//------------------------------// // Entertainment // Story: Scarlet Mane's Diary, Entry 2: The Party for Blasting Boom // by Madame Minty //------------------------------// Malachite Glint arrived in Moonbeam's workshop long before the party started. "Hello sweeties," she said to a pair of burnt umber colored unicorns. They both had straight, neatly cut manes of similar colors, old brick and cherry wood. Even their marks were the same, of a glass with some plum juice and a drinking straw. Their orange eyes seemed identical as well, however anypony could see a difference after a while. "Greetings!" Cuddly Plum was quick to answer with happiness in her voice. "Greetings," repeated Boggly Plum. "B, why so glum, honey?" asked Malachite. Boggly just mumbled something. At the same moment Scarlet Mane got out of her room and found herself in the same area the party was supposed to take place. "Hello there, you must be Scarlet Mane!" Malachite shouted warmly. Scarlet felt awkward when everypony looked at her for a second. "I'm Malachite Glint, Moonbeam has told me about you. I'm sure you want to get to know everypony, right dear?" "Well, I wa—?" "Those are the Plum twins, meet Cuddly and Boggly," Malachite said. "Now excuse me, Moonbeam asked me to do something first. Have fun!" she added as she went off to help others with decorations. "You look exactly the same," Scarlet Mane noticed. "Do you have, uh, something that helps others to distinguish you?" she asked. "I have a half-empty glass for my mark," Boggly Plum said. "I have a half-full glass for my mark," said Cuddly Plum at exactly the same time. "Uh, alright," Carrie said and nodded slowly, "I think I understand." Everypony was busy. Jelly Joy was positioning her rockets just outside Moonbeam's workshop. She went inside to get more of them. "Oh, Scarlet, hi again," she yelled. Scarlet Mane flattened her ears and kind of shrank. "You won't believe how great your rocket design is! The mix just needed slight modifications for burning speed," continued Joy, "and of course I had to use far, far less of it," she added in a whisper. "Does that mean, you know..." "Manes grow back. And don't worry about the table, it's just... collateral damage," she went on, squinting her eyes. "I liked it a lot, though." She finally stopped and smiled. It made Carrie smile as well. "Come on, let's get the rockets in place. It's an important day for Boom." They were carefully putting leg-long rockets on a small cart. There were too many of them as Joy made some as a backup. Suddenly Melody approached and hugged Scarlet heartily, then pointed at a grand harp with now steel strings, where a malibu blue pegasus with completely disorderly silver and gray mane was connecting the newly arrived instrument to Moonbeam's machine. Scarlet made a questioning gesture and pointed at the harp. Melody replied with putting on of her legs horizontally and then kind of balancing it, then made a motion resembling turning a knob. Scarlet paused for a while to think of an appropriate gesture, then facehoofed. "It just needed tuning?" she said. Melody nodded her head, then led her friend towards the pegasus working with the musical equipment and when Scarlet just stood there unable to say a word she pushed her forward a little, then turned to Joy and started moving in a way that made Scarlet think she's dancing. "What?" Joy replied to Melody, "What do you mean you don't know the difference between a missile and a rocket?" Scarlet's mind tried to analyze how could anyone possibly understand that. She shook her head after a while. "Hello, I'm Scarlet Mane," the unicorn finally said to Melody's friend. The other blue pegasus turned around, revealing enormous cyan eyes, a cutie mark of three guitar picks and a ridiculously wide grin. "Hi, um, nice to meet you... I am... I'm Nuddly Plum," she replied awkwardly and waited for any reply, but it never came. "Now excuse me, Blasting Boom will be here soon and I'm breaking my duck here as Moonbeam would've said, hurr, durr." The last part made Scarlet lift an eyebrow. As Nuddly Plum got back to work, she began to wander. Not for long, though. Very soon Cinnamon Cream and Poppy Roll arrived, both pushing a big warehouse trolley, covered with a sky blue blanket with little white fluffy clouds sewn on. "Scarlet, switch 1, mode 1!" Moonbeam shouted. Scarlet hurried to the machine, noticing it has a name engraved on its side now. Partytron. Fitting. She pulled the first switch into mode 1. A beam of very faint, purplish light shot from one of Partytron's appendages. "Hello Carrie, I'm glad you're not crying," Cinnamon Cream said as she pushed the trolley under the beam. "In case you're wondering, the cream isn't bad, the reason for exploding was the cake was too hot." "Oh, well, good to hear that," Scarlet replied sincerely and smiled lightly. Everypony finished the preparations. All lamps were turned off and then a slight green glow from the cakes and bluish moonlight seeping through a window were the only sources of light. "Scarlet, Blasting Boom on the horizon, switch 1, mode 0! And on my mark, mode 2!" Moonbeam whispered theatrically as she closed the curtains. It was almost pitch black when Carrie pulled the switch into what she remembered was