The Diary of Pinkamena Diane Pie

Violet shadows danced delicately around Rarity's lurking form as Luna's pale evanescent lights created silver pools across the floor of the SugarCube corner and down its singular hall by the stairs, as if guiding the white unicorn to her destination. Fueled by the sheer snooping thrill the fashionista knew all too well, Rarity hastily glanced around the room to make absolute sure that her peers were all fast asleep. The transformation that the Corner's living room had gone through overnight could best be compared to a train wreck; cups, plates, cupcake wrappers and the bodies of exhausted ponies littered the floor like the aftermath of some lethal party bomb. Except of course for Pinkie Pie: she slept soundly on the kitchen counter face-first in an empty punch bowl. Rarity couldn't help but stifle a small giggle at the sight of her pink friend's eccentric enthusiasm, and made a mental note to not let anypony leave the establishment the following day before getting the place tidied up.

Not being able to contain her excitement much longer, the fashionista tip-hoofed her way to the moonlit door as fast and stealthily as she could. Then, filling to the brim with anticipation, she pointed her horn at the brass doorknob and cast her telepathy spell, surrounding it with a light blue aura that caused it to turn at her will. A soon as the door swung open, Rarity leaped inside and shut it behind her, giggling like a school filly. Digging around in places she knew she shouldn't had always filled her with uncontainable glee. Now, Rarity was by no means a cruel pony, and she would never even think of committing such a heinous crime as blackmailing her best friend. A proper lady does not involve herself in such filthy acts. However, that didn't stop her from feeling incredibly curious about Pinkie Pie's behavior towards that mysterious book and found herself drawn into discovering the secrets it must hold.

After all, Rarity thought to herself. It looked as if she was terribly troubled. If I found out just what the problem was, I could talk to her about whatever was causing her such grief. Yes, that's it! Why, we could even have a little face-to-face therapy session over a cup of tea! Oh, Rarity, you really have outdone yourself!

No sooner had Rarity begun searching the dark room for the book than were her eyes greeted with a bright purple light filling the room. When she looked up, she saw she was face-to-face with a certain librarian who wore a very smug look on her face.

"Looking for something?" Twilight Sparkle said.

"Uhm, uhh," Rarity stammered, looking for an excuse. Honestly, what was it with this librarian and getting into ponies' business? "L-looking for something? Why, how absurd, Twilight! T-the only thing I'm looking for is... is... um... the bathroom! Yes, that's it! I am looking for the bathroom!"

"Please, Rarity, even Applejack can lie better than that." Twilight retorted, rolling her eyes.

"Is that so, Ms. Smartypants?" Rarity huffed. "Then, what, pray tell, are you doing in here?"

Not missing a beat, Twilight simply said, "waiting for you to come in here looking for that book so I can stop you." Rarity's eye twitched.

"But Twiliiiiight" Rarity whined, kneeling over and looking at her friend with the best puppy-dog eyes she could muster.

"Hey, could you two keep it down? I'm trying to get some shut eye." The two unicorns both turned their heads to the door, seeing their blue pegasus friend with her wings extended in agitation and some serious bed-head. Rarity rushed over to Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow, Twilight won't let me read that book Pinkie Pie had earlier!" The white unicorn said in a tattle-tale voice, pouting.

Trying to free her fore hooves from Rarity's grasp, Rainbow Dash struggled to realize what her pouting friend was talking about. "Book?" She said. "You mean the one Pinkie didn't want us to pay attention to?"

"Yes, that one!" Rarity exclaimed. The mention of the book brought back that moment just hours ago when Pinkie Pie tried desperately to hide the dark tome from view, and began a small seed of curiosity in the cyan pegasus. There was something about watching one of her best friends take such a worrying change that rubbed Rainbow the wrong way. And now that she was a lot more into books than she was before and even considered herself a decent reader, she began to feel a strange urge, not unlike Rarity's, to dig up that book and give it a good, thorough inspection so as to sniff out any dangers it held to Pinkie Pie's well-being.

