Of Course You Realize This Means War
Today Miss Primer told everypony in our class that we’re sposed supposed to keep a diary for the whole moon. It’s so we can get better at writing things because writing is really important. Maybe I’ll be one of those ponies who writes the stories which Daddy reads to me when he’s home, Daddy isn’t home much. Maybe he’d be home more if he had better stories.
Maybe he’d be home more if he loved
So we’re supposed to tell our diary about everything which happens to us this moon. Because that’s practice. And Miss Primer said it should make me better with commas. I don’t like commas. They go in too many places and they’re always the wrong ones.
The first thing which happened to me this moon is Miss Primer told everypony to keep a diary so I need to keep one too. I’m going to keep it on the nightstand next to my bed and write it in every night while Moon is up so I can stay up longer.
Nothing interesting happened today.
I went to school. I played. I looked at some pictures in magazines. I like magazines. I like the pictures. Ponies wear pretty things in pictures. Nopony in town wears anything like that.
I went home. Mommy was home. Daddy wasn’t. Then I did my homework and wrote in a diary.
Most days are like that. Most moons except when it’s summer. There’s no diary homework in summer and Daddy would be home for a little while. I wish it was summer now.
I hope I get a good grade on my diary. Miss Primer said a diary is like writing a story about your own life. But I don’t have a story life. I’m a filly. Fillies in stories have exciting things happen to them. Exciting things don’t happen to me.
Diaries are boring.
My life is boring.
I asked Miss Primer if there was some way to make my diary more exciting and she said to write like I was talking to a real pony. I have to tell my diary about myself and my family. But I’m the one reading about myself and when the moon is over Miss Primer will read it too. I know me and I think she sort of knows me as much as she knows anypony in class who doesn’t get in trouble. You learn things from stories and all I can write about myself is stuff I already know.
But Mommy says good grades are important. Good grades is how I go to my next school in a few years and that's whole birthdays away. I’m going to live at that school. Only the best ponies live at their school. She wants me to be the best pony so I’ll have lots of money and never have to worry about anything.
I won’t see my friends.
I won’t see anypony
I guess I should tell my diary about me now even when I already know about me.
My name is Rarity Belle. I’m a filly. I’m a unicorn just like Mommy and Daddy. But I don’t have any magic yet. That’s for when I’m older. I’m a little older every day and the magic still doesn’t come. I wish I had my magic. I don’t like how quills taste in my mouth.
I have friends! I have friends because my Mommy has friends and their colts and fillies come over when those mommies do. We all play together. Sometimes it gets a little rough and I want to cry. I don’t because Sledge laughs when I cry and Sequin says it’s my fault for not playing right. They play with me at home. At recess they usually play with each other. I have to play with them at home because Mommy wants me to have friends. At recess they play outdoors and the rough stuff gets me dirty. I don’t like being dirty because Mommy gives me really long baths and tells me a proper lady doesn’t get dirty. Mommy wants me to be a lady when I grow up. She tells me that’s the most important thing.
I have a special place I go to be happy. It’s really pretty but I can’t always go there when I want.
My Mommy takes care of me. She feeds me and cleans me and makes sure I get into the right secondiary secondary school. She says she does it all because she loves me.
My Daddy is famous! But not like the Princess is famous. Everypony knows who the Princess is and my Daddy says that maybe one in a hundred ponies would know him when he’s out of uniform. My Daddy plays hoofball! He’s a linebreaker! Most unicorns aren’t but my Daddy is big for a unicorn and he gets to use spells. There’s a really short list of spells he can use and he’s allowed to have two per quarter. Most linebreakers are earth ponies. So are the ponies on the opposum opposing line. They’re as big as my Daddy or even bigger. But they’re a lot stronger.
Sometimes my Daddy gets hurt.
He hurts for moons.
My Daddy rides on caravans to play in games. Some of the games are gallops and gallops away. I went gallops once to see him play for the championship! He won!
Everypony kept charging at him.
So that’s why he isn’t home much. Because hoofball players aren’t. But he loves me when he’s home. He says so. He does all the Daddy stuff whenever he’s home. I wish he was home more.
They hit him.
