A Pony's Diary and the Other Stories

Canterlot.

Stary midnight.

Two shadows sprinted from dark to dark, hiding guards' sights. Finally, they arrived their determination. It was a poor house, well decorated, but small and couldn't get any attention. Two shadows stood there and watched the house for a while.

"This is it, " it was a colt's voice.

"Are you sure? " another colt felt not so confident.

"Yes, Look, a sign of a bottle of ink in the door. This is the house we are looking for, " said the first colt, "c'mon, Papageno, let's find out. " Behind the black hood, there was a sparkle shined in his deep blue eyes.

"I... I'm not sure, Lion... " Papageno said, shivered in his cloak.

"Shh... somepony's coming! " Lion Song, that's the colt's name, pulled Papageno and himself into a flower bed under the window and hided quickly, without any hesitate.

It was a stallion, with a short mixed mustache. He paded to the door straightly, and rang the bell.

Some sounds rised inside the house. Something got knocked each other. Something fallen from somewhere. After a while, there was a voice, "who's out there? " It sounds weary and scary. Maybe the voice's owner smoked, or hadn't take a shower for too long times.

"Don't worry, it's your old friend, Paperwork. " The stallion answered.

"Come in, my mate, " the door opened unwillingly. Paperwork went in.

Two colts cocked their heads out of flowers, eyesights wandering inside throught the window. The furnitures were getting really old-fashioned but well cared, polished like their first day made out. Warm flames jumped and sang to their guest, expressed how happy they feel, colored the ground like sunset. The house's owner was a stallion with a curly black long mane, and body was orange. He led his guest to his chair, starting to ask: "so, what do you want from here, Paperwork? " The voice sounded strangely offensive.

"Oh, take it easy, bro. We all know why I'm here, that diary, of course, Fury Comedian. " Paperwork stayed his smile.

"I have gave you all of the papers! I have none now! " Fury shouted loudly in a sudden. It scared two colts outside, but Paperwork acted still normal.

"You look pale, my friend, " Paperwork smiled more, but mysteriously, "calm down and let us have a nice chat... Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, how interesting... I wonder, it's you that idiot, or is Inky... "

"What Inky! I don't know any! "

"Easy easy, little youny pony. You told that story, or you can say Inky told, they are nothing different. Nor I care. I know you are hiding something, I know, you haven't gave me the full diary. And now, as the publisher, I need more to publish. "

"No! Not a chance! Get out from my home! " Fury yelled like a cocanist, totally crazy.

"Ok, ok, as you wish, sir... " Paperwork stood up and headed to the door in a flurry, forgot his hat.

Two colts looked at each other, not a word slided out from their fences of teeth. After a while of silence, Lion spoke first:

"So we guessed right. he does still keep the diary and something in it that we don't know. We are gonna steal it from him. "

"Are you crazy? We are what, burglars now? How can we steal things from the other ponies? "

"Or what? You just saw, his publisher failed to get it. Are we gonna ask nicely and just borrow it? Besides, we just wanna take a look, we return it after that. This is the only clue we have and we can't lose it! "

Papageno looked at Lion, swallowed, "let's do this then. "

The house had two floors. The first floor is totally in a dark now, maybe Fury went upstairs, but we don't know if he slept. He acted excited with his guest, so he might not sleep too soon. The two colts thought so, too. So they waited for a while, until it was dark upstairs too, and without any sound. There was only insects singing amongst grasses, the guards' footsteps came clearly, and then faded away. Lights on the street twisted, brighter and darker. They could even hear the hearts' beating each other. A star-dogged moon hang there, watched equestria with no emotion.

It is time!

The two burglars held their breathe, opened the window quietly, crawled into the house, landed with a soft "crack". They got extremely nervous, none of them had done that kind of thing before. So they stood still, didn't dare to move, just lowed their body and listened carefully, hoped that sound wouldn't drag any unnecessary attention. Their breathe was clear to hear, the flowing air. They felt like they spent a century waiting, and then they moved on. What would Fury do? Where would he put his treassure diary? They thought quickly. Some kind of safe box, must be. Or the bedside table, inside one of those drawers. It was just two of them, and they were all colts. It was just a small house, but not small at all for them. They got to search around to get that diary, but they wouldn't give up, they'd rather put it in practice, in some real acts.

Search was methodical. There were a lot of stuffs in first floor, chairs and table, a volion hanging in the wall, looked very old. There were some brown stains in the floor, could be coffee, or tea, or blood. There were a lot of stuffs, but had not too much places could hide a diary. They had to go upstairs. The wooden stairs looked very unstable, even a feather could make a sound. Papageno was very worried, he said, "Lion, I can just stay here, if you find something upstairs then you come down here. I can... I can stand as a sentry here... "

"No, we gotta do this together! So we can end it faster! We don't even need a sentry. It is already midnight! And Princess Luna has already summoned Fury! "

"What? You said Luna summoned Fury? But... how do you know and why? "

"That is a metaphor, for celestia's sake! I mean he must be sleeping deeply and having a dream already, not literally be summoned! " Lion sighed and facehoofed.

