Diamond Song's Diary

August 10th 4LT

Mother gave me a big lecture this morning after Nanny got me out of bed. The work load has nearly doubled as the date for the test approaches. She wants me to study one of the new books I got yesterday. It’s one of the new textbooks they’ll be adding to the required list this year at Princess Celestia’s school and mother says I should familiarise myself with the contents earlier rather than later. After that she left to go and speak with a pony at the weather hub in the village. I was hoping she would let it go but I’m not surprised in the least. I feel badly saying this about my mother, but I wish she wasn’t so trying sometimes.  For breakfast Nanny made me oats with a side of homemade banana pudding. She let me eat it out on the veranda. She even said that if I wanted to I could bring my book outside to study. Nanny only ever let’s me do that when Mother is going to be out of the house all day. I hope she had plans beyond going to the weather hub or at the very least none of my classmates see her. I think I’ll take Nanny up on that offer. It’s such a beautiful day that it would be a shame to stay indoors. I pity Father for being stuck in that little office. Nanny say’s he’ll be meeting with some council leaders until sometime in the afternoon. I don’t know too much of what’s going on, but I overheard mother and father talking about trouble with merchants taking away business from the local earth pony farmers. I suppose their committee is pushing for stricter regulations on merchant trade. I don’t really see what all the fuss is about. Why would anypony want to buy imported fruit from the merchants when the fruit here is fresher?Nanny is an Earth Pony, so maybe she’ll know.  For now I’m going to finish up on breakfast and then fetch the new textbook from my bedroom. I’ll write more before bed. 6:47PM as observed on the grandfather clock in the west wing dining room. Mother seemed back to her normal self when she arrived home again. Though I couldn’t help but notice a slight rigid air to her tone. I wonder if things didn’t turn out the way she wanted them to? She started quizzing me on the textbook almost the exact moment she came into the room, she had flash cards and everything! I was so surprised that I think I missed the first few more out of nervousness than anything else. Mother either didn’t mind because I only just started the book today, or she noticed how flustered I was. After that we both retired to the sitting room, I with my book and mother with her cross stitch. That’s where we stayed until father returned home to pick up some documents. She followed him upstairs to the study. I followed them as far as the staircase before it became clear that she wanted to be alone with him.  It was getting on to that time of the day anyways, so I decided to return to my bedroom and practice my levitation spell for a while. Several minutes later Mother stopped by my room to tell be she was stepping out again. She looked flustered. I wonder if she and Father had a row over something. I hope not, the week before the test is stressful enough on us.