The next day, as early morning passed and mid morning began, Fluttershy landed gently outside of Ink Well's shack, a small basket full of vegetables in her mouth. She placed the basket on the ground and walked to the door, carefully reaching out a hoof to knock. “Hello. Ink Well? Are you there?” She listened against the door, hearing nothing, as a white rabbit pulled itself out of her basket and hopped next to her. She knocked softly on the door again. “Are you home? Anypony there?” She stayed by the door, waiting patiently for a response. While she did, the bunny paced near the door. After Fluttershy stood unmoving for almost a minute waiting for the door, the bunny shook his head and hopped up to a window, looking inside. Seeing only papers, he pushed himself up on his back feet and tiptoed as best he could. Doing so he was able to see inside, though all he saw were more piles of papers and the writing desk, the ink pot there but the pen missing.
The bunny hopped down from the window, ran over to Fluttershy and tapped her leg. She looked down. “Oh, Angel, what is it?” He pointed inside, shaking his head. “He isn't home? Oh... Maybe it's for the best really. I'll just drop off the gift and be on my way.” She moved to put down the basket as Angel jumped on the door, swinging it open. Fluttershy hurried inside to swing the door back closed. “Oh no Angel, you can't just go in his house.” As she closed the door, she saw that inside was just as messy as the day before. She frowned at the state of the house. “This is no way for a pony to live...” She perked up, smiling. “I know! I can give him two gifts.” She whistled a few lilting notes. From nearby bushes and trees flew a small band of birds, fluttering and chirping gaily around her. “Hello, animal friends! How are you today?” The birds twittered merrily and landed on her, showing her how they felt. “That's good to hear. Could I ask your help with something? The pony here doesn't keep his house very tidy, and I would like to surprise him. Could you help me?” The birds nodded at her, and she smiled in return. “Oh, thank you so much!” She nuzzled the nearest bird, a bluejay, which chirped joyfully and flew inside to join the others.
Fluttershy walked inside, watching the birds tidy papers, move bundles, and straighten scrolls. Unfortunately there wasn't much room in the tiny house to move things to, so the various stories and papers just ended up in neater piles. Fluttershy opened a cupboard, only to squeak in surprise as more papers fell out at her. All of it was covered in writing from top to bottom, sometimes with many different lines written over and between each other. She opened another to find more paper crumpled and tossed in haphazardly. She smoothed one out and found the beginnings of a story about a dragon threatening a small town and the brave unicorn preparing to fight it, but most of it was scribbled out and blotted with ink. She actually felt sad about it, since the story had been looking good so far. She put the paper back, sighing. “I guess I can at least make the house nicer...”
Fluttershy turned to see the birds clearing the surfaces around the house. It was surprising how few there were, not even a counter or any appliances that would suggest a kitchen. All that managed to unearth itself from the papers were a poorly padded couch, a well worn chair, a dinged and stained coffee table, and a dusty wall clock, solemnly ticking away the time. Disheartened by the lack of... anything suggesting a home, Fluttershy flew upstairs. The room was as Ink Well had described it, a tiny, tidy room with only a bed and a few pieces of paper hanging from the walls. The bed was small, barely large enough for one pony, but made of the softest clouds forced to the ground. Around his bed were five pieces of paper, two framed in wood and one in a gilt frame. Fluttershy looked at the papers, wondering what he'd keep so near to him as he slept.
Those that hung framed were reward certificates, both for the New Equestrian Writer's competition, one for the foal division, and the other for the entire competition, both given to Ink Well for his story 'A Rainbow Rounds the Sun.' The bare papers pinned to the wall were two letters, one from a printing company announcing the printing of 'Of Wings and Horn,' and the other proudly announcing his acceptance into the National Equirer. In the center, prominent in the room and sitting within a gold lined frame, was a short story. It was written on many sheets of paper, each placed in numerical order, spanning from the low ceiling to the floor; the title: 'A Rainbow Rounds the Sun.' Fluttershy started reading, instantly gripped by.. something. She wasn't sure if it was the beautiful imagery or the feeling of the artist behind the words or the story itself, but Fluttershy found herself mesmerized by the tale unfolding before her.