So, needless to say, as Rainbow Dash stood before the two now-arguing unicorns with their horns aglow and spotted the book sitting peacefully on the bed, she dove on instinct like Daring Do and an ancient artifact, grabbing it by the spine and clutching to her chest before Twilight could take it from her. It was then that the unicorn in question as well as Rarity both turned their heads to the pegasus, one wearing an expression of giddiness, and the other one rage. Twilight hopped on the bed, ready to pry the book out of her friend's forelegs, when yet another voice drifted in from the door.

"What in tarnation is goin' on in here?" The three ponies looked over at a frizzy-maned Applejack, her signature Stetson lopsided and her sleep-deprived eyes resting on heavy, droopy bags.

"Rainbow Dash was just about to read us a story!" Rarity said gleefully, looking at Twilight with smug pride. Before the increasingly flustered purple unicorn could object, Applejack hopped up on the bed and examined the black book in her friend's grasp. Instantly the farm pony recognized it and fell under the same spell of curiosity the previous two ponies had. She sat back on her haunches and recalled Pinkie Pie's little "episode".

"What about that little book do ya reckon could'a caused that high-strung pony to go into a mini-meltdown like that?" Applejack wondered aloud, staring in a trance at the object. She, like the others could tell something was off, like one tiny feather out of place on a bird's wing, small enough to not be seen, yet misplaced enough to disturb the creature on which it lay. The seed of curiosity seemed to have started growing, and all four ponies soon found themselves drawn into Pinkie's book. Even Twilight Sparkle found herself begin to have second thoughts, her sense of privacy starting to melt away as the book's details became more prominent than anything else in the room. The silence that had taken over the room washed over the ponies so quickly it sent chills down each of their spines. The whole universe began to revolve around that book, and the mares found themselves embracing every detail of it with their hypnotized gaze. The room began to spin, everything else in existence began to shatter and dissipate, leaving nothing in existence but those mares and that book, that book that was so dangerously mysterious, so ominously close to each of them that its opening was just hoof's reach away from--

          "Umm, girls?" In an instant, a pegasus, an earth pony, and two unicorns were violently zapped out of a strange dimension of hypnotic curiosity and shot into the real world by the softest voice in existence. Fluttershy, whose mane was uncharacteristically frizzy stood at the door with a worried expression. "Um, I was just wondering, w-why did you guys leave me ou--"

           "Oh, for Celestia's sake!" Twilight exclaimed, leaping off the bed, tackling the butter-yellow pegasus and carrying her to the bed. With a twitch from her eye and a glow from her horn, she shut the door and looked down at her friends. All she wanted was to protect little Pinkie's privacy; if she didn't want anypony reading a book, then who were they do go and read it behind her back? But did things like this ever work out for Twilight? No. It was always "oh, don't worry about it, Twi! We can do something really stupid and get ourselves into a big amount of trouble, then you can save our flanks and write a note to the Princess about learning things the hard way instead of taking some bucking advice!"

           "T-Twilight?" Fluttershy squeaked. "Are you okay? What's going on?"

           "Exactly what everypony wants!" Twilight snapped, waving her forelegs in the air dramatically. "Make yourselves comfortable ladies, we're going to read Pinkie's private book, and then we're going to go to sleep like good fillies and maybe, just maybe, I won't have to write any letters until tomorrow!" The lavender unicorn swiped the book from Rainbow Dash's hoofs and placed it on her lap with a very unnerving smile plastered on her face. It was then that the ponies learned a valuable lesson, one that Spike had learned long ago: don't get on Twilight's nerves at two in the morning, especially when it involves a book. Nevertheless, the ponies climbed up onto the mattress silently, waiting patiently for Twilight to begin reading. Except, of course, for Fluttershy, who still had no idea what was going on.

