Snow Diamond led Violet into a little room filled with books of all kinds and went over to a small desk in one corner. She opened a drawer, took out a little leather-bound book, and walked back over to Violet. She showed her the book.
“I’ve kept this journal since I left my parents’ home and started a life of my own.” Snow Diamond said as she opened to the first page. “Quite a few things have happened, but the moments that really stuck with me are the best… and the worst things that have ever happened to me. Do you like stories?”
Violet smiled and nodded.
“Good.” Snow Diamond sighed before she began her tale. “A long time ago, I was just like you. Young, spry, carefree, happy-go-lucky… but after I went out on my own, everything changed. I was always teased, bullied, ridiculed, and humiliated for no apparent reason and it made my life a living nightmare. But then, I met an Earth pony; his name was Death Wish.”
“Your lost love?” Violet asked.
“Oh no; he’s later on.” Snow Diamond replied as she flipped to another page. “I told Death Wish that I was lost and had nowhere to go, so he took me in and let me live with him. And from there, we just hit it off and we ended up really liking each other. At first everything was okay, but after a few weeks… things took a turn for the worse for me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I slowly started to realize that he wouldn’t let me do anything; he wouldn’t let me use my magic in the house, he wouldn’t let me go out on my own, he wouldn’t let me stay in contact with my parents… hey, he wouldn’t even let me talk most of the time. Death Wish wanted to follow these “simple rules” and I thought it would be no problem… but I kept breaking them. I never meant to break them, I just… I tried my best, I really did. But whenever I did anything right, he gives me no acknowledgement whatsoever. And whenever I did something wrong, even if it was the tiniest little thing, he would blow up in my face about it. He would yell at me, call me names… and even hit me at times. One time, he hit me so hard that I got knocked out AND I ended up with a broken muzzle. He also told me that I wasn’t good enough for anypony; he brought me down pretty much every single day and I dealt with it for THREE YEARS. But I never thought it was wrong because I had never been in a serious relationship before that. He would cause a lot of depression and anxiety for me; things just got worse and worse… and I was still living with him.”
“But what did you do?”
“Then after those three years, I decided that I couldn’t take it anymore. While Death Wish was at work one day, I finally decided to stand up for myself and leave; I packed up all of my things and hopped onto the next train… I didn’t even bother to leave him a note; I didn’t want him to follow me. I didn’t know where the train would take me, but I hoped it would take me FAR AWAY from him. To this day, everything he said to me is stuck in the back of my head and I thought that I could ever forget until… he came into my life.”
“Your lover?”
“Yes.”
Snow Diamond smiled and closed her eyes as Violet scooted closer to her; this story was getting really good and she wanted to hear more.
“He and I met at a small bar in Seaward Shoals.” The white mare continued; Violet wanted to tell her new friend that she was originally from Seaward Shoals, but she didn’t want to interrupt or seem rude so she kept quiet. “I got a job as a singer and one night while I was singing, a Pegasus stallion came in with a few friends and I could tell that they were all sailors. I was getting so into my song that I started to dance, but I stepped in the wrong place and I fell offstage… only to be caught by that same Pegasus just before I hit the floor. The song ended and everypony clapped and cheered and after the show, he and I started to talk. We talked, joked, and laughed up a storm; I still remember that very first joke he told me that night. It was a corny sailor joke, but it made me laugh all the same. Still makes me laugh to this day.”
“What was it?” Violet inquired.
“How much does it cost a pirate to get his ears pierced?”
“I don’t know. What?”
“A buck-an-ear.”
Both Violet and Snow burst out laughing, but they were careful not to wake anypony up. Violet wiped a tear from her eye and grinned.
“That’s a good one.” She giggled.
“That’s what I said when he told it to me.” Snow lamented before she continued her tale, flipping through more pages of her diary. “After the bar closed, he told me that he would like to see me again sometime and I told him that I wouldn’t mind meeting up with him again either. So we agreed to meet up at the pier, Tuesday at noon. So we met up on Tuesday and from there, we REALLY hit it off. Do you know the saying, ‘Lovers move in on the second date’? Well, he and I kinda started that one. He found out that I was staying in a… not so nice place and he just opened his door to me, just like that.”
“That’s really sweet of him.” Violet commented.
“You have no idea.” Snow went on. “He insisted since I didn’t really have anywhere else to go and I was a proper roommate too; I did my fair share and more of the cleaning and cooking, hoping that would kinda compensate for the quick move. Soon enough, it was as if we’d lived in that house by the sea together all our lives and didn’t know it. It just came naturally… and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Ever since I met him, I had been the happiest in all my life; he made me feel so comfortable, happy, and safe. Everything was perfect and from there, it got… better. One night, he took me to the pier for a surprise. He told me that I was the best thing that has ever happened to him and I told him that I couldn’t imagine a life without him. He then got down on one knee and… and he asked me to marry him.”
Violet gasped and smiled; she loved a good romance and this story kept getting better and better.
“When he showed me the ring and gave me that hopeful smile, I screamed ‘YES’ about a dozen times and I was practically sobbing with joy as I wrapped my hooves around him in a hug. I still have the ring.”
Snow Diamond then opened another desk drawer and took out an absolutely beautiful diamond ring; Violet’s eyes widened with awe at the sight.
“Wow…” She whispered.
“Yeah; he told me it was the finest he could afford.” Snow replied.
“But what happened?”
“Well… he and I were wed at the beach and we were just living together like we had before, only then we were husband and wife. However in stories like these, there’s always a dark twist. I wish I didn’t have to say it, but it’s important.”