A few pages into the story a crumpled paper bounced off of her head. She turned around, looking for the source. Below, Angel stood on the desk, waving for her attention. Around him were the birds, all looking worriedly at something. Fluttershy glided down to the floor below, landing next to the writing table. “Yes? What is it?” Angel pointed to an article sitting on the desk. The title said it all: 'Gala Ruined! A Ponyville Fiasco.' Fluttershy quickly scanned the article, shocked at it's contents. Every detail of what her and her friends had done at the Grand Galloping Gala was inked in full, embarrassing detail. Not a line had been cut, no corrections were hidden amongst them, just the scandalous stories in detail more grandiose and vivid than they had been told in. “No...” She reread the piece, tears blurring her vision as they welled in her eyes, but despite her best efforts to will the story away, it remained a fact. The most damning detail, the one that hurt the most, was what was written just below the title, seemingly penned with no hesitation: 'Lead Reporter: Ink Well.'
Fluttershy backed away from the table, shaking her head. “No... How could he? He Pinkie swore!” The birds flew around her, trying their best to console her with their saddened twittering. Angel stomped, grabbing the article and running over to Fluttershy. “Oh, put it away Angel. I don't want to see it.” Tears dropped from her eyes and onto Angel's head as he kicked her hoof. She looked down at him, confused. He held up the story, then six fingers, then mimed reading it. It took a beat, but understanding dawned on Fluttershy. “Oh, you're right Angel, the others should know. But... they won't like it.” She picked Angel up and placed him on her back. Then, with a sad look at the half-cleaned room around her, flew from the house, fighting away the hurt tears that threatened to fall.
---
As the afternoon took a strong hold on the day, Ink Well landed outside Fluttershy's cottage in his usual garb, minus his journalist's lanyard. He held her basket in his mouth. He walked up to the door, knocking gently on it and putting down the basket. “Fluttershy, are you here?” He waited, hearing nothing. Again he knocked on the door. “Fluttershy? You left your basket. At least, I'm pretty sure it's yours. It's the same yellow and pink that you are, and the butterflies on the side are a dead giveaway. Do you want it back?” Again hearing no response, he looked in a window, seeing no movement inside. In fact... Ink Well turned around, looking over the area. There wasn't any movement, not a single animal anywhere near her house.
“That's odd. Something should have been thrown at me by now. Even when she was gone the animals were here.” He pushed the basket closer to the door, troubled by the quiet around him. He called into the house. “I'm leaving it by the door! Thank you for the veggies, and I'm guessing the house cleaning was you, so thank you for that too!” He backed away, waiting for some sort of reaction from the cottage, but it sat resolute and silent. With one final look back, he flew from the cottage, curious as to where Fluttershy had gone.
---
Ink Well made his way into town. He had gone by Sweet Apple Acres to ask Applejack and heard that she'd been called to the library, so he decided to look there for Fluttershy. The library seemed to have an inordinate amount of animals hanging around it, looking inside intently but worriedly, as though trying to help something within the building. As he neared the door, he could hear a muffled conversation from inside. It seemed to be rather heated over something. Without hoping to disturb, he knocked on the door. The voices inside remained spirited, appearing not to have heard the knocking. As he moved to knock again, the door opened, revealing Fluttershy behind the door and the rest talking further within. Ink Well smiled at her. “Hey, I was lo-”
“Eep!” The door swung shut, slamming in front of his nose. He tilted his head, puzzled by what had just happened.
“I'm sorry, did I surprise you?” The door remained shut, the voices continuing inside. “Was it something I said? Did I offend yesterday?” He could hear a pause in the conversation and he knocked again. “Hello? I've got some news for everypony, if-”
The door flew open, smacking him backwards. Immediately after he was barreled into by a rainbow blur, causing him to tumble end over end, landing pinned to the ground under Rainbow Dash outside. Head spinning, he was picked up and slammed against the ground. “You've got a lot of nerve showing your face here again!”
Ink Well looked up into Rainbow's glaring face. “What did I-?”
“No more talking! You lied to us at least twice already! I'm not letting you lie again!” Rainbow picked him up and dragged him into the library, where Rarity closed the door behind them. Ink Well found himself in the middle of a circle of ponies, each one with a look of hurt rage on their face.
He turned to Twilight, taking a step forward. “What's going on he-?”
She stepped accusingly towards him. “How could you write those things about us? You promised you wouldn't! And how did you fool the lie detector?”
Ink Well backed away from her gaze. “What did I write? The story hasn't even-” He bumped into Rarity.
She pushed him into the center, anger marring her features. “All of those embarrassing things! All of those scandalous details! How could you deceive us with that silver tongue of yours?”
“I didn't deceive anyone! If you'd just tell me what-” Pinkie appeared behind him, throwing a hoof over his shoulder and pulling him close.