If they hit him really hard
My Daddy is famous. I’m not. Nopony knows me unless I’m with him and they know him which isn’t often. Sometimes they come up to him and press his hoof. Sometimes they yell things which I’m not allowed to say so I’m probably not allowed to write them either. Ponies who know my Daddy love him unless they say they want him to die or get traded. Traded is probably a lot like dying.
I’m just a filly. I don’t have any brothers or sisters. I wish I had a brother. Sequin says sisters take your stuff and brothers bring it back. I have friends sometimes and I go to school so one day I’ll be special. I’m not special yet. My Mommy is special because she takes care of me even if I don’t like the scrubbing very much. My Daddy is special because hardly anypony gets paid to play hoofball and he does. Hardly any unicorns have ever been linebreakers and he is. So my Daddy is a really special Daddy.
I wish Daddy was home. The diary homework will be over when the road trip ends. I could read it to him. Maybe that’s what diaries are really for? So I’ll try to keep a good one. Then I can tell my Daddy a story about me and he’ll know who I am.
My daddy could die.
My mouth hurts.
It was recess and I didn’t play with my friends because none of the mommies were there to keep it from getting rough and Miss Primer just stays in the room. She never watches us play. She says she’s grading. So she didn’t see when the big pony kicked me. I wasn’t where she could see me anyway.
I didn’t want to play so I went where the trees are. I think that’s okay as long as I’m back in school before the bell rings. When it’s warm like this I like to lie down in the grass and think about what it’ll be like when I’m older and have my magic and my mark and I’ll be in the other school and won’t know anypony. There’s a place where Sun comes through the leaves only not all of them. Some of them Sun goes around. So if I lie in just the right place I’m warm where my fur is white and a little cooler where Sun goes through the leaves and makes my fur green. It’s really pretty. It’s my special place. I wanted to show my friends but Sledge would just wrestle in it and ruin everything. Sometimes quiet is better. Quiet is almost always better than Sledge. I didn’t get to go there for a few days because the pegasuseses pegasi were making a lot of rain. Today was nice except for being lonely.
I was going through the clearing on my way there when the big pony showed up.
I don’t know where she came from. The clearing is surrounded by a lot of really thick trees and plants. When you go into it you sort of have to make noise pecial especially when you’re that big and touch so many at the same time. It’s okay to make noise like that because it’s too far from the school for anypony to hear and the trees mean nopony can see me anyway so I can be alone there. Only I wasn’t because she was there. She wasn’t when I started trotting through and then there was a weird sound behind me and a flash like a pegasus playing with lightning only more red. I glanced back over my tail because weird lights and sounds in town can mean something got in from the Everfree and you’re supposed to see what it is and then maybe you run.
But I didn’t run because it was just a pony.
I wish I’d run.
She looked really surprised. Then she looked sort of scared but that was only for a second before she got mad and once she was mad she wasn’t anything else. She was yelling at me about what I was doing there and what right did I have to be there and the light around her horn was getting all spiky like my Mommy’s does when she’s fighting someone. I was scared because she was big and loud and she had her magic and I don’t. So I told her I was just going somewhere else because that was the truth but she didn’t let me finish. She just yelled that I wasn’t allowed there and I should never go through the clearing again. I tried to tell her that I’d leave because I knew I could just push through the plants even if it meant getting scrubbed again. Then some of the spiky light around her horn went around my mouth.
I could feel it. Like when my Daddy uses his light to pick me up and make me sort of fly for a little while. Only she was squeezing my mouth so I couldn’t talk and she told me to shut up because she hated my stupid little voice and she didn’t want to ever see me again and she’d hurt me if she did and she just kept squeezing.
I tried to make my horn work but nothing happened because I’m too little and I’m not special.
She got real close and put her horn right in front of my right eye. I backed up and she trotted forward. She was smiling only it wasn’t a real one. It was the smile some of Mommy’s friends have when she stops looking at them and they aren’t really her friends at all. She told me to never come back or she’d hurt me. She was hurting me. My mouth still hurts.
Then the light went away and I ran.
I wanted to tell Miss Primer but the door was closed because she was grading and when it opened we had school again. So I waited until school was over and then I told her. She asked me to wait and then she went to the school for the older kids.
Then she came back and didn’t like me any more.
