[05-08-24 A.L.]
Dear Journal,
First off introduction is in order. Firstly my name is Bear Claw. I'm 12 years old and I am an earth pony. While I was born and live in Neigh York City, my family is of the native ponies kind. My name in the native language is...pretty hard for me to pronounce, so I'll just right it here: Makoganzh. That's like “mah-koa-ganh-zhah”. It's weird, yet you should hear how my parents’ names are pronounced. That's downright scary. Anyways I got you, little journal as a gift from my older sister, Swan. In our native language, she is called Waabizii. We are born of the tribe from the northernmost section of the great plains areas of Equestria. However, that's enough with the history lesson (which is ironic being that I hate History in school due to...well teacher's a real boring old mule--literally in this case). Anyways, as I said before I just turned 12 last month [April 6, 11 A.L is my birthday btw] and now is a little bit about myself to help break the ice between us.:
- My favorite color is Green
- My coat color is Burnt Sienna, but I have a paint patterned coat with Magnolia splashes on my face, back, hind legs and left forehoof.
- I collect comic books
- My cutie-mark is of a Archer's bow and arrow
- I'm in the 7th grade
- I live with my older sister and my 4 year old niece.
- The reason I don't live with my parents...is a difficult story
- I LOVE videogames
- My favorite food is roasted potatoes and pumpkin
Well that's all for a brief history and general consensus on me. Onto the reason why my sister insisted she buy you for me journal (I feel like you should have a name...ya know, to make it seem less like I'm writing in a boring old journal and more like I'm...confiding in an old, trusted friend. I will have to think about it some more). Anyways, onto current events. My cousin from Neigh Jersey just sent me a care package yesterday. While I normally like what she sends me, this one was extra special because she sent me a copy of one of my favorite books: Diamondback's Big Book of Fairytales and Folklore. Don't get me wrong, I had a copy before when I was little, but it...kinda...got ripped apart by a big mean dog. Anyways, she found a copy and sent it along with a new video game that she burned to a computer disk. She told me it's some sorta pizzaria simulator and I gotta deal with Animatronic critters. Kinda reminds me of Chazz E. Cheddar's by the description alone but apparently it's supposed to be really scary. So of course I'm gonna try it out in the dark, when my sister's at work and my niece is at pre-school. Epic isn't it! Anyways I gotta go now. Swan’s calling me down to eat.
Yours Truly,
-Bear Claw (age 12)
[10-27- 24 A.L.]
Dear Journal,
I am aware that it has been a few months since I've written. My only excuse is that I...actually lost you sometime in July. However you should be happy in that I have now thought of a name for you now! Hello to you, Jamie. Anyways, time to update you on all things that have gone on in the past 5 months.
Well to start, yesterday was my niece's 5th birthday and I honestly can't tell you how much of a headache I had this morning after that. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Catnip. Love that little filly to pieces (and that proves true in how much I spoil her, much to Swan’s chagrin), yet the filly knows how to party--kindergartener style. Which means a lot of screaming, running, messes, and one birthday girl who is currently passed out in her room curled up with all her birthday presents. Hence the headache. I suppose it was worth it. Plus….don't tell anypony, but my crush was at the party. One of my niece's friend's is my crush’s little brother. So needless to say things got a little awkward on my end due to me trying to not make a fool of myself. I didn't make a fool of myself if that's what you were worried about, but still...I tried to keep composed. It worked until I almost literally stuck my hoof in my mouth and said something incredibly embarrassing. Oh how I wish there were a device that could erase part of a pony’s memory so that I could make everypony forget what I said and did.
Okay, so that was just yesterday. Today I….*sigh* I wish today didn't happen. Because I went to school and I was told we have to do a report on the different cultures of Equus. I was given the Native Plains Ponies of post-settlement Equestria. While I was excited at first, some jerk in my class so rudely said to me that there's nothing exciting about and I quote: “dirty, thieving savages living in mud tents who kill innocent ponies over pieces of land”.With that being said I….may or may not have lost my temper and I…”allegedly” got into a fight. You can of course see that this caused problems with my family because my mom is the one they called up to the school instead of Swan, my legal guardian. So mom came and shortly afterwards (and with a phone call from me) Swan as well. Words were exchanged and I was yelled at by both my mom and sister. When I explained myself however, is what made mom get defensive and Swan had to explain the situation to my teacher while I calmed mom down. It didn't go as well as we planned and in the end, I got grounded for a week for fighting. Crap! I gotta go. Swan saw my light on and just yelled at me to chill out and go to bed.