“Ink Well, I'm disappointed in you. I can take a bad story, but how could you write such mean things about my friends? And we were getting along so well. I'm sorry, but I just can't be friends with a meany two-wings like you.”
Ink Well pulled back from her. “I don't know what you're talking about, I didn't write anything bad!” He turned to Applejack, who had the least angry expression on. “You look like you're still sane. Why are you all so-” His question was cut off as he dodged, barely managing to turn the kick aimed at his face into a grazing blow. He stumbled back, holding his cheek. “What was that for?!”
Applejack stepped forward, turning to get a strong kick in. “I poisoned nothin', you snake in the grass! I knew I shoulda kicked your scrawny flank when I had the chance! Braeburn'll be happy to know I gave you a good whuppin'!”
Ink Well ducked and weaved, barely dodging the kicks aimed at him. “Please! Just tell me what happened! I don't know what you're talking about, but if you'll let me-” A blow connected, knocking him on his back and causing blood to stream from his nose. His hat flew off, rolling into the ring of angry pony around him. Ink Well groggily pushed himself up, reaching for his hat. Just as his was about to grab it, Rarity's hoof came down, smashing it before him. He looked up into the circle of angry faces, nose bleeding and trying to look as pathetic as possible. He looked into Fluttershy's eyes, which looked like they contained the most worry in their cyan depths. “Please... I'm sorry... just tell me what I did.”
Fluttershy backed up, unable to keep looking at the emerald eyes beneath her. A paper bundle landed next to his head, dropped by Twilight. “You know what you did! You submitted this article on us ruining the Gala, no corrections at all! In fact, you came up with even more lies! With all you promised, how could you do this?”
Ink Well pulled the paper over, trying not to drip blood onto it. After reading the title, his ears flattened against his head. “Oh... you found this...”
Fluttershy stood over him, looking truly hurt. “How could you? How could you send this to print?”
“I didn't. This story will never print.” He sighed. “You were never supposed to find this. It was never supposed to leave my house. It was a moment of weakness.”
Twilight stomped next to his head. “This? Three pages of story a 'moment' of weakness?”
Ink Well sorely pulled himself up to his feet. “Okay, a few hours of weakness. Whatever. The Equirer wanted their story, and thinking about the consequences, I just couldn't bring myself not to write it.” He ripped off a strip of paper from the bottom of the article, rolling it up and jamming it in his nose to stem the bleeding. “But this is wrong, it's trash. If this was the one I submitted, why was it sitting at my house? No, I wrote another one, and that's the one I took to the Equirer.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a bundle of papers with red ink slathered all over it. He placed it down before Twilight. “You can read it if you want. I tried to get your corrections in, I tried to call them out on it all, but, well... editing.”
Twilight magicked up the papers, reading through the red ink. “The Gala, a True Story...”
“Yeah. Read to your heart's content.” He walked over to Rarity, grabbing his crushed hat from beneath her hoof and placing it on his head. “I'm going to be around town for a while. I've got nothing better to do now.” He put a hoof to his cheek, wincing from the pain, then pushed past the ponies and walked to the door. They all just watched him move across the room, looks varying between curiosity, anger, and sadness. He turned back to them, tipping his crushed hat to the room. “Have a nice read, ladies.” He then pushed open the door and walked out into the afternoon light.
---
Ink Well slowly meandered around town, not entirely sure what to do. After quite a while of wandering he found himself in Rosewater, standing before the empty counter and just enjoying the smells around him. He looked around the store, noting the glass displays around the shop filled with liquids of varying colors for the first time. The whole building was painted in a soft pink with a dark wood trim around the edges. It wasn't exactly high scale, but it was a very nice building.
After wandering around the shop for a few minutes he turned to leave. “Ink Well, when did you get here?” Rose came through a door in the rear of the shop carrying a box on her back, which she placed behind the counter. Ink Well turned back when she called, revealing his bloodied nose and bruised cheek. Rose gasped at the sight. “My gosh! Are you okay?”
Ink Well jumped back when she gasped. “Huh? Oh, yeah, the face. I'm fine. Just a misunderstanding, that's all.” He took off his hat, pushing it roughly back into shape with his hoof. As he did so, he spotted his reflection in a display near the counter. “Didn't realize just how bad I look... I must have been scaring ponies all around town.”
Rose looked worried. “A misunderstanding? Were you in a fight? What was it over?”
Ink Well shrugged. “The article. Just... huge misunderstanding. Doesn't even matter anymore.” He looked at Rose, who was looking extremely worried for him. “Hey now. Don't look so down. It's alright. I've been around long enough I know how to take a kick.” He walked over to her, smiling. “We just need to get off of this unhappy subject. What have you been up to? Anything fun happen today?”