She said nopony had left that school while we were having recess. So I was making up stories. And I told her all about the big unicorn girl with the fur like cream somepony left out too long and the black eyes and the spikes in her light. I told her again and she didn’t believe me. She said that student was at school the whole time and I shouldn’t tell stories to get ponies in trouble.
My mouth hurts. The letters on the paper look wrong.
I want to lie down in my special place where the light makes me a little bit green. That would make me feel better. But the big pony might be there. Maybe that’s why she was mad. Maybe she wants it.
I’m scared.
I’m supposed to talk to my diary like I’m talking to somepony I trust. So I told my diary I was scared.
I tried to tell my Mommy but she knows the big pony’s mommy and wants that mommy to like her. Wanting other mommies to like her makes her not listen. She heard me say what the big pony looked like and then she was just talking about contax contacts and stuff because that was a really good pony to know.
I wish I was in my special place.
It’s not hers. It’s not anypony else’s. It’s mine.
Things happened today.
I waited a couple of days before I tried to go back because it’s spring and the weather schedule has too much rain in it. I don’t like rain most of the time. Rain makes mud and mud makes Mommy scrub me. It makes the special place feel weird when I lie down and the grass is wet. Plus Sun is what makes it special. Sun and colors. Sometimes I think about colors a lot.
I was scared to go back because she might be there and hurt me. But my Daddy goes places where somepony might hurt him and he keeps going there because that’s what makes him Daddy.
Daddy would make her stop but Daddy isn’t home.
I don’t think I’m going to be very big because I’m so small now. But maybe you don’t have to be big to be brave? And maybe she wouldn’t come back. I asked Sun and the Princess to make her not come back only maybe I shouldn’t have done that at night because it didn’t work. I’ll try day next time.
So it was recess and Sun was up because it’s day. The grass was dry and I knew my special place would be warm. I wanted to go there. I tried and I was looking around really carefully because I wanted to see the big pony before she saw me. But I just saw that it sort of looked like the plants had been pushed around a little and I wouldn’t have seen that if I hadn’t been looking for her. Stuff had been moved. But it hadn’t been moved very much. It was something going through which was smaller than her. And then I got to where I could see the clearing without being in it yet and I saw it was Applejack.
I could tell my diary about Applejack now except I don’t really know her. We’re in the same grade and we go to school together. But we don’t play because my Mommy isn’t really interested in making contacts with her mommy or daddy and Applejack hasn’t tried to play with me. She’s an earth pony and she’s a lot stronger than me. She plays sports like my Daddy only she doesn’t get paid. She likes to race and I don’t. She likes to run around and jump over things and I don’t always make jumps because she’s stronger and I can’t jump as high. So we don’t play because my Mommy wants to make friends with rich ponies and I don’t think I’d be very good at playing with her.
I don’t think I’m good at anything.
So Applejack was standing in the clearing and she had this funny look on her face. She looked sort of like my Mommy does when there’s a big party and somepony is saying something which my Mommy really wants to hear only not to her. She looks like she’s trying to make her whole body into ears. And that’s what Applejack looked like. Like she was listening with her ears and hooves and fur only she was frustrated because she couldn’t really hear.
I didn’t want to go in there because I didn’t want her to see me. The last pony who saw me there got mad. But I was scared to move because her whole body was ears and she might hear me.
Then the big pony came back.
I didn’t see her at first. There was the light again and I was looking at it this time so I blinked a lot. But she saw Applejack because she started screaming before I could see again. She was yelling about how now there was another one and everypony had to stay out of her place. And once I saw where she was I saw her light around Applejack. Holding her back only the light was sort of shaking because Applejack was pushing really hard trying to reach her. Walking forward looking angry and startled and a little scared but mostly angry. The light was pushing against her whole body and she’s smaller than the big pony even though she’s bigger than me. But she’s strong. Maybe she was too strong for the magic light to hold her. The big pony almost looked scared and it got worse the more the light shook.
I know it’s called a corona but my Daddy said magic light when I was really little so I like to call it
So the light went up to her ears and twisted them hard.
It hurts when somepony does that. I knew because Sequin did it to me once only my Mommy didn’t believe me because Sequin’s mommy has money. Then I remembered when it felt like before it happened again.
Applejack fell down because the twisting hurt and then the light pushed on her neck. The big pony charged her. She was yelling and screaming about how it was her place and Applejack could have ruined it and I thought there was going to be a trample. My Daddy got trampled once and we had to visit the hospital.
