Day 7—
We walked for hours today. My hooves are really sore. They feel like they're splitting open. Thank Celestia we finally got the chance to stop and rest. We found a group of guardsponies who were getting ready to march towards our village. I stopped one of them, a mare, and asked her if she had any news from the city. She said yes and told me that ponies from all over Equestria were sending help! We'll be safe once we make it. I told our group the good news, but then I had to pull Steady away and tell him the other thing the mare told me.
I walked him away from the others and told him that things were a lot worse than we thought. The mare'd gotten quiet and said to me that they hadn't just brought the Guard from the city, that regiments from as far as Canterlot had been summoned. Steady got angry because the guard that told us to leave Sleepy Cove said that everything was under control and that we'd be back in a month or so. I guess we know that he had been lying.
It doesn't change the plan for now. We still need to walk to the city and stay there until all this blows over. I'm sure we can find other ponies from the village already there, maybe they can lend a helping hoof. I'm trying to look at the silver lining, like mother told me. Maybe the princess will come and see us all! I told that to Symphony earlier today, and she got so excited! Her eyes just lit up! It made me feel much better.
I think I'm going to ask Steady to walk a little ways ahead of us tomorrow. I don't want to scare Symphony again. When we were traveling today, we saw a stallion lying on the side of the road. He wasn't moving, and nopony was stopping to give aid. Symphony, bless her little heart, started crying for us to stop and help him. I couldn't even find the words. After we passed by, it took my mother and Steady an hour to get her to understand that we couldn't afford to stop. We don't have all that much food in our bags, and if we took another pony with us, we wouldn't have enough for ourselves. She looked so heartbroken. I don't know what to do about that, but at least she's talking to us again.
There are still ponies on the road, even if it's less than during the day. They look so scared, all lit orange by our campfire. I saw a tired little colt point at it like he wanted to come over with us and sit, but his father shook his head and told him something, then put him on his back, on top of his bags. Seeing all these ponies walking is making me uncomfortable. I feel like we shouldn't be resting here.
I have the last watch. I think that I'm going to wake our group up early so we can leave. I'm nervous staying here. I really hope that it's just paranoia.
Until next time, journal.
—Silk Stream