           It was the sudden attention everypony was giving Twilight, the silent yet excited anticipation for a good read that finally prompted her to open up the book to the first page. The librarian was greeted with the familiar smell of an ancient and timeless book, and was somehow humbled to be in its presence, as if she was dealing with some immortal cosmic deity. The now-exposed yellowed parchment below her was blank, except for the words "To my granddaughter Pinkamena Diane Pie. Happy birthday my angel." scribbled across it. Below those sentences, Twilight noticed some symbols resembling hieroglyphic-like text. Deciding that none of this was terribly significant, the unicorn turned to the next page and was greeted, once again, with hoof writing, this time filling the entire page.

           Deciding not to dwell in her own curiosity for too much longer, Twilight cleared her throat and began to read.

~~~

May 3rd, e/c61347

    My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie. Today is my birthday and I turn four years old and that means I am a mare.

~~~

             Twilight shot a glance at Rarity, who raised her hooves innocently. "I had no idea it was a diary, I swear!" The white unicorn stated. The librarian didn't respond; she was barely awake as it was and didn't have the energy to argue anymore. So reluctantly, she read on, her friends engrossed in whatever was in filly Pinkie Pie's head that she wanted to keep hidden.

~~~

      May 4th e/c61347

              I wrote everything in here the way Granny Pie told me to and she still tells me I'm doing it wrong. She tells me I'm supposed to write all of what I'm feeling inside this book, but she knows we can't do that. Number 22, section 53dl states that rock farmers cannot record any information at all, we can only read or write to study the laws. But Granny is taking me to her room and making me write every day, until I "understand its importance", she says.

              May 5th e/c61347

              I live in on the outskirts of Delamare as a rock farmer just like all earth ponies. On some rock farms ponies break big rocks and send them to rock farms like the one my family and I work at, where we sort them up into piles for the Authorities to take away. We aren't allowed to look at Authorities, so we can't watch them take the piles away.

              May 6th e/c61347

              "You still aren't grasping the concept, girl!" My grandmother scolded me after reading the short passages I've been writing.

              "You said to write about me and I did!" I countered. We were standing in her bedroom away from the rest of our family where Granny had been making me write for the past couple of days. "I've written everything there is to know about me, so I'm done!"

              "You haven't written the first thing about who you are, Pinkamena!" She snapped.

              "Who I am? Nopony can answer that!" I said, being to become more and more enraged. "We can say what are name is, what we do, what we like, how we feel or how old we are, but how the hay am I supposed to say who I am? I'm just a pony! We're all just ponies, workers with no need for identity forced into labor till we rot!" When I was done shouting, the room went silent. My Granny Pie just stood there looking at me with what looked like a mixture of pride, surprise and a bit of fear. I had no idea what had just gone through me, it was like a spark lit off in my head, illuminating some knowledge that I wasn't aware I had, and then died just as fast as it had appeared. I did know one thing however:

               "I... I didn't like that," I whispered, trying to retreat out of the room, but my granny grabbed me before I could escape.

               "This, Pinkamena, this is why I gave you that diary. You have something that few earth ponies I have ever seen possess: spirit. Emotion. Drive. You look around you today and something tells you that not all is the way it should be. You notice imperfection in what is claimed to be perfect. Every swarm of parasprites we're forced to drive off of out farm, every rock we're forced to collect and sort through, every blind we close in order to avert our gaze from the Authorities rubs you the wrong way somewhere in your head, and you have yet to find it and think with it."

               I just looked at my granny in fear. "But that's the part that scares me the most."

               "Fear stands in the way of everything worth fighting for, Pinkamena. The day will come where you will have to face your emotions, including fear. Tonight, you will write our conversation word for word here in this diary so you won't forget your hidden passion, and each day, no matter where you may end up, you will write in here more about what you discover about yourself and Delamare. Things are going to change, Pinkamena, for you and for everypony else. It's your destiny, your inevitable journey."

               So, here I am, in my room, using only the light of the moon to write what I was told to. I don't know what to think or feel about anything my granny said earlier. I thought this diary was a birthday gift, but apparently it's much much more. Apparently my granny knows a lot more about me than I do. And apparently, fear is a good thing. But that's the one thing I'm okay with right now, because if there's anything I'm feeling now, it's fear.