So I did what my Daddy would except that I’m small and it didn’t work.
I hit her foreleg. But my horn isn’t sharp or very long yet and I can’t charge very fast. She made a sound like she was sort of hurt and it made her go in a new direction so she didn’t hit Applejack. But it mostly made her mad. She turned around to see what hit her and she saw us. Her light went spiky.
My ears still hurt. But not as much as my mouth did. Maybe because she was twisting on both of us?
She did a lot of things which hurt only none of them made bruises. She pushed me into the grass and before I stopped crying she was gone.
So it was me and Applejack and she got up. She asked me if I’d followed her and she sounded almost as mad as the big pony only more scared and hurt. So I told her no. She wanted to know why I was there and Miss Primer didn’t believe me and my Mommy didn’t listen so I didn’t think Applejack would care.
But I told her. About why and before.
She was quiet for a while. Then she asked if she could see the special place.
I took her there because that way she’d know I was going out of recess to be somewhere. But I didn’t want to because it’s mine.
We had to be quick. Being hurt took a while and there wasn’t much recess left. Applejack kept looking back over her tail. I think she was watching for the big pony.
Sun wasn’t behind any clouds when we got there and the grass looked like it would make me hurt less so I made my coat green and white under Sun without thinking about it. Then I felt like Applejack was looking at me and she was.
She told me it was a special place.
She dropped down in front of me so we were just about as tall only she’s still bigger.
She said that the big pony had hurt both of us and her face scrunched up like she was thinking about something big. Then she said that since it was both of us then we both had to fix it.
I told her that my Mommy and Miss Primer hadn’t listened. What about her mommy and daddy?
She thought about it in that way where you can see somepony is thinking. Then she said that her mommy and daddy would know she wasn’t lying. But they would do something themselves and they weren’t the ones who got hurt. Her daddy would want her to fight her own battle first only this was our battle so we had to fight it. But if it was too big for us then she would tell her daddy.
She looked at me. She asked me if I could do anything. I said no. I don’t have my magic. I don’t have a mark. I can’t do anything.
She said I didn’t have the worst charge. I said I was too small.
She asked me if I was in. I said yes.
I told my Mommy I was going visiting. She likes it when I do that if the ponies are important. I thought this was important so I told her it was. She doesn’t mind when it’s a really long visit because then she doesn’t need to cook as much and Applejack said we’d eat at her house.
Applejack was outside when I told my Mommy that it would be a dinner visit and somepony would walk me home under Moon. I didn’t want Mommy to see Applejack just in case she decided it wasn’t important.
We took the trot together. She had to keep slowing down to let me catch up. Earth ponies trot fast.
When she was waiting for me she looked like my Mommy does when she can’t get something she wants.
She asked me if my name was Rarity like she didn’t remember it after we’ve been in the same class since kindergarten. I said yes and she asked if I knew her name. I said it immediately and she looked surprised. She said she didn’t think I knew her.
I said we didn’t sit together or play together but I still knew her name. She said she didn’t think I wanted to play like she did and I told her I didn’t because I’m not good at it.
She said I talked about not being good at stuff a lot. She said everypony was good at something and that was why we got marks. But I said neither of us had one yet.
I don’t think I’ll ever get my
She was quiet for a while but she kept trotting and had to wait for me again. Then she said you could be good at things without a mark. We had to be good at getting rewrench revenge.
We got to her house and it was nice. Everything was old only it was the kind of old where something stays for a long time because somepony really loves it.
I met her mommy and daddy. I like her daddy because he made me think about my Daddy. He’s the kind of daddy where you stand next to him and feel a little warmer. Her mommy was mostly busy cooking and looking at her brother’s homework. I knew Applejack had a brother because I’ve seen them in town together. He’s sort of big and a little quiet.
They were all really surprised to see me follow Applejack in. But then her daddy smiled and said that any guest his daughter brought home was welcome. He said they always make extra food because they might have company and his son just eats a lot. It’s hard to see a pony blush when they have red fur so I had to look really hard.
Her mommy makes the best dumplings in the world. I hope I can have some more sometime.
