I had to leave Clover and Platinum in the care of Butter Biscuit while I step out. He seems responsible, and I won't be gone long, but still, I'm going to try and make this trip as quick as possible. I don't feel right leaving my daughter and the filly who might as well be my daughter in the care of somepony not trained specifically to care for them.
Things seem to functioning normally around the castle, and Gilded Lily itself seems to have returned to a state of relative normalcy. Though this may be due in part to the fact that everypony has gotten so used to the constant stream of diseased ponies dropping dead. I noticed a mass grave in the center of the city. It saddened me to see foals having to bury their parents. I'll have to think of something for all of them. I can't bring their parents back, but surely there is something I can do to ease their pain.
Rain is gone. Just disappeared, vanished into thin air. Those useless guards I appointed to stand watch at her cell claim that there's no way she could have sneaked past them. But obviously, she did, because she isn't where she's supposed to be and they're none the wiser as to why. I'm having Orich strip them of their rank and expunge them from the Royal Guard. I swear. . . how do you lose an entire pony?
So apparently I overreacted, but only slightly. Orich was confused by my orders, considering that, apparently, I was the one that allowed Rain's release. He had a letter and everything, in my hoof-writing, bearing orders for Rain's release from quarantine. It's dated for three days ago. Meaning Rain, as I can only assume it was her that wrote this letter, managed to walk out right under my nose, without my knowledge, and, for some reason, without the knowledge of her appointed guards. Unless they're hiding something from me. . . .Yes, they're definitely hiding something.
Rain's guards didn't require much persuasion to tell me what I needed to know. I just had to promise I wouldn't expunge them from the Royal Guard. Simple enough, I suppose. But anyway, they claim that Rain had her escape planned from the day I placed her in quarantine. They don't know any of the greater details, but they know she spent the majority of the first day writing the letters that I've been reading. Over the next few hours after she finished her letters, she worked on forging my hoof-writing, creating a written order that somehow managed to make it to Orich's desk. She was released the day I tried to see her. By the time they had given me her last letter, she was already gone, though when she was let go, and where she went, they don't know. It's as if she just phased out of existence. Unbelievable.
Rain wouldn't have just disappeared without leaving me some way to find her. Maybe the answer lies in her last letter. At least, I hope it does.