AN: Holy crap I just got my first OC request guys! I'm so happy! However, the reader who requested it doesn't have an account, so I can only hope she reads this. If you want me to make an OC, you need to tell me if you want to be a unicorn or a pegasus or an earth pony. Also, it would help if you could mention things like long/short hair and favorite color.

Please note: this fic is gonna be loooong, so if you show up now you might not show up later. Pick and choose, people!

Punky Print's Log: Day 12

After what I said to Lemon Grass about Happy Dagger, whenever I see him he looks at me strangely. I haven't told anypony else about my fear of him, I cause my friends and Inky enough trouble. Plus, Lemon Grass hovers now. He always seems worried when he looks at me. I know he doesn't think I see him do it, but out of the corner of my eye I see his concern. I hate it. Having Inky worry was bad enough, but having him do it too is almost too much.

As I went out to grab more apples this morning, Inky left with me. I stopped when I saw her next to me and turned to her in confusion.

"Inky, what are you doing?"

"Walking with you," she replied innocently, "I haven't really gone outside since the incident with the bone wolves." I sighed.

"Fine. But go back real quick and get your cloak, it's kinda chilly." She nodded and dashed back to our house. As she did, I galloped quickly to my target area for the day. Three houses which were relatively close to each other made for quick work, even with my nervous and paranoid level of caution. I quickly scratched a small imitation of my cutie mark low to the ground on one wooden gate, the one surrounding the house of my friend, Candy Coat. As I completed my intricate thievery technique on the last apple tree, the final apple came to rest against my sister's hoof.

"You were supposed to be getting your cloak," I said dumbly. My sister picked up the apple nonchalantly.

"You were supposed to be finding a job," she replied. I snatched away the apple and hid it in my cloak.

"I do have a job," I insisted, "keeping us fed. And I'm doing it pretty well." I began walking back to our house, and Inky followed.

"Can you teach me to?" I stopped and turned to my sister, shocked.

"What?"

"You heard me. I want to help."

"But...why?"

"You need me to." My teeth ground together.

"No, I don't."

"Yeah you do," she said, "I found out about you stealing just now, and that means somepony else could. You need me to make this better so you don't get caught."

"Fine," I said, acid bubbling in my heart. "How are you thinking of changing it?"

"It's too obvious if you pick up the apples. I'll wait on the main road, and you just have to lead them to where I am."

"There's just one problem," I replied, "I can't direct the path of the apples without making myself obvious. That's why I have to follow them." She nodded, lost in thought. After we split the first apple, I took one into my room and rolled it about the floor with my magic. Eventually, this tired me so much that I fell asleep on the floor. When I woke up, the apple had rolled to rest against my hoof and strands of my mane had gotten into my open mouth. I blew the hair out of my mouth, and it flopped moistly onto my cheek. Fully awakened, I had an idea.

I took the apple out to the piece of land behind our house and placed it in the grass. I concentrated on the area around the apple and willed the grass to move. Slowly, the grass pushed the apple with the aid of my magic, which is a nearly matching shade of green. I practiced until the sky turned orange, and I could push the apple with ease when using the grass. When I walked back into our house, it was with a sense of incredible accomplishment. I couldn't keep back a smile. I proudly walked into my sister's room, holding up my apple.

"I solved the problem." As we ate dinner, I told her about my new skill. I explained how I stole apples to her, and how I made sure not to steal from our friends or take too often from a single house. In my room on a wall there is a map of the town I drew one night, symbols drawn on each house I will not steal from. After stealing from a house, I draw a tally mark beside it on the map. There are six tally marks now, each group of three far from the other.

After dinner, I went back to my room and drew the three tallies on the map. By then the sky had gone dark, and past the cloudy barrier I could faintly make out the winking stars and the face of Celestia's first traitor in the craters of the moon. In the distance, a howl built up. First one throat, the air whistling through the accompanying jawbone, then others joining. Soon a pack, hundreds of howling wolves, could be heard in the dark. As I looked out my window, four windows lit. I could feel the breaths of the pony behind each window, held as they waited to join the symphony outside the walls. Waiting on me.

I closed my window and turned away. I screwed tight my eyelids and pulled my pillow over my ears. When that didn't work, I put on a record of a lullaby and curled up under my blankets. The lullaby is playing for a third time now, and as I write this the wolves keep howling. I haven't turned to look out the window, I don't want to see those lights still on. I don't want to face the fact that my friends, who have known me for such a short time, are looking to me to lead them in... whatever this is. To lead them bravely into only more trouble. I know I am a coward, to be this afraid of the next time, the next time I frighten some pony, the next time Happy Dagger punishes me and the ponies I care for because I am strange. I am most afraid of the next time my friends follow me, allowing me to lead them blindly through the trouble I bring.

I am a coward and a troublemaker. I survive by stealing, and I can't even do that right if my sister caught me doing it on the second day. As I hide under my sheets from everything that cares for me with only the glow of my horn as light, I accept that I am predominantly useless.