Dear Diary,
What a fracas. The whole town was attacked by diamond dogs! Of course I didn't know that at first, so I'll start from the beginning.
I was at the apple stand when I heard panicking ponies headed to the town hall for shelter. Most ponies would have followed their lead and panicked too. Before Twilight came along I would have to, truth be known. Now, I charged into whatever they were running from.
Strange days. Ponies jumping into the jaws of danger. Humans, predators worse than griffins, owl-bears, and wargs put together, steal pony hearts and become family. They make families of their own.
So, I took a moment to figure out what was going on and it looked like ponies were streaming into the town hall from every direction. I was able to stop Silver Thought, who owns the old bookstore in town, and ask her what was going on.
She said, "I always wanted to be an adventurer, but not like this." I tried my best to calm her down, but I'm just not good at that. I wish Alex had been down there, he would have calmed her lickety-split.
Once I did have her able to talk properly, I was able to find out there were dogs attacking. It was almost funny, once I got her calm, she got mad. Real mean. Fluttershy mad. She said something about getting her frying pan to protect her shop, then took off with this grim look of determination. I feel really sorry for the dogs that cross her path.
I made my way toward the library. Twilight would know what to do. On the way, I worried about Big Mac and Alex. More so about Alex.
I knew Alex could take care of himself and any ponies around him. I was still worried. Not worried worried, but still worried.
I ran into a couple of diamond dogs on the way and showed them not every pony is afraid of them. Don't get me wrong, I was scared, but at that time I just didn't have time.
I finally got to the library and got the news. I know the DD were no good varmints, but I figured they had some kind of decency. I was wrong. I never figured they would attack a school full of foals. Not only that, but they sent ransom demands. Four tons of dried pork, a ton of dried cheese, half a ton of hard tack, a ton of dried apple, a ton of dried vegetables, and half a ton of salt. Maybe there was more, but that's all I remember.
What struck me as strange was no demands for slaves or bits, just food and salt. I heard some non-pony folk use salt to preserve food so it fits in with the rest of the demands.
Anyway, that's when I found out about the foalnapping. Me and Twi didn't even have to say nothing. She put Spike in the basement safe room (for when her experiments go a little off) and we charged off.
Along the way, we saved some more folks from dogs. I was burning mad because they were stopping me from saving Apple Bloom and her friends. About the time we get to Town Hall, there was a long sad howl. Every dog in sight just stopped and looked around like they couldn't believe their ears. Even the ones in a brawl just backed away and stopped.
We still couldn't get to the school with all the ponies, dogs, and other folk blocking up the roads around the town hall. I was so frustrated I must have shouted something. Twilight was shocked at what I said because she said, "Applejack! There are foals around."
I told her what I honestly felt, "Maybe so, but not the right ones."
I regretted saying it as soon as the words left my mouth. It might have been the truth, but sometimes a little white lie is better than the truth. This here was one of them times. I told her I was powerful sorry for what I said. That was the first white lie. The second was, "We need to help out whatever folks we can on the way to the school."
With this in mind and with what looked like the raid being over, we made our way to the school.
On the way, we saw a frightening sight. Being led away, back to where we came from, was the biggest Diamond Dog I've ever seen. Not that I've seen very many, but it was huge. Anyway, it must have been a dangerous customer 'cause it had three guard ponies around it and its front paws were in heavy shackles. One thing I can tell you is it didn't walk like a defeated creature. It walked with all the pride of a princess.
As I watched it go by there was a group of angry-looking ponies just glaring hate at it. All of a sudden somepony in that mob shouted, "Take this, you worthless mutt." A big rock or cobblestone arced out of the crowd and hit the diamond dog square in the eye.
That was something I never thought I would see in Ponyville. Giving the stink-eye would be the worst I would have expected to see a pony do. Them dogs must have been mean as sin for a pony to throw something. Still, I wondered if that would have been enough for a pony to change so much.
I jumped back when that dog turned back toward the mob, easily dragging the pony holding the shackles. This critter was strong, maybe stronger than Big Macintosh.
I’m pretty sure it was a she from the sound of her voice. She said, "Me finding better way. Pink monkey promised my daughter not go hungry. On day you find me, apologize, and me accept."
Pink monkey? Oh Alex, always fixing things.
Signed,
Happy this night is over.