August 11th 4LT
A few of the fillies and colts from the village came to the estate to invite me out to play with them today. Don’t they know I have studying to do? I think the worse thing about it was that Mother was out of the house if she’d been here instead of Celestia knows where Nanny would never have made me go with them. Sometimes I don’t think she likes my mother very much. You know how sometimes when adults are being nice to one another but the air is so heavy it feels like they’re having an argument instead?
Sometimes it works to my advantage, like Nanny letting me study outside on the veranda, or letting me have an extra seed cake after dinner. But then there are times like this where she sends me out of the house to play like a normal filly.
We took the country road through the cherry groves. It was a lovely day with the sun shining through boughs and a pleasant coolness to the air. We waved hello to some of the earth ponies working the orchards and one of them even gave us some cherries to snack on while we walked.
I blushed bright red when he called me Little Madame. I suppose that’s in reference to what they tend to call my Mother, Madame Red Wine. The name really fits her I think, her mane is a lovely red over her dove white coat. I’ve got a mix of both my father and my mother, his curly mint coloured mane with her coat colour.
Lazuli’s brother works in the orchards and I could tell she was keeping her eyes open for him in case we saw him along the road. Watching those two makes me wish I had a brother or sister. I asked Nanny if she thought Mother would ever have another foal and she said that it wasn’t likely since Mother’s ‘cherry tree had gone and wilted’. This confused me terribly.
I tried asking Father what this meant and he started laughing! I might have asked Mother what it meant if he hadn’t told me not to.
We spent some time playing tag near the edge of the orchard where we didn’t see anypony working. After a time we grew bored of the game and decided to split into teams of two for a game of hide and seek. It wasn’t normally played in teams but we decided it would be fun to change things up a little bit.
After all the fuss about not wanting to go I’m surprised how quickly I started to enjoy myself. Niffle and I decided to partner up and when the others were ready we gathered around to decide which team would be seeking first.
There were six of us in all and none of us wanted to be on the seeking team. We were all sort of just standing there silently for a good few minutes trying to think of a way to decide when out of nowhere that weird little colt, Hollow Row, shouted: “Seeker says what!”
In the span of a single second my mind sprang to the ‘not it’ gag one often sees in these sorts of situations and gut reaction occurring faster than logic forced a loud “What!” from my lips. It was only after I said it had his words finally registered in my mind, I felt like such an imbecile for confusing the two. The other started laughing and I looked over at Niffle to say I was sorry.
Niffle said it was alright, and I suppose it was. At least she didn’t seem upset over it. She was too busy trying to hold back her laughter for that. The face she made while she held it back, though, lips contorted into a half frown half grin as she made little-coughing noises. It was so ridiculous that I found myself laughing with the others. Then with me laughing she finally let loose and laughed harder than us all.
The other ran off into the trees as Niffle and I stood together, our eyes closed and counting slowing to a hundred. At first, our counting was slow. "One Appleloosa, two Appleloosa, three Appleloosa..." but the higher we got the faster we counted until we found ourselves stumbling over the words and having to stop and figure out our place. Soon we weren't bothering with the 'Appleloosa' part at all. We weren’t perfect but we were at least honest.
We were laughing again by the time we reached a hundred and I felt energised and ready to seek the others out.
I couldn’t see them anywhere.
Now that we were finally looking for them I realised we hadn’t set any ground rules on where we could and couldn’t hide and the orchards were a big place. Niffle seemed to be thinking the same thing as we started out into the trees.
We started by looking behind trees and eventually looking up into the branches as we circled the area.
I nosed my way into a poofy looking bush, pushing aside branches with my magic. No luck. From behind, I heard Niffle cough.
“Soooo, I heard Shady Vale burned down one of your trees the other day.”
I pulled myself out and turned to face her. “You heard about that?” Niffle scratched at the ground with her hoof.
“Well yeah, everypony’s talking about it.”
I felt a sinking in my stomach. “...What exactly are they saying?”
Niffle looked down at her hooves, “Mostly stuff about Shady getting fired from the weather team.”
“Did my mother…?”
“I’m really sorry, Diamond.” Why was she saying sorry to me? My Mother wasn’t the one fired from her job over a silly mistake. “If it makes you feel any better your mom didn’t mean to get her fired… She’s been going down to the weather hub raising all kinds of hay bales ever since she found out about it. I guess she just wanted to complain, not, well, you know. Not what happened.”
I wasn’t sure what to say, finally, I muttered,“It’s fine, Niffle. I just hope Shady Vale gets her job back.”
We started walking again but this time in silence. It wasn’t much longer until we started finding the others. Lazuli and Hollow Row were up in a tree. They didn’t prove difficult to find when they couldn’t even muffle their laughter long enough to stay hidden. Though they might have managed it if Niffle hadn’t started calling out bad words. Every time she did they’d start laughing again until it felt less like hide and seek and more like Marco Polo with trees.
“Long Schlong silver!” Niffle cried. It wasn’t long before she was hopping around under the trees singing loudly, “Old Mcdonald sitting on a bench! Beating his d*ck with a monkey wrench!”