Yours Truly,
-Bear Claw (age 12 and ½)
[4-06-25 A.L.]
Dear Journal,
Well as my luck may have it, today's my birthday. I'm officially a teenager and I... absolutely hate today! Why? Oh it could begin with the fact that I...kinda...had to go through a rite of passage this morning. As soon as I woke up, I was immediately rushed out of the house and spent the next hour and a half on a dinky little airship with nothing to eat. While that normally wouldn't upset me, today it did! I was looking forward to my special birthday breakfast before school (which I ditched today)! Anyways oh how it got worse from there. Apparently this particular rite of passage is one that will forever haunt me. See in our tribe, when a colt or filly turns the oddly specific age of 13, both genders have to go through what is called the “first blood”. It sounds gross, I know but stay with me here. It's not as bad as you think….it's somehow worse. See for girls, this just means that they...check to see if the filly has had her first moon blood cycle. I know. Why do I know about such things about fillies? Because I live with 2 of them (and only one of them goes through it every month) whereas it's a different situation for when they first start estrus. Faust’s mane I know too much about girls! Anyways they check by...well going down when she's laying on a padded mat and they...check to make sure her hymen is still intact, her uterus is shedding properly and that her hips are properly aligned. This was all told to me by my best friend, Dagger. She explained that in a few weeks they're gonna take her to the village and perform the first half of the ritual (which is what I explained) there. As it is in 3 weeks time it’ll be Dagger’s 13th birthday too. Now for colts it's….far more painful. Err...at least the first half is. See they took me to the village and told me to undress in a clothed separated part of a longhouse.
Then with me completely naked (which I don't normally mind, but for the fact that I was not the only thirteen-year-old colt doing this today, I felt shy!) They marched us to the shaman’s teepii and one by one they….Faust I can't write it! Okay…...okay I think...I’m good. Ok so as I was saying, the shaman went down the line of 6 of us and he...cut off our foreskins. I'm still in pain hours later! Not only was that painful, but also embarrassing! We then had to present our now completely smooth (albeit still bleeding) penile heads to the chief and shaman. With a special healing balm, eshkan (or in Equestrian, Ice Chisel) instructed us to grab a weapon of our choice and head to the center of the village. Thankfully this part I had been prepared for. This part is the only part that both colts and fillies have to participate in. The earning of our marks. No not our cutie-marks. Most of us already had that. No, I mean our official ink marks that officially declare us as adults. It was horrible! It didn't help that all the boys were still in pain in our nether regions, but apparently half of the girls were also in pain as well (apparently for three of them, the process of the first half of their ritual was rather uncomfortable and they too felt slight pain in their nethers). So here we were. 12 colts and fillies paired off in what was essentially...a large , non-lethal battle royale.
Amazingly, all of us came out alive! Badly bruised and injured, but alive! I still have a black eye and my left back hoof still hurts like Tartarus. Yet, I now sport the mark of the bear in which I was named for on my chest. A large bear’s paw is now permanently etched into my chest (which also burns).
Anyways, aside from the trauma that was this morning and afternoon today was...still awkward. Only after I got home did things really make me feel like I wanted the terra around me to swallow me up and spit out my skeleton! Two words: Surprise Party. I swear Jamie! I didn't think my sister could pull it off in such a short timespan! I should have known. Damn sister, always planning ahead. When I stepped in the door, all the lights in the house (okay on the first floor of our penthouse) were on and...my entire class and even a few ponies I knew from the other 8th grade classes, were in my living room shouting “Happy Birthday, Bear Claw!” There was even a banner with my face on it! Okay, I admit the party part was kinda fun, but I was exhausted from earlier and just wanted to rest! Now of course I was grateful and partied hard (as well as I could for a school night that is). You won't believe this, but my dear, sweet, conniving 26 year old sister managed to invite my crush to my birthday party/congratulatory party. To say I was mortified would be an understatement. Okay, gotta go now. I'm exhausted and am ready to re-apply that balm onto my privates and go to bed!
Yours Truly,
Bear Claw (age 13)
P.S.: Stuff I got for my birthday
*A new radio
*A Captain Marevel bed sheet set
*A new stationary
*Immortal Combat XI for my ZBox Two
*Some clothes
*A new poncho (courtesy of my nookomis)
*A shark tooth necklace (from my niece)
*Some new records (from my dad and mom)
*A new quiver (from my crush! I was honestly surprised by that one)
*Bits (various ponies gave me a total of about $200 bits)
