Dear Diary,

It is hard to sit here looking between Father's papers and this diary. Father had always been strict about his desk being off-limits to us, but now I can begin to understand why. Something is off about these papers though, and I'm not sure what. I know I have to move with caution, if the wrong ponies get their hooves on this, it won't just affect me, but the entirety of Equestria.

According to the documents, the courtroom had been chaotic, with the entirety of the elite in the room, each one wanting to observe the trial. Everyone was focused on the defendant, a stallion called Stone River, who had been accused of treason with no evidence, except the bodies of his battalion.

He had claimed that he would never do such a thing, that the ponies in the squadron were his friends and more family than he ever had at home. That dragons had pinned them down and stripped them of the armor, I almost couldn't finish the documents, but I did.

He described in detail how the dragons took the unicorns' horns, the pegasi wings, and whatever they could off the Earth Ponies. The evidence of one of his own wings being missing must have been convincing enough because the judge ruled in his favor and declared him innocent.

Father wrote on the documents, one word, "Farce". A joke. 

I don't understand any of it.

I tried to look into the royal records about this 'Stone River' stallion and only managed to find a record of his birth and his documentation when he joined the guard, apparently, he lied about his age and signed on at the age of 16, but that was all I could find on him. And no one I asked could tell me anything about his stallion.

He is a ghost.

Flam has been really helping me with all of this, and doing as much digging as I have when it comes to everything, and he hadn't found anything on the mystery stallion either. I don't dare ask Father about it, he might realize that I have his papers, and I want to get close to the answers before he finds out about it.

I asked Natula, she knows better than to let Father know when I know something, and she grew very quiet. When I pressed, she only answered me with more questions, "Why dig into something that didn't happen, Nove?" And that answered one thing for me, no one is supposed to know about this stallion.

That's why Flam couldn't find documentation of it, that's why I can't find this stallion.

This started out with me missing my sister and being bored in the manor, how did it get as far as a mystery of a dead battalion and a missing stallion?

All I know is there is something missing, not just the stallion, but on the side of the elite. What is my father hiding? And how do I find it?

What secrets have I never known because my father wouldn't let a young mare know about it? The days of me being the quiet happy daughter are over, it's time for real answers and real conclusions. If that mean I need to go to Princess Despina and Princess Solar Nourish? Then that is what I will have to do.

No matter what it does to everything else I know.