Scarlet Mane's Diary, Entry 1: The Curse of Scarlet Mane

by Madame Minty

Emergence

Cinnamon Cream wore her large flowery apron. It covered her almost completely and only bits of olivine green underneath were showing through along with a part of a delicious cupcake and muffin marking on her flank. She was vigorously mixing the dough while Jelly Joy was very busy knocking some eggs a bit too hard, splashing the yolk all over her similarly colored mane and slightly lighter coat. Cinny clucked in disapproval.

"Come on Joy, you're just slowing it all down! The faster we make the cakes, the sooner we can..."

"Party!" Joy was quick to answer.

"Yes, party," Cinny said.

"Yay!" Joy shouted in ear-piercing high-pitched voice and knocked an egg so hard it pretty much exploded, much like a colorful symbol on her haunch depicted.

"Oopsie," she said, smiling.

Cinny sighed with resignation.

"At least try to keep shells out of dough."

Moonbeam's head entered the room.

"Hidley ho!" she said, "Oh! I love the smell. Mmmagical!" she added, as the rest of her followed, revealing a symbol of a gear on her side.

"You read too much about that silly magic and unicorns," said Cinny, "you know well it's all fantasy."

"That's why it's a fantastic read! Also," Moon said while getting closer to Joy's interesting creation, "magic could make it a doddle to keep the shells out of the dough."

Suddenly there was a dull thud. Moon and Joy both slowly looked at the sound's source and saw Cinny's head on the worktop, totally covered by her tumbleweed and golden sand-colored mane.

"Moon, please, can you go to Poppy Roll for some... poppy rolls?" a muffled voice said.

"Uh, okay. Sure. Should Joy go too?" Moonbeam answered, grinning wildly.

Cream raised her head and rolled her eyes with resignation.

"As improbable as it might sound, I need her here," she muttered.

"Well, I see she's as keen as mustard. Okay girls, see you later!" Moon replied and left.

A dalmatian dog ran around Moon, barking.

"Calm down Chewie, you know you can't go into the kitchens. Come on, we have to pop around to Poppy," she said while trying to pull him away.

She passed many colorful cottages covered with golden hay. The town was full of busy ponies, shopping, working or just on an afternoon walk.

Sounds of haggling grew louder as they approached the market. Suddenly, Chewie stopped walking and looked around, growling.

"What's wrong Chewie?" said Moonbeam, but she didn't even finish the sentence before him running like crazy towards somepony's garden through a wooden fence.

"Chewie! Where are you going? Come back!" Moon called, to no avail. She followed, opened the gate in the fence and stepped on the tall grass. "Where are you?" she said, going further. The grass was getting thicker and thicker, blocking the sunlight.

"Chewie!" she repeated with annoyance, "it's not funny." The flora around started to look like a jungle. It got considerably darker as some branches appeared above, which began to worry Moonbeam. She turned around. "I'll just wait by the fence for Chewie to get back, he always gets back," she whispered to herself. Instead of getting out of the dense foliage it appeared to her that she's going deeper and deeper. She got immersed in darkness.

It felt like it's getting colder. When a shiver ran down Moonbeam's spine, a loud, sudden cow was more than enough to be the last straw to broke the pony's back.

She ran with a shriek. The bushes around got thicker, the sharp branches tore at her frilly fuchsia and prim mane.

Moon's frenzy paused for a moment when the ground gave her unusually minute resistance. She mindlessly wiggled her hooves in the air for a moment before noticing that the chilly airflow was now vertical, but never got time to dread as she hit the solid bottom.