Rose gave a hesitant smile, looking at his beat up face. “No, not really. I had a couple of sales, but that was it. Spent the rest of the day rearranging the back of the shop. I really need to change the hours of the store, I'm just wasting time in here.” She opened the door to the back room. “Um, would you like to clean up your face or anything?”
“Yeah... That's probably not a bad idea.” He walked around the counter and into the back room. There was a distillery in the back, with a large variety of scents, primarily floral, bubbling and steaming within it. Across a table were arranged woods and flowers and fruits, each throwing it's own scent into the air. Next to them was a bucket of water and a rag, presumably for cleaning up after dealing with sticky saps. Tossing away the paper strips from his nose, he cleaned the blood off of his face with the rag, then pressed it against his cheek in a poor attempt to stop it from aching. After he did that, he looked at the brass stills and extractors that made the distillery, appreciating the great detail that went into each.
Rose walked up behind him. “Do you like them? I made them myself.”
Ink Well turned back to her, impressed. “Really? They are very nice. I don't really know much about them, to be honest, but they look well made.”
“Oh, stop. The ones I based them on in Canterlot are a lot nicer, and more efficient. They actually made the entire thing out of silver, so that it wouldn't react with anything at all in the process.” She turned off the burner on one of the stills, stopping the bubbling within. “It's not needed, silver doesn't help the process at all, but it does make the entire distillery so beautiful to look at.”
“I'll bet it does.” Ink Well looked at Rose, standing there with her ivy green eyes reflecting the brass light off of the still, and smiled. “Hey... I know it's a few days late, and I'm sure you've got a lot of work to do, but if you'd like, I'd love to be shown around the town.”
Rose looked at him slyly. “What, your third time in town and you still don't know your way around?”
Ink Well nervously rubbed his mane. “Well, I figured out my way around. But I would like to be shown around by a local, if you have the time.”
Rose looked at the battered pegasus looking so sheepishly hopeful and laughed. “Yeah. Why not? Nopony will notice if the shop closes a little early today.”
Ink Well perked up. “Really?”
“Sure. What kind of friend would I be if I didn't show you around town? Just give me a few minutes to close up and I'll meet you out front.”
---
Ink Well and Rose spent the next hour walking around town talking. They visited the parks, window shopped throughout the town, visited the farms around town and generally enjoyed Ponyville. They also chatted, light talk about ponies around town, about writing and perfumery, upcoming events and the differences between them here and in Cloudsdale... Whatever came to mind. Ink Well started feeling better, even putting to the back of his mind the misfortunes of the day. They were there, sure, but it was more important to enjoy this moment then go on worrying about them.
At the end of the hour amidst the setting sun they found themselves enjoying a pleasant walk along the edge of Whitetail Wood, the light filtering through the trees and giving everything an amber glow. Ink Well stopped, looking at the foliage around him, and smiled. Rose stopped next to him. “Something wrong?”
He looked at her, then back to the wood. “No. Just... this town is beautiful. Never really had time to notice before.”
Rose smirked at him, walking over and nudging him. “That's such a sappy line.”
“Hey now, I'm a writer, a romantic who believes in happy endings, things turning out well, and the strength of words.” As he said this he held himself like an actor on the stage, pontificating for an endearing crowd, and raised a hoof to punctuate the point. He held that pose for a second, then dropped his hoof and smiled playfully. “What did you expect of me?”
“True. Shouldn't expect much from a writer, especially not one that deals in fiction.” She looked out into the wood as well, her face softening. “It is nice though, isn't it? You get used to it living here...” They stood gazing into the trees for a few minutes in silence, the wind the only sound as it rustled the leaves above. At the end of the time, Rose turned to Ink Well. “So, did you ever write anything not for a magazine? I mean, you call yourself a writer, but most would call you a journalist.”
“Well, I did write a book a few years back. It was a flop, but I was proud of it. And I still write short stories and the occasional poem, but nopony's ever interested in them.”
“A book, huh? What was it called? I might have read it.”
“Doubtful. It was called 'Of Wing and Horn,' but I think when I last checked only twenty copies had actually sold, and ten of them were for libraries around Equestria.” He sighed. “Nopony was interested in fiction. Why search for fantasy in a book when there's so much in real life?”
Rose frowned as he said this. “That doesn't sound right at all. The magic of a good book is in containing a world so fantastic that it draws the reader in and makes them feel like it could happen. It's to let us experience things we wouldn't get to otherwise, and tell a tale that inspires us to keep going.”
