I removed my cloak and took the apples out of the pockets that I sewed in. Cursive looked strangely at the apples, then scurried up to a piece of paper and an inkwell.

I thought nopony would hire you? I smiled secretively.

"Nopony would," I said, too happy for what I had told my friend. He noticed, and eyed me suspiciously.

Then, where'd you get those apples?

"I found them." This was not a complete lie, I did find the best targets before snatching them.

Did you steal them?

"Yes," I said bluntly. "Nopony will miss an apple that fell away when they weren't looking." Cursive looked contemplative and worried.

Will you be careful?

"Yes," I said, feeling as if I was taking a solemn oath. He nodded.

Alright then.

"What," I asked skeptically, "No lecture?" The rat shook his head. I smiled. "Thank you, Cursive." He nodded once. Until the wall opened and the ponies from the funeral returned, Cursive and I compared ways to lift our food. After all, that was how he had fed himself when I couldn't. When the panel at the front of the wall reopened, the great rattling of the chains drew me and my family from our house.

As everypony returned, a gray pegasus flew above the lot in a guard uniform. Across one golden eye there was an old pink scar, and across his muzzle spread a self-satisfied smirk. I gasped as I stared at the stallion, fear like an icy knife through my heart. This pegasus, who had knocked me out in a single blow, who had single-hoofedly stopped my magic, frightened me. As Lemon Grass came back into the wall, I ran up to him.

"Lemon Grass," I said, ignoring his father's protests against my sudden appearance, "who is that pegasus?" He heard my urgency, and with one lace at the stallion I had pointed to, he sneered in contempt.

"That," he said, "is Commander Happy Dagger." I shuddered. Lemon Grass saw this, and pulled me away from the throng of grieving ponies. "Punky, what is it?" I looked away from the Commander, who had held my attention until Lemon Grass put his hoof on my shoulder.

"That's him," I said, my voice shaking, "The pegasus who kicked me and took me out when we were thrown out." Lemon Grass looked hatefully over his shoulder at the milk-and-honey maned guard. "Oh, Equestria help me," I whimpered. "He's in charge. That pony has my fate cradled between his wings!"

"What are you talking about?" Lemon Grass pulled my muzzle so I face him again. "Brasseart has just as much power as him, and he would never let anything happen to you!" My yellow-coated friend stared fiercely into my eyes, completely sure that what he had told me was true. I shook my head.

"No, no you're wrong." I don't know why I was so sure of this. It came tumbling out of my mouth like rain from a cloud, but still hours later I am so sure.

I keep thinking about his eyes. Without compassion, cold despite the warmth of their color, his eyes reminded me of Celestia's as she banished us. But the Commander didn't bother to cover his terrifying coldness, no, he flaunted it with sick pride. I think he might scare me more than the princess ever did.

AN: I feel like this chapter didn't serve much of a purpose at the end, and if you agree, don't worry! I do everything for a porpoise, swearsies. :P