//------------------------------// // Exhaustion // Story: Scarlet Mane's Diary, Entry 2: The Party for Blasting Boom // by Madame Minty //------------------------------// Moonbeam arrived at her workshop and without delay began to attach the newly acquired part into her machine. "There, all done!" she said to no one in particular. She jumped when she heard a sudden knock on the door. She rushed to a big red button and pressed it. "Coming!" she yelled, as the brass and steel wonder behind her twisted and bent in surprising silence and hid in plain sight as an enormous tea machine just as she opened the door. "Hi Moon!" said the bright pink pegasus with unevenly cut emerald and conifer mane. She still had a white hard hat on her head and black brazing goggles. She noticed Moonbeam's face expression and took them off, uncovering her golden eyes. "Hello, what brings you here?" said Moon. "Just having a break," replied Blasting Boom, "don't you have any?" she smirked just as Chewer the cat started to rub against her leg. "Why, yes, in fact I'm having a tea break right now." "Mind if I join you?" "Not at all!" said Moonbeam and walked to the kitchen, "I'll just put the kettle on." "Aren't you going to use this monster here?" asked Boom. Moon's head instantly popped out from behind the wall. "It's a prototype! Don't touch it!" she said quickly. Startled Boom kept her hooves to herself. "It might explode," Moon whispered theatrically, making a scary face, "with boiling water and fiery tea leaves." "Oh. Oooh. Okay," Boom said and stepped back. "Have you gone bananas? Why the hay would you keep it inside your house?" she added after a while. "I don't. We're in my workshop." "Right," said Boom, glancing at the rosy curtains in the windows. Several minutes later, she was again staring curiously at the fake machine, especially at a big red button on its side, so absorbed that she didn't notice a flying saucer with a cup on it for a few seconds. She sipped her hot black tea and said, "Splendificient!" # "Now, now, what's wrong Carrie? Were you crying?" said Cinnamon Cream, taking off her large flowery apron and revealing her olivine green coat with a mark of a cupcake and a muffin on her flank. "Uh, it's just... something has fallen into my eye," Scarlet Mane replied. "Carrie, sweetheart, you know well—?to me, you can always tell," said Cinny, now absorbed by untying her tumbleweed and golden sand colored mane. "No, never mind, I just wanted to ask if you, I mean—?can I help you in any way?" "The party? Cakes are in the ovens, they're baking, later I'll be decorating, it needs some skill though, and that which doesn't, is done, you know." "I'll do my best, but I guess I'd need a test, I can't draw at all and I don't want to make a foul." "That's bizarre, why do people always make rhymes when they meet me for the first times?" seriously said Cinny. "Well, um..." "Oh, I know!" she said suddenly, "Do you know a spell to make cakes glow? They would excel, it'd be a show!" "I don't," whimpered Scarlet, embarrassed and confused. "Now look what you did, you've given me the rhymes. I'll have to watch myself all times. I think it's contagious. Oh, again... outrageo—?hrm... Let's just try decorating," said Cinny and gave Scarlet a tube of whipped cream and placing a form with a test pie on a white and red checkered tablecloth. "Maybe you can reconsider the magic?" she admitted after watching Scarlet's efforts for a while. "What if I'd make a fluorescent cream..." mumbled Scarlet Mane and started to look around the drawers in Cinnamon's kitchen. "What are you doing gal?" said Cinny in surprise. "Do you have some yellow dye?" "Indeed I do, check the drawer on your left, yes, this one, and I see you've got also some vinegar and whole lot of other stuff I'd rather not add to a cake," she spoke slowly and carefully. Scarlet moved fast, mixed the compounds, heated them, shook them and mixed again while simultaneously scribbling something on a piece of paper. After several minutes of this amazing performance, there was a tiny amount of disgustingly looking brownish mud at the bottom of a glass and she stepped back. "Ew!" said Cinny. "Well, it doesn't have any taste," said Scarlet defensively. "Just add a drop to the cream and under very blue light, I'm sure Moonbeam could help you with that, it will, um, charge. Then it will glow for a while even without the light." "Are you sure anypony could eat that?" Cinnamon Cream asked with doubt in her voice. "Everything I used came from your kitchen." "But you did some magic to it, Carrie." "Oh, no, I didn't cast any spell nor enchantment. It's just alchemy." Cinnamon Cream pondered about it for a while. "Okay, let's try!" she finally said while she took the glass and carefully let a drop fall into a large pot of cream, which she then put into a machine that was obviously of Moonbeam's design. "Come on, hop onto the treadmill and gallop for a while as I take the cakes out, okay?" she said as she tied her mane again. Scarlet nodded and started to run. The machine began to shake but after several seconds it was working smoothly. A pair of forks emerged and started to whip the cream at incredible speed. It didn't take long until it was ready. Scarlet put a bit of it into an empty tube the same moment Cinny placed a freshly baked cake on the table. "This is it!" Cinny said, very slowly, as she began to put the yellowish cream on the cake. Suddenly, it burst into intense red flames which made her jump. In panic, she forcefully put an empty form over the cake. It worked, but the cake didn't survive and the fire consumed several little bits of the tablecloth. "I—?I'm so sorry," Scarlet said after a moment of awkwardness, "I'll help you clean it up." "No no no, really, absolutely no need, And, as you seem to be of the same breed..." nervously said Cinny as she led Carrie towards the door, "Maybe you could help Moonbeam while I'll clean up all the cream." she added with an obviously forced grin. # Blasting Boom and Moonbeam had some great time, but of course tea breaks don't last forever. "Unfortunately," Moon thought aloud. "Huh?" said Boom, "oh, right, the time," she added after noticing where Moon laid her eyes. "Got to go!" she said, putting her hard hat and goggles back on, "See ya!" "Bye bye Boom!" said Moonbeam. She made sure her visitor is out of sight and then happily hopped to her so-called tea machine and pressed a big red button labeled self-destruct. Pistons, gears and plates shifted and soon the device reshaped itself back. She hastily checked if everything seems fine. "Terrific! Now I don't have time to run full diagnostics," she said in Chewer's direction. He just fluttered his wings. "I'm so tired, I haven't slept in so long!" she said as she slowly walked towards a couch and promptly collapsed.