//------------------------------// // Engagement // Story: Scarlet Mane's Diary, Entry 1: The Curse of Scarlet Mane // by Madame Minty //------------------------------// "Go, destroy the crystals!" Moon yelled. Cinny and Joy exchanged looks and then ran in opposite directions. Cinnamon Cream always bragged to be the fastest pony ever, but she wasn't fast enough to reach the crystal. Boom's kick pushed her down the stairs. Joy almost got there, but her attempt was quickly thwarted, too. Moonbeam tried to use magic to slow Blasting Boom down, but Scarlet Mane apparently did the opposite without any effort as her own horn barely even glowed. Sudden sound of smashing a window distracted everypony. Melody flew into the chamber with hundreds of hummingbirds. Her and Moon's eyes met. She just nodded and led the nimble birds onward. They surrounded Boom and blocked her line of sight. She was forced to land to not crash into a wall, which prompted Joy and Cinny to make another run. Moonbeam got to overwhelmed Boom and did the magic. The black metal fizzled and evaporated, revealing a marking resembling a trapezoidal weight on Boom's side. Chewer's crocodile legs were too short to go up the stairs, but out of nowhere a charcoal black wolf came to the rescue, taking him up. Chewie growled at the sorceress. "Scarlet Mane will not tolerate this!" she roared and turned her horn at him. Just before she cast the spell of destruction the wolf obstructed her target. "Eclipse, do not interfere!" she said, but the wolf just stood there. Suddenly, the whole place trembled the very moment Cinny, Melody, Joy and still a bit dizzy Boom reached the stones and tried to pull them away from the throne. "Scarlet Mane, why are you doing this?" yelled Moon. "You don't need sorcery to not be alone!" "I do what has to be done," shouted the sorceress, "the Sagacity Stones will always make their master do the right thing!" she added as her horn started to glow a bit more, stopping the rest of the ponies from dragging the crystals away. "You never knew how it is to be alone!" she cried. "And now I don't have to be!" "You still are!" Moon responded, "friends are there by their own will, those ponies are not!" "Lies!" Scarlet Mane bellowed. "You can find friends in many ways," Moon continued. "Like—doing—the same—things," panted out Jelly Joy. "Being there when someone is in need," added Cinnamon Cream. The sorceress seemed bewildered and confused, so Moonbeam went on. "No magic will make a friendship. It's the other way around." "Enough! This magic will!" Scarlet Mane exclaimed. Chewer springed closer and gnawed her red cape just before a blow of magic pushed everypony away. The sorceress grew in their eyes as the crystals got close to the throne again. The battle was lost. "I will make it right," she muttered as she walked down the marble stairs, "I will erase what's wrong from existence!" Cinnamon Cream and Blasting Boom tried to charge at her as one but another magic blow threw them against the wall. "Destroy what should not be!" yelled Scarlet Mane and it seemed like she was breathing out flames. The glow of her horn started to get more and more strong, so much it hurt to look. Moon's attempt at magic failed completely as the sorceress got even closer. "I. Will. End. It. NOW!" Scarlet Mane roared, just as one of the stones fell on Moon's head and knocked her out.