Ink Well smirked at her. “Now who's the one talking in sappy lines?”
“Oh shut up.” Rose and Ink Well laughed at each other as they made their way out of the forest and back towards town. Soon after they left the woods, a call came from the sky above.
“Hey! Ink Well! There you are!” Rainbow Dash bolted from the sky, landing swiftly next to them. “I've been looking everywhere for you! The others have something they wanted to say to you, and they want to talk with you about your story.”
Ink Well raised his eyebrow. “Just the others? You don't have anything you want to say?”
“Yes. No! I mean... not in front of Rose, okay? I'll tell you back at the library.” Rose giggled at Rainbow's reaction, causing her to pout. “Look, we're waiting for you back there. Just hurry over.” Rainbow leaped into the air and took off like a shot, leaving a prismatic trail behind her.
Ink Well turned to Rose, still smiling after getting Dash all flustered. “I guess I shouldn't keep them waiting.”
Rose smiled back. “It's okay, you go on. Might be able to get the whole misunderstanding behind you.”
“Hopefully.” He tipped his beaten hat to Rose as he started to walk away. “It's been a pleasure, Rose. I'll be sure to visit the next time I'm in town.”
Rose waved him on his way. “Of course! Glad to show you around. Take care of yourself, alright?”
“I will, thanks.” Ink Well hopped into the air and headed towards the library.
---
Ink Well pushed open the library door to reveal six very sorry faces. Twilight walked over to him, looking ashamed. “I'm so sorry we jumped to conclusions like that. This piece had everything we had asked for, and even some things we'd only hinted at. We shouldn't have gotten so mad without talking to you.” Various iterations of “we're sorry” came from the array of ponies behind her. She used her magic to float his story to him, putting it back in his bag. “Can you ever forgive us?”
Ink Well looked seriously at the group. Every one of them, even Rainbow Dash, was looking truly remorseful for their actions earlier. He smiled at them. “Don't worry. I have no hard feelings. I would've probably reacted the same way if it happened to me. Granted, I wouldn't have hit as hard.” He rubbed his cheek, visibly swollen and bruised from earlier.
Applejack laughed nervously. “Yeah, sorry 'bout that. I reckon my temper mighta gone and got the better of me. But I'm real sorry about it! Really I am!”
Ink Well waved away her apologizing. “It's fine, really. If I'd really held a grudge I would've gone back and turned in the other story, seen if they'd have given me back my job. But I knew you were all acting without thinking. I did some things I'm not too proud of either.”
Rarity looked at him, shocked. “You lost your job? They fired you over the story? But it was just corrections!”
Ink Well shrugged. “It wasn't what they wanted, so I'm off of their payroll as of noon. They even took away my lanyard. But... it's not like I'm the only pony to ever lose a job before. Besides, who wants to work for a magazine that can't admit it made a mistake?”
Fluttershy spoke up from the back, images of his house in her head. “But you can't just go on without any money! And after we treated you so badly... What will you do?”
“Oh, I'll be fine. I've got a bit saved up, and I'm sure there are other magazines who'd be willing to hire me. There are so many out there, and so many are the same. I'm just sorry your corrections aren't going to get printed.”
Rainbow floated above the rest, laying back as she flew. “Eh, who needs 'em? At least they won't have anything else to say about us.”
Pinkie Pie stood to the side, frowning. “Awww, we aren't going to be in the magazine? But how will they know about my awesome parties?”
Twilight looked at her, dead pan. “Pinkie, don't you think there are more important matters here?”
Pinkie shot back a serious look. “Twilight, there is nothing more important than a good party when you are down. You should know that by now.” She shrugged. “Oh well, guess they'll just have to come and find out for themselves!”
Twilight shook her head, turning back to Ink Well. “Anyway, we're very sorry about the misunderstanding. If you ever need anything from us, I'm sure we'd be willing to thank you for the work you've done.”
Ink Well nodded to her. “Don't mention it, I was glad to help.” He looked out of the window, noticing the sky darkening outside. “Now if you will excuse me, I should probably start heading back home.”
Rarity stepped forwards. “Wouldn't you like to stay for a little while? I'm sure one of us would be more than willing to let you spend the night and save you from that long flight home. It's the least we could do.”
Ink Well shook his head. “Thank you for the offer, but no. I've been in your manes for long enough. Thank you all for tolerating me, and I hope to see you under much happier circumstances in the future.” To a chorus of goodbyes Ink Well tipped his hat and departed, flying off into the early night sky.
