I could have sent her back...

Dear Diary,

I guess what "daddy" doesn't know really won't hurt him.

Darn it! Even as I write this, I'm biting my pen so hard I think I chipped a tooth! While the big man was out painting the town red with that Jenny chick, I finally got a chance to spread my wings for the first time in... Well, for the first time I can truly remember. For the first time in my memory, I felt alive, and I felt AWESOME!

I can still remember it so vividly. There he was, standing in front of me in some $40 tee shirt with a bottle of cologne in his hooves. He's giving me some kind of speech about how I need to be quiet, and how the outside world is still this really dangerous place that can never know about me. And there I am, nodding along. He made me promise that I would be quiet as a mouse; that I wouldn't let a single living soul know I exist. All things considered, I think I kept my word.

He turns, checks his watch, and heads right out the door. Just like that! And just like that, I've got the whole apartment to myself. I play along for a little bit. I grab a bag of chips out from the pantry, plop down in front of a rerun of Dan Vs, and just laze around for about five minutes with my ears perked up. We live on the third floor, so I had to wait and listen through quite a few stairs, but it was worth it. For five intense minutes, I could feel my chest tensing, my heart pounding in excitement as each successive step slowly got quieter and quieter, but they never just faded away. When the big man got to the ground floor, he walked straight out the door and shut it behind him. Only then did the footsteps finally shut up.

From there, I skulk over to the window and keep a keen eye on the driveway. I swear, he may as well have been crawling his way to the car. I have no idea why these particular five minutes felt so ridiculously long compared to all the other five minute I've experienced, but it was worth it. As soon as he swung that car door closed, as soon as he turned the corner on Stanton, I breathed the loudest sigh of relief in history. I was home free.

And not a minute had passed since he left, when I decided to crack a window for no real reason. I guess you could say it was more than a bit stuffy in that place. So, I opened that itsy bitsy sliding glass window just a pinch, then I added a pinch on top of it, and a few more pinches, until it was just pinchy enough to fit a pegasus through. Funny how these things work out.

We were near the top of the building anyway, and there were no passers-by on the street below, so I helped myself through that open window and took a big, long huff of the cool, night air. It smelled awful, but c'est la vie.

I'd been planning to do this for a while now, and even thought about doing it while the big man was out at work, but it was always just too bright outside. I'm adventurous, but I'm not an idiot. I get his reasoning when he says I need to stay indoors, and that's exactly why. Going out in broad daylight would be suicide, but this late at night, I think it's okay.

There weren't too many people walking the streets. A massive traffic jam had materialized a couple blocks away, but I don't think any of those drivers really cared enough to look up.

And so, I flew. Not just in place, or even in a straight line. I flew like I had always wanted to. I dodged and weaved between the buildings, I ran up and around the sides of a skyscraper, I did a loop-de-loop around the Central Bridge, I flew an inch above the river and skimmed my hoof through the surface. I dove underneath an incoming boat and swam the full length of it, and then I took to the skies to do it all again.

Heck, I looked right at that stupid traffic jam, and I flew straight over it. I was only about a hundred feet above that mess of cars, but they all looked like ants just the same. I had never been so exhilarated in my life.

For a grand finale, I parked my butt on top of a building overlooking the big man's date, and I just watched. There he was, so lost in Jenny's eyes that it never crossed his mind to just look up. I came closer to getting caught in those nerve-wracking few minutes than I had the entire rest of the night, and I liked it. That was the thrill I was missing, and It felt better than words could ever hope to describe.

But, as the moon neared the edge of the horizon, the sun goddess somehow saw fit to bring this wonderful night to an end. So, with the warm rays of the sun on my back, I made one last pass across my favorite skyscraper, and flew straight for the apartment. I even caught a glimpse of the big man's car going the same way I was, and challenged him to an impromptu race.

He never stood a chance!

But, as I arrived back at the building, I stopped dead in mid-air and my mane grew a grey strand. That window I had climbed out of was closed, and opening it from the outside with hooves just wasn't going to work.

And right at that moment, as if on cue, there's slowpoke rounding the corner and pulling into the driveway. I had to get into that room, and I had to do it immediately. And luckily enough, divine providence granted me a replacement open window just two stories down.

The guy inside was still asleep. It was pretty early, after all. I landed in that room as gently as a bird in a nest, and I tiphooved as quickly and softly as I possibly could to his door. I could swear I heard him stir as I left, but he probably just had gas.

From there, it was just a matter of going up two flights of stairs, and I wasn't shy about using my wings. The big man was literally one floor behind me the whole way, and I only outpaced him by a hair, but there at the end, there it was, our wonderful apartment door. I had to struggle with myself to keep from opening it too quickly, and thank the goddesses that he had forgotten to lock it, but as those horrifying footsteps got ever louder and louder, I slowly swung the door shut and plopped right back down in front of the couch. And just in time for Transformers Prime, too.

So yeah, what the big man doesn't know won't hurt him. I had the time of my life yesterday, and not a soul in the city even caught wind of me.

I am SO doing it again!