the position of mode 0. She got worried as the weird light didn't turn off as it should. After a second or two she noticed not only that, but it's getting more and more powerful. "Mode 0, Scarlet!" Moonbeam said. "It is in mode 0!" Carrie replied as she pulled the switch to mode 1 and to 0 again. The light's intensity grew even more rapidly. Suddenly, the cakes burst into enormous red flames. Bits of fiery cream flew around and ignited somepony's mane. "Meep!" yelped Nuddly Plum, just before Jelly Joy quickly, as by a reflex, clapped her hooves just in front of her muzzle, extinguishing the flame. In the meantime a lot of things caught fire. First tablecloths, then furniture and finally the fuses for the fireworks that were still inside. "Duck! Duck and cover everypony!" frantically shouted Joy as she dived under a table that wasn't burning yet. The rockets started flying around, one of them missing Scarlet's mane by a mere hoof. The Partytron didn't duck, though, and got hit not once and not twice. Joy's excellent display of firefighting skills proved futile to save anything. The biggest flames were gone, but what was left was simply a disaster, most probably bigger than it looked like because of very dim light coming almost exclusively from small pieces of burning cream. "No, no, no, this is just a dream, this can't be happening," Scarlet Mane whispered to herself. "And everything went pear-shaped," muttered Moonbeam, trying to stay as low as possible, then looked at Scarlet with anger, but that feeling subsided quickly when she noticed a cutie mark of sanguine triquetra appearing on her haunch. More importantly, the haunch itself and the rest of the unicorn's body with it became nearly twice as big as usually. Her eyes started to fill with blinding light and her horn's glow got stronger than the Sun. Moonbeam produced welding goggles from her pouch but they were still not enough to block all the light, but she was able to see shadows and outlines through the blaze. Amazed, she noticed that Scarlet Mane grew magnificent wings and her horn seemed to extend and twist. It's happening again! # An incredibly bright flash dazzled Moonbeam, then the darkness fell. Blasting Boom entered the workshop a second later, together with the moonlight. "Blasting Boom!" gasped Moonbeam in shock. The same moment there was a loud click of Partytron's switch and colorful lights illuminated everything. "Surprise!" everypony shouted in unison and the party began. Moonbeam looked around in disbelief. Everything looks the same or... even better than before. Fine and dandy, she thought. She turned her head towards Scarlet Mane, now normal sized and again a blank flank, and noticed she's leaning on the Partytron's first switch with her eyes closed. As she cautiously walked closer, Carrie slipped a bit, right onto the second one, just as Nuddly Plum was to pull a string on the grand electric harp and Melody picked up a microphone. Moon expected another disaster, but then Melody's and Nuddly's birthday rock-like music filled the room, amplified by the machine. She didn't listen though, focused on Carrie. She walked even closer and prodded her a few times with no effect—?she seemed to be perfectly fine, just sleeping. I guess the stress got us both, she thought and tried to pick her up with magic, but her horn just sent some sparkles instead and she groaned as she felt like a blood vessel in it just burst. Yikes! I'll better not strain myself. She and Malachite Glint soon moved Scarlet Mane to her bed. The bedroom got darker and Moon could swear she saw Scarlet's horn glowing faintly just before she closed the door. She stopped for a second to think about it, then just shook her head. The party went perfectly. After some time Blasting Boom had to leave to get onto the ferry to Coltisle. She always had a busy schedule. Every other pony left too, except Melody, Jelly Joy and Moonbeam. They were making goodbyes at the door. "Okay, let's clean it all up!" said Moon when the last pony went home. She turned around to see her workshop filled with scorch marks, pieces of what seemed to be Partytron laying around in small puddles of glowing cake and being stuck in the ceiling, dripping with the fluorescent cream. "Is it just me or it wasn't that bad just a minute ago?" she said. Melody just shrugged and Joy didn't seem to care much. Scarlet Mane walked out of her room and looked around with terror. "Great party, awful you missed it," said Joy. "It was? Um... I did? I think I had a dream that—?never mind." While Scarlet was talking with Joy, Moonbeam noticed a cogged wheel on the floor. She looked at the engravings and noticed a number she didn't quite expect. I'm absolutely sure there was no 42-cogged wheel in Partytron design, she thought. Then it hit her. "By the Princess! What were we eating if the cakes exploded?" "If anything, they exploded with flavor," Jelly Joy said and stuck out her green tongue. "Grass cakes?" Moon said with a distaste in her voice. "You ate them too and you liked them." Moonbeam stuck out her tongue to check and it was green as well. "Grass is healthier than regular cake," Scarlet Mane said and smiled awkwardly. "It tasted like a cake and it was healthy!" Joy exclaimed and they all burst into a laugh.