Her parents asked me why I hadn’t been by before and I said Applejack and I had a special project for school. I thought that was a good way to say it but Applejack gave me a funny look when I did. Like I said something wrong. But then we had some more dinner and everything was okay for a little while.
Most of the furniture in Applejack’s room is really big. The bed is huge! She saw me looking and it’s easier to see a blush with orange fur. She said she’ll grow into it.
We sat on the bed. I thought the quilt needed better colors to look nice in her room but I didn’t say anything because it was her room and it was soft.
She asked me if I’d seen the big pony come in. I said no. Then she said she’d been looking right at the big pony after the kicking stopped and she saw her go only not really. Her horn got bright just before there was a really big flash and then the big pony was gone. Did she sneak out in the light?
Then I thought about my Daddy’s hoofball rulebook. He reads parts of it to me when he thinks I’ve been up too long and he wants me to sleep. He does that in the living room and his light carries me to bed after because the book is too big for the hall.
I said maybe it was teleportation. Applejack asked what that was and I said it was how a few unicorns could be in one place and then be in another without galloping across everything in between.
She said that was really unfair and I guess some of the oldest hoofball players agreed with her because it was one of the first spells to be banned. If somepony just shows up in the goal area and nopony has any chance to defend then it ruins the game. But then she said it would explain why Miss Primer told me nopony had left the other school because the big pony wouldn’t have used any of the doors or gone off the grounds where somepony could see her. Maybe she just went to the restroom and vanished from there, then went back. But then Applejack said she didn’t understand why the big pony would go to the clearing if she could go anywhere and there’s shops and sneaking into movies.
I told her that unicorns couldn’t always go very far and somepony might see her if she went into town. Maybe she was just getting out of school for a few minutes because she could. Or she was practicing. She wouldn’t have told anypony she had that spell if she was sneaking. But it probably wasn’t the restroom. Applejack asked why not when it was the one place where you could get a minute to yourself and I said the problem wasn’t leaving. It was going back.
Then I remembered a story my Daddy told me about the hoofball game where somepony tried to teleport for scores. The spell wasn’t banned until after the game ended and the pony who kept casting it got a lot of points. But he didn’t finish the game because the other team was mad and they knew how that spell worked. They decided to teach him a lesson.
I don’t think very many ponies know that story because only hoofball players tell it and the rulebook is so big.
Applejack asked me what I meant. Why was going back the hard part?
And I told her it was because that it was because there were private stalls over the trench. You closed the door and the stall was yours until you finished. But a pony who teleported wasn’t in the stall. It was empty.
Empty stalls get used.
Applejack grumbles a lot.
She didn’t like meeting me near the school when school was closed. She said it was spring and she had work to do on the farm. I told her that I’d talked to her daddy when he was pulling the cart home with me in it and I said we would need some project time. She thinks that’s sort of like lying. She doesn’t seem to like lies very much. But she didn’t tell her daddy what we’re really doing and that makes it feel like she lies too.
She grumbles about lies and because she’s doing so much of the hauling. But she’s stronger. She can move more than me. I helped to dig the holes for the planting and that got me scrubbed when Mommy saw how dirty my hooves were. I looked for the big pieces and I found a few. I just can’t move the biggest ones.
It was a nice day and there was a lot of work. I wanted to take breaks and she didn’t. I told her hoofball players don’t practice too long because you can wear yourself out before a game. She grumbled about that too until she followed me to the special place.
We rested there for a few minutes and then she asked me if I thought this was going to work.
I said I didn’t know. Daddy doesn’t let me play hoofball. Some kids play but the parents coach and they all scream too much. He said he didn’t want me to be like him and he didn’t tell me why but I think it’s because he thinks I’ll get hurt. He doesn’t want me to hurt because he loves me.
I miss him.
I want my Daddy to stay home.
So I don’t play when it’s rough stuff. I try not to fight because I think I’d just lose. This is setting up a fight and I don’t think I’m good at that either.
Applejack said it’s called an amhurst ambush. So she thinks maybe I’m good at that.
The green looks nice on her coat but only because it’s a soft green. She shouldn’t wear anything brighter.
It was weird trying to sneak off with somepony. It was harder too because everypony kept looking at us. I guess it’s because we don’t trot together. We had to split up and meet under a tree just to make everypony go back to playing.