‘I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.’
“You see, it started a few days after the wedding. This life we built together was… tainted. I had a place I could finally call my own; it was all mine… and then HE showed up.”
“Death Wish?” Violet asked.
Snow Diamond nodded and continued. “He was in the bar, that very same bar where my husband and I first met. I don’t think he saw me, but I definitely saw him… and he was nothing but an eyesore to me. When I saw him, I felt I had to run away again! …But I couldn’t leave Jack.”
“Jack?”
“The nickname of my husband. So, I did the only logical and rational thing I could think of: follow Death Wish home to see where he lived. And there it was: the perfect little house on the perfect little lane so perfectly placed in the heart of his perfect little world. A pretty little garden with perfect rows of flowers out front and white-painted shutters that perfectly matched the cream-color of his house. It was… so perfectly sickening. And fate likes to deal all the perfect cards all at once, right? I just happened to see his new little house mare greet him out front with nothing but smiles. Ha… “Smiles.” Pfft. I’m not even sure how he scored a mare like that. For her sake, I prayed she could at least cook. Then I saw a little colt with a blonde mane standing beside the mare and I froze; I prayed to myself that Death Wish didn’t harm him while he was here. I never told Jack about Death Wish because I feared that he would be disgusted and wouldn’t love me anymore. Everything was perfectly fine, just Jack and me; I didn’t need Death Wish there. I needed him as much as I needed an infected skin rash.”
Violet giggled under her breath.
“Oh you may laugh now, but just wait until this next part. A few months after Death came to town, I started to feel pretty woozy and sick almost all the time. I cut myself off from Jack, hoping it was nothing. I went to the doctor to check it out and what he told me… shook me to the core. That night, Jack and I were lying in bed when my stomach felt sick again. I went to the bathroom as quickly as I could and… puked my guts out, as the foals would say. Jack was very worried about me of course, so he asked me what was going on. I told him it was nothing, but he could tell something was on my mind. He kept pestering me to tell him until finally, I did. I told him… I told him I was pregnant.”
Violet gasped in shock. “With his foal?”
“Of course with his foal! Who else?! …Uh, sorry; I always get a little touchy on the subject. I waited for a reaction and after a minute or two… he smiled, picked me up in his hooves, and twirled me around the room, laughing all the while. That was not the reaction I was expecting, not at all. I asked him why he wasn’t upset and he told me that he had always wanted to be a father. I smiled at that answer before we shared a kiss. After that, my pregnancy normally progressed; I had a few cases of morning sickness and I was tired almost all the time, but that eventually faded. But then one night… something horrible happened. As we were cuddling in bed, Jack and I heard a bloodcurdling from outside. We went towards the scream and saw that it was from Death Wish’s house; I could just barely see water splashing from an upstairs window, probably from the bathroom. Jack told me to wait outside while he investigated; I didn’t want Death to see me again so I did as he said. I waited for a minute or two until I heard cries for help and crashing coming from inside the house. I was scared of facing Death Wish again, but I was even more concerned about Jack’s safety so I went in… and saw that the house was a total mess. Then I heard a struggle going on in another room; I went in and saw Death Wish squeezing Jack’s throat with his front hooves, strangling him. I was terrified but before I could do anything, Jack used his hind legs to kick Death right off of him and Death flew into a wooden cabinet, knocking him out and possibly severely injuring him.”
“And Jack was okay?”
“Yes, he was fine. So after that, we went back home, not even bothering to look back. And then more time went by… and I gave birth to my baby. She was a beautiful little filly with a brown mane from her father and blue eyes from me. Jack and I were overjoyed; we now had a foal of our very own and we couldn’t ask for more.”
Snow Diamond smiled before she let out a sigh; she looked at Violet again.
“This is where the story gets… a little dark.” She said solemnly.
“…I’m listening.” Violet replied.
“It all started when our daughter was a year old.” Snow continued. “We were all at the beach together… when it happened. Jack was building a sand castle with our daughter when three or four unicorn guards came up and hit him in the back of the head. I gasped and put our baby onto my back as she cried; I watched Jack being picked up by the guards’ magic and I reached out my hoof to grab his, but it was all in vain. The guards just… just took him away from me; I still remember the horrified and confused look on his face before he vanished from view. And the last thing he said to me? I’ll never forget that.”
“What did he say?” Violet reluctantly asked.
“He called out to me saying, ‘Snow! No matter how long it takes, I will find you!’ But only a few months after Jack was arrested, things got worse. One night my daughter and I were sitting by the fireplace when three huge stallions barged in and threatened to take my filly away. I tried to protect her, but… but they were too strong. It’s kind of a blur, but I remember fighting those stallions with all I had. One of them came at me and… lights out. When I woke up, my house was in ruins. I felt blood trickling down my face from the cut on my forehead; then I noticed my daughter was gone. I tried to look for her all over the house… but she was nowhere to be found. …I never saw my husband or my child again after that.”
It was then that Snow Diamond began to sob and she fell to the ground with her face in her hooves; she dropped the journal without even realizing it. Violet did her best to comfort the mare, but then she remembered something in the story.
“Wait… did you say your daughter had blue eyes? From you?” She asked.
“Yes.” Snow answered through tears.
“Your eyes weren’t always green and purple?”
“…No. The eye colors I possess now… are all because of a curse. I forgot the name of it, though.”
“And, um… forgive me for asking this but… what was your husband’s real name?”
Snow Diamond was very hesitant to answer, but she slowly at up and looked Violet dead in the eye. She sighed,
“His name… was Jackpot Spade.”