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

by Madame Minty

Entrance

Moonbeam woke up with an incredibly strong headache, her vision slipping in and out of focus and left cheek soaking. She slowly opened her right eye and saw Chewer's tongue wagging. "Oh, here you are Chewie..." she whispered while getting up, "but where is here?"

Moon's eyes wandered to the surroundings. It was some kind of an old cellar. Mossy stone walls were dimly lit by the little light that managed to come through the cracks in the ceiling and the hole she fell through, one with some collapsed steps. "Barmy," she muttered, "it seemed darker on the surface."

After shaking off some black dust which almost completely covered her sandy brown coat she continued deeper into the structure, looking for another exit.

Moonbeam continued down the corridor. Despite walking away from the entrance, the darkness began to vanish.

Her bloodhound followed as she entered a chamber filled with destroyed stone furniture, rolls of old parchment and colorful glass bottles of intricate shapes and different sizes. Most of them were broken into hundreds of little pieces.

The surrounding walls were covered with strange symbols which seemed to change or even completely disappear when she tried to recognize them.

That was very unnerving. She looked at some sort of a table. There were symbols on it too. Unreadable again, however engraved and not painted.

Scared, hurt and freezing, but always curious Moonbeam picked up some parchment and a cylindrical bottle. She put her york, Chewie, over the table and shook him.

"Sorry boy," she said with trembling voice, "at least you'll get cleaner."

Black dust fell off and covered the symbols. She pushed the excess into the engravings, which still shifted and hid from sight. Drooling dog helped to make two rolls of parchment wet. She pressed one of them against the table and then the second one against the first to make a mirror image. Amazingly, the result was a clearly readable text written in simple, sleek lines, which she read aloud.

On my call, on my command
Everypony at my hand
And shall their mentality
Mirror this reality.

A high pitched sound filled the room. Walls seemed to change color, shape, distance... Dust and debris started to rise from the floor while simultaneously falling from the ceiling. She panicked and ran.

She rushed to the entrance, running away from shifting stones and ghostly figures appearing and dispersing all around. When she saw the stone slabs forming stairs instead of just lying on the ground, she didn't think long before jumping on them and going out of the dungeon. Somehow the stairs seemed to move themselves away from her hooves. She lost footing and fell... upwards.

"I must've gone bonkers!" she exclaimed as she was lying upside down on the forest floor, just besides pearly stairs. Her husky, Chewer, was standing nearby and looking at her, seemingly bewildered of her unusual behavior. She got up and noticed there are hoof trails nearby. One of the hooves was chipped just as hers.

"Come Chewie," she said, "those are mine. They must lead back to town!"

They were chaotically made, completely unlike what should be the result of a run. However, they did lead back to town, but which one? It looked like Maretown, but...

"Ruined! What happened here!" Moonbeam cried. "No, it can't be happening!"

Everything was cracked, eroded and covered in frost. There were ponies, unicorns and pegasi wandering around the place, but without any thought, their foggy eyes devoid of emotion.

Not knowing what to do she decided to look around for her friends. They can't be mindless husks... can they? She walked towards Cinnamon Cream's house, carefully trying to avoid other ponies.

The house seemed much, much older now. The door looked like it was going to open by itself. She pushed lightly and saw a bizarre picture. Jelly Joy was sitting on the floor, holding a rock and banging it against the wall, which was marked by hits in many different places, like she was looking for something.

In a second, Moonbeam realized what—a quiet moaning caused her to look at another wall, where Cinny was bound by rusty shackles. Moon squeaked and jumped in horror at the sight, which made Joy pause.

"Joy... keep hitting... keep looking," Cinny groaned, "don't go away, please," she added while slowly turning her head towards Moon.

"Cinny, it's me, Moonbeam... what is going on?" Moon replied.

"Moonbeam... help... use the horn," Cream managed.

Moon looked around in haste, trying to find something that would look like a horn, but there was nothing. Broken furniture, dishes lying around, fractured mirror—Moonbeam paused suddenly. She looked closer. Her eyes widened at the sight of her having a horn on her forehead.

"Yes... this one..." Cream whispered.

Moon got closer and tried to find a way to utilize it. But there was no way. The shackles were too hard. Resigned, she lowered her head and sighed.

"I'm so sorry, I think it's on the blink. I tried, but I can't do it... I wish the shackles would let go..." she said, and suddenly, the horn started to glow faintly. "This is it," she thought, as she pointed the horn towards the iron, hoping it to work, somehow. She closed her eyes and imagined the chains falling apart. A loud clank later Cinny was free, a loud thud later she was lying on the ground. Moonbeam tried to pick her up and felt incredible coldness. Without thinking too much she tried to imagine heat, warmth, light... the horn gleamed, but without effect. Happiness, laughter... the story of their friendship—and the gleam got as bright as a dozen suns.

"We have to get to Melody," said Jelly Joy in a raspy voice.

"And Blasting Boom," added Cinnamon Cream.

"Let's go to Boom first, it's closer," said Moonbeam, "Come on, we may not have much time!"

But her house was empty. There was no sight of Boom anywhere. With her violet eyes, Joy stared with amazement at a path of claw hammers driven into the wall while Cinny and Moon checked other rooms. She put her hoof into one of the holes, as if to examine it.

"Maybe she woke up by herself, like you Moon?" Cinny wondered, "Or maybe she's with Mel?"

"Let's go to Melody then. Pull your hoof out, Joy!" Moonbeam commanded and broke into a gallop.

Their run was disturbed by many rescue attempts, but Moon's magic wasn't working so well as when she was waking her closest friends. They got to Melody's house at last.

"Hello!" called Joy, "Melody!"

"Let's check upstairs, she usually stays there," Cinny pointed out.

She was right. The shackles were no match for her hooves of fury. Moonbeam soon followed and performed her magic. Melody woke up, moved her obsidian hair out of the face, looked around with her slowly opening dark blue eyes, and then suddenly widened them, showing their enormity. She quickly got up and without saying a word ran towards the window and flown away on her sky blue wings. Moon watched that in bewilderment and finally asked, "Since when Melody has wings, actually?"