Dear Diary,
I don’t know what to do about this. I don’t know who I should go to. It’s all so big and worrying that even my bravery’s not going to cut it. Oh I’m sorry; I’m not explaining this right.
So it all started this morning when everypony else had gone over to the palace. I was going to go too but when I found out that Nocturn was going I decided to stay at home away from the trouble. However Mommy didn’t like me ‘moping’ about the house so she told me I should go out and see somepony. The only problem was I didn’t have anypony to see; they’d all gone off with Nocturn. So Mommy told me I had to go over and see Shadow—another foal at my school.
But I didn’t even know who Shadow was until Mommy showed me a picture of our class and pointed to him. It was the colt who always hid in the background and didn’t speak to anypony. All I knew about him is he was really good at races—the fastest in fact—but as for where he lived or who he really was, I had no clue. Mommy still said I had to go because she’d spoken to Shadow’s father who was worried about his son not having any friends, which then meant of course that she said one of her sons would come over and see him. And just because I’m the kindest, handsomest son she has it had to be me to go (and because, like I said, I had nothing to do at the moment and she didn’t like me doing nothing).
She gave the driver of the carriage his address, put me on the seat and told me to have fun. Fun? I didn’t even know if Shadow liked having fun; he was way too quiet. Nopony even tried to make friends with him because he wouldn’t say anything to you if you said anything to him. Most ponies just thought he was rude; so they didn’t even bother anymore. I’d made friends with Tia and the others so fast I hadn’t even tried to talk to Shadow. I was told he was rude so I didn’t.
His house was massive. Even massiver than my house and my house is pretty big. Shadow must be pretty rich to be able to afford a house like that. Or his parents are related to royalty or something—it was nearly as huge as the palace.
Shadow’s Mother answered the door. I was pretty wary of her when I first saw her though I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the mare beyond being really tired. She took me straight to Shadow’s room and pushed me inside, with a really weird, eerie-sort-of-smile. Shadow didn’t even flinch; he just carried on sitting there looking out of the window. The door was shut and LOCKED behind us. LOCKED! She LOCKED the door! It was like being stuck in a really scary horror story, like the one we read in class at my old school but even worse.
This was it, this was the end, I’d thought. Eventually Shadow looked around and came down to me. I tried to smile but the fear took over and I more did a Gallophad potty-face than anything. Shadow still didn’t show any kind of emotion, until a few seconds later when he started laughing.
“You look like Gallophad,” he giggled.
I was shocked.
“Y-you know Gallophad?” I’d asked, really confused.
“Yeah. I go round to the palace a lot. And we do flight training together.”
“You do flight training?” I’d asked again. Still not sure how this was even possible.
“Top of the class. Flying’s the only thing I love to do.” He sighed then and looked out of the window again (Ha! Rhyme).
“Why don’t you go out of your room and fly then?”
“Mommy won’t let me go out unless I’m at the school, or the palace, or flight training. She says I’d only disturb her or Daddy’s work.”
He sighed again and looked really unhappy. It must be horrible to be locked inside all of the time without a chance to do the thing you really loved. Maybe Shadow isn’t so messed up after all; maybe he just doesn’t say anything because he’s not happy being inside. During the races he does seem to perk up a bit.
We were locked up in the room for a long time it seemed. Must’ve been at least a couple of hours; maybe even more. Shadow got more and more bored the longer we were together and I have to admit that I felt exactly the same. I tried really hard to think of things that would make this a lot more fun. Then it hit me. I could play all the games I’d played with Tia and Blankety but with Shadow.
After a while we were having such a good time that we didn’t notice being locked up anymore. He especially loved the game ‘The Lion (that’s me), the Shadow (that’s him), and the Wardrobe (it was as wooden as Nocturn. Ha!)’. We went to an amazing land which I made up in my head because Shadow wasn’t very good with making stuff up. It was covered in snow and ice and we had to find a way to save all the creatures by finding a magical sword that could melt all of it. Then when we’d saved everypony we’d be made the two Kings of the land. Shadow loved it.
In fact we were having so much fun we didn’t notice the door opening behind us and Shadow’s Father coming in: Lord Rangler.
“Well, well,” he said frightening us both (we thought the beaver we’d been imagining had actually come to life), “what’s going on here Bolt?”
I looked around the room but couldn’t find anypony but me and Shadow. It turned out that Bolt was just Shadow’s nickname his Father called him. He beamed at his Father and told him about our game. I thought he’d be mad about all the noise we’d been making, we hadn’t tried very hard to be quiet, but he seemed really happy that we’d been enjoying ourselves.
Sadly I had to leave then. It was time to go home for Dinner. Shadow went back into his usual sad-self when I got my stuff ready to leave but cheered up a lot when I promised to come back. I said I’d even bring Blankety if he wanted, and he nodded as fast as anything.
Lord Rangler walked me to the door. I didn’t know what to say to him. Uncle La Loo was a Sir and I’d thought that was really high up, but a Lord; that was something new. And it wasn’t like Shadow’s Father was a Knight or anything—he didn’t even work for the King—he’d got the title from his Father, and his Father had got it from his Father and so on. It was a long drawn out family thing. Shadow would be a Lord when he grew up too. It was great; I was now best friends with a Lord as well as royals. Apparently Lord Rangler’s family had a close connection with the Royals. His wife was somehow related to them—distantly. Shadow’s Mother didn’t show up to say Goodbye.
I walked down to the carriage whilst Shadow’s Father left to go back to his station at work. We both flew off in separate directions. It was only when we were halfway in the air I realised I’d left something behind. My Daddy’s medal—that I carried around everywhere.
The driver landed back on the ground and I ran back inside the house. I was just about to go upstairs when I heard a noise coming from a door at the side. Somehow—and I don’t know why—I really wanted to find out what was going on. All the noises were ‘CRASHING’ and ‘BOOMING’; I thought somepony was hurt. I ran over and pushed open the door, slowly creeping down the stairs.
It was quite a few steps down before I stopped in fear and looked through the bannisters. There was this huge bubbling pot with steam seeping out of it and in that steam—was a face. I foal you not, there was a FACE. And it wasn’t a nice one either.
Shadow’s Mommy was talking to it like they’d known each other their whole lives. I didn’t catch much of what they were saying at first but then the creature began to shout a bit louder.
“You little foal, how can we destroy King Alicorn if you don’t work hard enough? I SHOULD BE IN CONTROL BY NOW.”
“Calm yourself Nightmare. I’m working on it. King Alicorn will be gone before you know it.”
“HE HAD BETTER OR ALL THAT YOU WANTED WILL NOT COME.”
I was so scared that my foot slipped and banged hard on the wooden step making a loud bang sound come out of nowhere. I had to run—they must have noticed me.
I ran as fast as possible up the stairs, out of the main door and shot into the carriage; leaving the medal behind.
And now I’m sat here with you Diary, not sure what to do. Should I tell somepony what I heard? Would they even believe me? I’m not sure I even believe me. The face in the purple smoke—it had been so horrible. I’m sure it must have heard me. I couldn’t eat any Dinner or Supper because I was scared of it coming to get me. And now I can’t sleep.
She’s going to get me. What do I do? How do I save myself? What do I say? Does Shadow even know what’s in his basement? Who can I tell? Is it safe to drink my milk and eat my cookies?
I have too many questions and Diary—
I’m so afraid.