I hopped from left and to the right as we walked on, nervously eyeing our surroundings for the possible sight of adults and urging her to quiet down before somepony heard her and scolded us.
Needless to say, I was about ready to get down on the ground and thank Celestia by the time we found the right tree they were in.
They followed along after us as we kept searching. Hollow Row kept making silly jokes about having twig flank. I wasn’t really in the mood for joking by this point and I kinda wanted to go home again. But I felt bad about wanting to leave when we were in the middle of a game.
Around the fifth time Hollow Row made a twig flank joke Lazuli shoved him with her shoulder and told him he was a twig flank. It was immature I guess but enough to finally get me to smile again. Maybe things really would work out with Shady Vale and either way it didn’t really have anything to do with me, besides, I wasn’t going to help by moping around about what ponies might think.
Hollow Row side walked over in my direction until he was pressed up against me as we walked. “You don’t think I’m a twig flank, right, Diamond?”
“N-no, of course not,” I replied and quickened my pace to put some distance between us.
"She's just saying that to be nice, you know." Hollow Row blew a loud raspberry in her direction.
It took us at least another hour to find the others and by the time the first round was over we were tired of the game entirely. Thinking back on it I’m kinda glad I hadn’t been on one of the hiding team, it ended up taking so long to find everypony that I imagine it got a bit boring for them. Though I’m still fairly sure one of the other teams had been changing hiding spots mid-game. I was so certain we'd already checked that patch of trees.
The sun was hanging low in the sky when we settled down on a hill towards the edge of the west orchard and took in the view. The clouds flitted across the sky like stretched strands of cotton and I couldn’t help but mutter their scientific name under my breath as I took the scene in. “Cirrus…”
My chest seemed to fill with the most strange sensation as I watched the horizon transform into the radiant pinks and oranges of sunset like heavenly paints smeared across Celestia's canvas.
The others were still walking around. Niffle had flown up to sit in the branches of a cherry tree and was picking some for the others. I wished I had wings like her. I turned back to the sky and imagined myself floating up and up until I was over the clouds and not a care in the world could reach me.
“Hey, Diamond.” It was Hollow Row. I turned to look at him expecting to see a smug grin but instead, I found him frowning.
“Yes..?”
Instead of replying he simply sat down on the grass beside me and looked up into the sky. He was an earth pony and just as ground-bound as myself. I wondered if he was imagining the same thing I was. I was about to ask him when he turned and looked at me.
“Is your mom taking you to Canterlot for the test again this year?” I stared back into his emerald green eyes and a messy crop of hair that looked oh so much like the colour of dying grass. It stuck up at odd angles like grass too. His coat was a splotchy mix of greens with an ever so slight mix in of slightly lighter greens that blended in well enough you’d have to look closely to notice there was a difference in the first place.
“Of course she is,” I replied.
“Think you’re gonna get in this time?”
I snorted. There wasn’t any way I was going to entertain the thought of failing again, especially not out loud in
conversation. “Of course I’ll get in. I’ve been practising all year.”
We were silent for several moments.
“So I guess that means you’ll be off to Canterlot..”
“Yes, it does.”
“Will you ever come back?”
I rolled my eyes, “They'll have to drag me kicking and screaming,” I meant it as a joke but I found my tone more serious than I’d intended.
I felt him press his lips against the side of my face. He was already back onto his hooves before I even realised what he’d done. “I guess that means I’ll have to go to Canterlot too,” he called over his shoulder as he galloped down the hill and disappeared from view beneath the trees.
August 12th year 4LT
Night had nearly fallen by the time I made it back to the estate. Lazuli walked me back to the front garden and after that she walked off of the road and into the trees to go see if her brother was still helping out at the barn.
Mother was waiting for me in the dining room. Her mouth was curved into a deep frown as she looked up from her bowl of oats. I felt my stomach drop as her eyes followed me to my chair. I knew what was coming, any moment now she would yell at me, tell me I would never make it to Celestia's school. She would say I was grounded until the end of the exam for skipping out on my studies.
My heart pounded in my chest as the moments ticked by. I was going to throw up. Why wasn't she getting onto it? Was she trying to torture me? Finally, her horn glowed pale red and a scroll floated up from under the table. "What are the magical uses for quartz crystal!?" She barked. I slowly turned to face her, her expression was firm. Wasn't she going to yell at me? "Um, they can be used to absorb excess mana from unicorn foals with unstable magic and are used as batteries in inexpensive magical devices," I answered back. She wasted no time getting to the next question on her list.
This went on for several minutes, I didn't even notice when Nanny brought out my bowl and sat it on the table.
When dinner was over I was sent straight to bed. Mother didn't mention me leaving the house once. A part of me wondered why, the other was just happy nothing happened.
~*~
I woke to the sound of knocking on my bedroom door. Rolling out of bed I wobbled over to the door. My horn flickered with warmth as I grabbed the doorknob in my magic and pulled it open. I began to tell Nanny good morning but it wasn't her. It wasn't anypony I knew.
He was a tan earth pony stallion, his yellow mane flowed over his head like water before flipping up into a wave over his face. "Why good mornin' little miss. The name's Good Briar, Ah'll be filling in for your Nanny while's she away." He held out his hoof for me to shake it but I stepped back instead.