---
The next day Ink Well awoke early, not particularly sure of what to do with himself. He ate breakfast out of the gift Fluttershy had left him the day before, then sat at his writing table, pen in mouth and no inspiration coming. After about an hour of staring at an empty page he put the pen away in its holster on his bag. He then looked at his bag, shook his head, and moved the pen into its home on his writing desk within the golden ink well. He looked at the clock hanging from his wall, surprised to find it still there, let alone ticking after he had last seen it buried in paper. It was only nine in the morning.
Sighing and walking away from his desk, his mind wandered to Fluttershy and the gang and what they were up to. He considered flying to Ponyville, but felt like he'd just seem like some weird clingy pony to fly back there on his first day free from the shackles of work. Instead he turned to the piles of unfinished stories, seeing if perhaps he could lessen their massive volume.
He read through his stories, slowly becoming more dissatisfied with his own writing the deeper into the pile he went. None of these were any good, and the few that had some potential just lacked the spark of a truly great story, though it probably didn't help that he found himself in no mood to write. Even so, his mind did find a train of thought to jump on. 'Ditzy would probably love these though. I mean, she was ecstatic over the story I gave her, and that was turned down four separate times. What was that other name she said? Dinky? Was that a friend or a sister or what?' Ink Well analyzed what he was thinking about, face completely dead pan. 'I'm inner monologuing about a pony I met once. What is wrong with me?'
He pushed aside the unfinished stories, deciding instead to finally get to work on that second book he'd always been dreaming about writing. He started trying to think about the plot and what the major points would be. Characters, setting, tone, anything at all that might help him create his next book. Instead he found his mind wandering over his tour with Rose and the sights of Ponyville. He had been so happy during that, just letting his mind go. He'd had four story ideas pop into his head in just the last ten minutes of that walk, and now he couldn't think of one.
He stared at the ink pot on his desk, gleaming brightly at him despite how annoyed he was feeling. “'One source, endless possibilities.' And I can't even think of one...” He smacked his hooves against his head, trying to jump start his brain. “No! C'mon Ink Well! You can do this! Just get your mind off of Ponyville and back on the matter at hoof.” He picked up his pen, excited and peppy and ready to write!
Five minutes later, all he had managed to do was doodle a poorly drawn pegasus in the corner of the paper. He snorted, smacking his hoof on the desk and angrily putting away his pen. He paced around the house, rage quickly boiling up inside him at how little he was accomplishing. He looked up at the wall clock again.
Nine-thirty. Sighing, he flew up to his room, getting into his cloud bed. It had been the one luxury he had allowed himself on his meager salary, a bed that would quickly carry him off to dreamland, where inspiration flowed like water and the greatest of things was just a thought away. It cost a fortune to get clouds to maintain this close to the ground, but it was so worth it. He snuggled into the cloud, trying to calm himself and drift away into a nice nap. Maybe he'd just gotten up too early. A few more minutes of sleep would definitely help.
He sat awake in bed for twenty minutes, slowly getting more and more frustrated as each new comfortable position failed to stop his mind from running wild. He couldn't stop thinking, not on anything in particular, just a constant stream of useless thoughts that wouldn't go away. He sat up, smacking his face with a hoof and yelping in pain as he hit his still-bruised cheek. “Smooth one, Inky.” He rubbed his face as he got out of bed. Maybe a quick flight would clear his head.
He flew quickly down from his bedroom and to the door, wrenching it open and ready to fly. As he was about to take off, he spotted that the little flag on his mailbox was up. He walked over to it, ready for just about anything to take his mind from the spirals it was making on its own. Inside the mailbox was just one thing, a magazine folded up so that it would fit. Ink Well gave an angered snort at it. “Must've forgotten I didn't actually write anything for this one, sent me my complementary copy anyway.” He unfolded the magazine, revealing the National Equirer logo emblazoned on the front just above their main story's headline.
He glanced at it once as he walked to the trashcan, then froze mid-step as what he saw registered. “No...” He looked at the cover, jaw dropping as he read the title of the story. “Oh they are not going to like this.” He tossed aside the magazine, dashing inside to grab his hat and his bag. He re-holstered his pen, and his hoof swiped past where his journalist's lanyard had been hung, habit making the motion for him. Once he had his things, he galloped out of the door, mind deadly focused for the first time that day, and took off at full speed to Ponyville.
Back at his house, the magazine fluttered in the breeze, the front page proudly displaying the title: 'Ponyville 6 Attack GGG!'