Spike left this evening for the Crystal Empire. It's a day early but he had been told to expect a rush of ponies to head to this week's event at the Pan-Equestria Fireworks Festival. I went with him to the train station and sure enough, when the train pulled in I was amazed at the number of ponies packed on board. At the ticket booth we were told that there have been extra trains going north all day, all of them packed. So now I'm worried about tomorrow. Spike managed to get one of the last seats on this train. He squeezed in through the door just before the train started to lurch forward and I lost sight of him. I went round and alerted all my friends. Princess Cadence wrote back that she has a room for us at the castle and we're catching the first train to the Crystal Empire tomorrow morning. I hope.