Scarlet Mane's Diary, Entry 4: The Tale of Muffins and Cupcakes

by Madame Minty

Enticement

A pink pony held a leaflet against a wall and read it aloud in her high-pitched voice.

"...The contest will take place on the last day of summer in Maretown—"

"Where is that?" asked a gray pegasus of blonde mane and looked at the floor and at the pink pony both at the same time.

"I have no idea... Oh wait, I do! Isn't that near Manehattan?"

"I don't know. But I do know that I'd win with my muffins!"

Pink pony giggled.

"No way, cupcakes are far better!"

"No, muffins!"

"No, cupcakes!"

"Muffins!"

"Cupcakes!"

"Cup... I mean muffins!"

Both ponies frowned and as the pink one looked the other in her gold and apple green eyes. The gray one seemed to look at the leaflet and in her friend's left, cerulean eye, both at the same time, then produced a muffin apparently out of thin air and spoke.

"You want a muffin, Pinkie?"

"No, I—" the pink pony stopped abruptly and after a moment of intense thinking about what she just said, smiled widely. "Absolutely!"

She ate the muffin loudly and messily.

"Sho," she said with a full mouth, "whewe ish Mawethown awain?"

"Uh... didn't you say it's near Manehattan?" replied the gray pegasus.

"Whath awouth—" she swallowed, "we go to Maretown—"

"Woohoo!"

"You'll bake muffins and I'll bake cupcakes and win."

"Woohoo! I'll win!"

"No, I'll win!"

"Woohoo! I'll win!"

The pink one rolled her eyes and stuffed another muffin in her mouth and giggled.

"Mmm... we'll shee Dewpy, we'll shee!"

#

Moonbeam, laden with pouches for books and tools, rummaged through a cardboard box filled with various parts glimmering as if they were made of gold. She wasn't focused on this for the last minute or so and was very likely to have had the desired part just in front of her eyes. She never managed to prepare all the necessary parts in advance and even if she thought she did it later turned out that she counted them wrong when making blueprints.

Behind her stood a magnificent piece of pony armor ordered by the Royal Guard. She took the matter seriously after she saw what happened on her cousin's wedding in Canterlot. The armor was supposed to be capable of casting and dispelling simple enchantments for magically exhausted or even non-unicorn pony inside it. That should do the trick against any and all changelings, she figured.

But the Royal Guard was far less serious about the matter. It angered her that they wanted to remain dependent on their own, unaugmented abilities. Sure, the armor was causing trouble such as when it dispelled telekinesis in a wrong moment. But it was just a inconvenience, and besides, she already solved that problem. Everypony should wear a hard hat while there are heavy objects moving in the air, so she didn't feel responsible for that pegasus' bump on his head. It could be fault of that unicorn inside the machine, too. She never liked sorcery anyway. Only unicorns could cast spells on demand and she wasn't going to just drop the project—she knew that if she succeeded, any pony could use magic.

On the floor lay an enormous pair of brass wings, not even nearly finished yet still impressive, if only in size. She knew that if she succeeded, any pony could fly.

Her thoughts, however, were completely unrelated.

Moonbeam tried to remember as much as she could from the time before she read that fateful incantation in that oddly looking chamber. It was very difficult. Every time she recalled those events she had a feeling she remembers less than previously. The memories were fleeting, like of a dream.

She had made extensive notes. However, whenever she looked at them she found herself not remembering writing some of the parts at all. If only she managed to take a hold of a notebook earlier, maybe then it would make sense. On almost every page she wrote down the name of the artifact that seemed be the source—the Sagacity Stones. One of the very few remaining memories was that there were no pegasi nor unicorns. She remembered she was different, most notably an earth pony, and she liked magic and other things fantastic.

Come to think of it, she likes nigh-unreachable things right now. Though with a bit of magic they're not unreachable anymore. Just a little bit, though, no more than that. She still had a chipped hoof and refused to have it fixed magically, thinking of it as just a want, not a real need.

She mindlessly put the long-sought part in place and began to assemble the rest of her creation which she had already dubbed Rupert. A surprising knock on the door derailed her unrelated train of thought. She went to answer it.

"Hi Moonbeam," said a unicorn while looking around Moonbeam's spacious workshop with her royal purple eyes.

"Hi," said a small dragon standing besides her.

"Why hello, Twilight, Spike!" Moonbeam replied. "Come on in! What brings you to Maretown?"

"I thought it's a good idea to visit you while Pinkie and Derpy compete in a some sort of cooking contest here."

"That must be our Nom."

"Also... I realized that I distanced myself from my family lately," Twilight said meekly.

"A bit," said Moon with a poker face. She couldn't hold it for long and after a short moment she burst into a laugh and hugged her cousin. "I'm so glad you're here!"