Sun was bright. All the kids have school and the older ones don’t get the same kind of recess we do. Applejack thought that meant the big pony would try it today. So we had to go out there and see. We have to be there if it happens or it won’t work the way we want to.
I don’t know if the school Mommy wants me in has recess at all.
I have to live there.
Recess would be going home.
Applejack kept getting ahead of me and waiting until I could catch up.
We got to the edge of the clearing and hid. Neither of us is really good at hiding, I’m smaller and it’s easier for me to get behind something. But our coats really stand out.
The big pony wasn’t there. We didn’t hear her arrive while we were sneaking and I thought we would so that meant she hadn’t shown up yet. Also everything we put there was still where we left it and Applejack taught me about dragging a fan branch to wipe out our hoofprints. I didn’t see any hoofprints and they would have been from the big pony.
I was worried that maybe she’d done it while school was out. She could have put everything back and used a fan branch. I told Applejack that maybe she was waiting for us. Applejack said no. She said I was we were smarter than the big pony. We waited.
Then there was a flash of red magic light. Right where we’d put the really big branches sticking up like fenceposts. Since we’re little we could get out after we did it without hitting any. But the big pony teleported in to where the branches were which means she came to the clearing because we had branches everywhere.
She came in where the branches were. So she couldn’t stop.
My Daddy told me that the players on the other team in that hoofball game went to the sidelines and whispered to the fans. They saw that unicorn get the ball back and then all the ponies behind the goal jumped down from their benches. The unicorns didn’t see them do it and when he teleported they were already there.
You can’t teleport to where something really solid is or the teleport sort of kicks you. You get kicked to where there’s room for you to show up and it’s a kick hard enough to make you move fast.
The hoofball player hit a wall. We made her hit a tree.
She sort of slid down the trunk and Applejack was already running before she could get up. Applejack started kicking her and then yelled at me to kick some too. I got close but I didn’t want to kick her because she was already hurt. But then she moved her head really fast and tried to bite me because she wasn’t hurt enough to stop fighting. So I kicked her. I kicked her horn when the light came up and tried to hurt us. Applejack kicked her body. It was easy because with her on the ground we were both taller.
Applejack told her to never come back because we knew we could beat her now.
We went back into the trees. She got up after she tried a few times.
Then she went away.
She hasn’t come back. I keep waiting for her to come back and she won’t.
I took my diary to the special place today. The light looks nice on the pages. We have to turn them in for grading in a few days and that means I have a lot of extra work to do.
I can’t give Miss Primer this diary. I have to give her the new one. I’m going to write the boring parts of the last few weeks into it and she can grade that. What really happened stays with the first diary because Miss Primer didn’t believe me and I don’t want her to see it. But I want to finish the moon with the one I started. I don’t know if I’ll keep a diary after that. Maybe it’s talking to somepony you trust. But it doesn’t feel like the diary listens.
Like Mommy.
I saw that unicorn again yesterday. She was shopping with her mommy and daddy. My Mommy tried to say hello and while the adults were talking the big pony went into another isle idle aisle of Barnyard Bargains. She didn’t look at me. She didn’t show her teeth or stomp a hoof. She just left. She didn’t want anypony in the clearing because she was afraid that what happened to her would have happened from us being there and now she knows we can do it to her. I think she’ll leave us alone.
When I saw her next to her mommy and daddy she didn’t look very big.
I go out to my special place when I want to again. I haven’t shown it to my friends because it’s mine. But I stomp my hooves a little when I get close now to try and let her know I’m coming. She hasn’t been there.
I see Applejack most school days. She plays with her own friends. She’s really good at all kinds of sports. I found out she’s in the junior hoofball league. She’s strong and fast and since we don’t have anypony to fight she doesn’t have any reason to talk to me. So she isn’t talking to me and I don’t feel right when I get near her herd because I don’t belong there. I’m too small and I’m not good at anything what they do. We don’t talk and she doesn’t come to the special place.
We’re too different.
But I have a lot of work to do and now I have extra time for it! I need to get a good grade on the new diary even if I’m making up boring days. I thought I could try some commas. Miss Primer likes commas even though they’re stupid and get in the wrong places.
I, could, use, commas, everywhere!,
That doesn’t look right. Commas never do. That’s why they’re stupid.
I wish Applejack was my friend.