"She didn't say anything about leaving... Where did she go?" Good Briar frowned.
"Ah don't really know, whatever it was it must have been real urgent. Your folks didn't even have time to find a replacement, your Ma had me take a break from the orchards for this."
"Oh.."
Nanny didn't even say goodbye.
Both of my parents were out of the house for the day so it was just me and Good Briar. He had a scroll from my mother listing all the things I needed to study and even my mothers flash cards. We sat in the library for a good chunk of the day studying together. I could tell most of the stuff he was quizzing me on confused him. He couldn't even read magical script, though with him being an earth pony I guess that was just to be expected. Nanny never did this kind of stuff with me. I tried to explain that but he said they were orders from my Mother.
After lunch, we returned to the library for levitation practice. But instead of the normal exercise, he took out a large egg shaped piece of rock. It was grey and perfectly smooth. I lit my horn and lifted the rock easily into the air and he reached out his hood and pressed down on it knocking it out of my grasp and causing it to land on the carpet with a loud thud. "Hey! Why did you do that."
He gasped, "Sorry, Sugar, that's just what it says to do in the note your Ma left."
"Really..?"
"Is this new? Ah'm sorry I didn't tell ya."
I frowned, "It's fine." I lit up my horn again and lifted the egg back up into the air. Now that I knew what was coming I collected a mass of mana into a cone under the rock. It took him longer to push the rock out of my aura this time. I gritted my teeth trying to push more magic under the egg. It was great practice for the real test. I wondered why we hadn't been doing this all along.
After a while, he sat the stone egg on the floor and rested his hoof on top of it. Then he told me to try and pick it back up. I wondered what Nanny was doing. If she would start doing this with me when she got back. I sighed and lit my horn back up.
Mother returned home for dinner just as I was walking up the stairs to my room. I ran up to her right away asking her questions about Nanny but she just asked me about my studies and shooed me off to bed. Did something bad happen with Nanny? Was it my fault? Is somepony in her family sick... or worse?
I miss Nanny so much. I couldn't stop thinking about it the whole day.
Nanny, please come back soon.
August 14th year 4LT
It's been two whole days and Nanny still hasn't returned and nopony will tell me why. I've been asking Mother every chance I get but she always ignores it and starts drilling me with questions. The training has been tougher than it ever was before.
I thought we would be sticking to the stone egg but the next day it was replaced with a brand new one made of crystal. Crystals absorb manna much the same way dragon eggs do though not nearly as fast.
Training always gets a little.. frantic before the test but this is the first time it's gotten this bad. I've barely had enough time for meals let alone time for writing in my diary.
Today we finally began packing our luggage for the train. A few outfits, my spell books, the new crystal egg, and some snacks for the train ride found their way into my trunk with the help of Good Briar. He's such a laid-back fellow, even Nanny would have found dealing with Mother during this ordeal frustrating. But then again she's been with us long enough that she doesn't seem worried about telling mother off when she becomes too overbearing.
I hope she comes back before we leave for Canterlot.
The other foals haven't been back to visit me since that time in the orchard. I hoped that I might see Lazuli again when she comes to walk her brother home from the orchard but I've barely even looked outside of the library except to receive meals and go to bed.
I haven't even been able to take a bath it's been so hectic! Mother must have only just realised that this afternoon after dinner. She was about to kiss me goodnight instead she stepped back and yelled for Good Briar to draw me a bath! I've never been so embarrassed.
Speaking of embarrassment... I've been thinking about Hollow Row. Why did he go and do such a thing? There's no way he could like me, we barely know each other! What do I know about him?
I know his father runs a carpentry business. It was him and his team who helped do the repairs on the barn last summer. I know his Mother works in orchards. I know he doesn't get very good grades in school and that he doesn't seem to care all that much about it. Somehow, I don't feel like that's enough.
Wait. I've read about this sort of thing before. It's just a crush, it has to be. I mean we've only every played together when Lazuli calls us out. He's there because of her, I'm there because of her. We talk sometimes but it's never really gone past idle chit chat. So the only thing he has to really like about me must be my appearance..? NO, NO, NO, that's too embarrassing to even write down!
What was that talk of him going to Canterlot anyways? He couldn't have been serious. He'll definitely get over his crush and things will go back to normal once I've been in Caterlot for a few days.
A great poet once said that the love of youth floats to and fro like a butterfly on unsteady wings. Or was that from one of Mother's romance novels..? In any case, I've got bigger turnips to fry right now.
I'm so tired... I've been using my magic all day. I'm getting to the point where even holding this quill is becoming annoying.
We'll be leaving for Canterlot the day after tomorrow and arrive sometime later in the day. I'm going to keep my hooves crossed and hope Nanny pops up before then. I've been wondering about that a lot as you already know, I'm starting to feel like I know the truth about what's going on. I feel like dirt, trampled dirt.
The only thing about it though is that Good Briar he was just filling in for her while she's away right? So I couldn't be right about what happened. A family emergency popped up and she had to rush to get to them. She'll definitely come back.
Anyways, I'll try to write more tomorrow night.