Despite the differences and, well, sparks flying whenever somepony mentioned Twilight to Moonbeam, she couldn't conceal her genuine joy of actually being with her. She couldn't explain it if somepony asked, but so far no pony did.

"Me too, Moon. Oh, by the way, could my friends and I stay here? Your workshop is so spacious I'm sure we can find some room."

"I'm afraid one of you will have to stay in one room with Scarlet Mane."

"Oh, I know her! We're corresponding!"

"Really? You don't correspond with me," Moonbeam said, a little bit more bitter than she'd wanted.

"Uh... it's research-related. You know my attitude towards that," Twilight grinned broadly but awkwardly. "Anyway—"

"Yes, anyway, you have to sort it out with Scarlet later," Moon said, then added in a whisper. "One more thing. She's kind of shy."

"Oh, believe me, I know shy, I can deal with that," said Twi, rolling her eyes at the thought of a certain yellow pegasus.

"You know, you could help me with something while you're here," Moonbeam said, still unsure if it's a good idea, then produced a few dozen silvery punchcards from one of innumerable unlabeled drawers. "I need to record some spells."

#

Poppy Roll walked onto a small podium and approached a loudspeaker stand.

"Welcome! Welcome to the seventeenth annual Nom of Maretown!" she said, making everypony look in her direction. "Fillies and gentlecolts! I'd like to ask you for a good cheer for this year's sponsor and guest juror, Princess Wysteria!"

As ponies gleefully started stomping on the ground and Poppy got down from the podium, a wisteria-colored alicorn of light pink mane with plum purple streaks walked up onto it and looked at the gathered ponies with her persian green eyes.

"Thank you everypony! Simply «Wysteria» will suffice," she said with an embarrassed smile. "Aside from me and Poppy Roll, the perfect pony in all Equestria to ask for a poppy roll, jury will consist also of Mr. Truffle," she said and a ochre unicorn of long, burnt orange and flax colored mane lowered his blue and purple mirror shades to uncover pastel green eyes. He was standing besides Poppy when he waved his saddle brown hoof and smiled. Wysteria cleared her throat and continued.

"During my travels around Equestria I've seen many, many places. However, when I discovered this little island of tranquility, being as idyllic and charming as I've never seen before, I was so thoroughly moved that I decided to become a patron of this competition," she said and waited a few seconds until the hoof stomping subsided. "I must admit I wouldn't take notice of this place if not the brilliant fireworks a few weeks ago, but I hope you won't blow yourselves up anytime soon," she said, causing several ponies to smirk and Jelly Joy, in a mix of exasperation and embarrassment, to cover her face like Wysteria herself was going to explode for some reason. "This year the competition got a little bigger! Invitations have been sent to several other towns and I'm pleased to announce the final list of competitors in order of admission. Boggly and Cuddly Plum, Leaflette..."

As Wysteria went on, Jelly Joy knew who wasn't going to be on the list—Blasting Boom always liked spending time with her, which also included making food of course. Likely because she usually ate most of it by herself. Boom rarely visited home these days—she often worked in distant places. As far as Joy could tell, she was now far north of Neighara Falls due to some unexpected job from professor Do. They say it's a beautiful land, sights must be wonderful there, so peaceful, so...

"So yellow!" a completely pink pony unexpectedly shouted directly into her ear, startling her so much she jumped.

"So... suddenly pink," she replied after a couple seconds. "You're not from here, are you?"

"Oh, no, I'm from Ponyville. After you cross Crystal River you get on a train in Baltimare towards Canterlot and then it turns southwest, kind of towards Saddle Lake, right? Have you ever been there? I've never visited Maretown before. I didn't even know anypony from Maretown, and I know a lot of ponies. It's so exciting, isn't it? And we both look so similar, except I'm pink and you're yellow, so yellow! I bet there are other things like that! Oh! And I have a puffy-fluffy wavy mane and you have cute locky curls and—"

"Oh look! So teal!" Jelly Joy pointed her hoof at an aquamarine unicorn with pale, grayish opal mane with white highlights who was zigzagging in the distance, leaping between stands prepared for the competition.

"Where?! Oh, there! Wait, Lyra?..."

The distraction gave Joy time to drop a small smoke bomb on the ground, which went off with a quiet puff. The pink pony looked back to find that she can't find her new yellow friend anymore./

"Where did she go?" she said to herself, befuddled.

"...and Pistacia," said Wysteria, finishing listing the competitors. "Now, back—" she cut off as at this moment Pistacia laughed out loud ominously for no apparent reason.

"Erm, back to Poppy Roll!" Wysteria said calmly, trying to remain professional while staring awkwardly at Pistacia, along with just about everypony else in the market.

"Thank you. Rules are as follows..."