At the end, Papageno still went upstairs with his friend. He was that kind of pony, that kind of friend, he might complain, might be lazy and fear, but he woule never fail his friend.

Lion was an unicorn, but he didn't want to teleport, I must add this, forgive me. Because teleportation is easy, but he had no idea where would he land, might be the floor, or might be right on Fury's sleeping body. And teleportation made noise. Gladly, even there were several sounds of crack when they followed the stairs, nothing happened at all. And more surprising thing just happened after they went the second floor.

It was empty.

The whole floor, or let's say even the whole house, was empty! Not a pony was in the upstairs sleeping, not a shadow. The young burglars felt confused, meanwhile a thousands thoughts appeared in their minds. What happened? What could be happened? Where is Fury? When Fury went upstairs, they watched it with their own eyes, but now? They felt so confused. Or... there is a secret cave! There must be! As they thought so, a pony showed himself, rush to them from somewhere in the dark. It was such an accident, that the burglars could only feel like be punched by a train, then they fell on the ground.

"What do you want! " that voice sounds angry.

Lion looked at that pony, it was not Fury.

"You are not Fury! Who are you exactly? " Lion questioned.

"None of your concern! Get out from my house! " that pony, it was a stallion, stared at the burglars seriously, "I'll call the guards! "

"And, " the stallion added, "I don't know any furies! "

A silence for quite a long while. Nopony said anything, or moved, but just like that, stayed still. Finally, Lion spoke:

"You are a changling. "

That stallion took a deep breathe.

"So that all make sense, you don't want Paperwork stay too long, or he would know you are not Fury himself; and don't want give him the diary, that's why you act so angry, so you can scare him away. " Lion continued.

"You heard the conversation? "

"Loud and clear. So that why I know you are lying when you said you don't know any Furies. We can pretty sure there is no back door in this building, we've investigated well. And we saw nopony else enter or leave this building from the front door. If you are real Fury, you don't have to hide in the dark, you can just pretend sleeping in the bed and just wait us show ourselves and claim this house's property to us. "

"Lion... let's go back! I don't want to get caught! I am hungry and thirsty..." Papageno murmured.

"Silence! " Lion said unsatisfiedly, "don't you know keep quiet is divine and noble? "

"Haha... a lion here, good name! What do you want from me? Oh wait, Let me guess, you want Inky's dairy too, don't you? " The stallion laughed arrogantly.

"The diary published, it referred the Star Lake at the end. We need more information. We don't want the diary, or we don't only need that diary. We need any information to help, that's why I'm here. " Lion said.

"I don't trust you. " The stallion said.

Lion said nothing, took his cloak off. Meanwhile, there is a tiny blue flame came out from his horn, flowed towards a candle and lighted it. His face could be clearly seen in this light, it was a face with a strong determination. There was a special sparkle brighting from his blue eyes. His mane was black, not the dark kind of black, but the nobler kind. His body was white, but some places of his had been a little brownish, maybe burnt, or exploded out there too long. There was a scar in his left backleg, right on his knee, wide and scary. Seeing this, Papageno took off his too. He was green, with red and yellow mane, looked childish and ridiculous.

"We come here for peace. " Lion said calmly.

The stallion stared at them for a while, finally spoke: "let's talk. "

The changling changed back to his normal form from stallion, surprisingly, he was just a little colt too, "but first, let's make your friend not starved. " he smiled.

Soon, they went to the hall, around a table, there were cookies, cakes and drinks on it. Papageno couldn't wait any more, rush to the table, swallowed as if hadn't eaten for years.

"Why don't you sit? " The changling asked.

"Muu... kuuuu... " Papageno's mouth was full of food that he couldn't speak clearly. He was tried to say something but he must got them down. "I mean, " he said, "I'm ok... standing can save more time to... eat... and... digest... "

Lion tried not to look at him. His embarrassment just showed on his face.

"Eat. " The changling still smiled.

Lion took a little piece of cake for a polite respond. And then he siped a tea, he didn't know why did he do that, he just wanted to. The food is dry, he thought, and the tea tastes strange.

Lion felt dizzy, the cakes and teacups woke up from their dreams and was dancing around him, hoof in hoof, singing some strange folks.

Two silly puppies, two silly puppies,
twitching twisting in their bellies.
Big bad wolf moan in the dream,
bury whose skulls and call their mommies...

Lion lost his consciousness. The last thing he saw was that changling colt's smily face.