It had been more than 45 minutes since they have arrived there. Arnold, the only one unharmed, was waiting for them at the stage. However, eventually, Arnold was sick and tired of waiting for them, and went looking for them.
He went to the puppet area, but no one was there. He then went to the gift shop, but no one was there either. He then went to the arcade area. No one was there, either, but as he was going to leave, something stopped him. There was a voice in his head. He could hear a voice.
"Arnold... Don't go yet."
"Who are you? How do you know my name?" asked Arnold.
"I am Ben. A terrible fate has come over me. I have been transformed into a balloon boy."
"I see. What about the others?"
"They... I don't know. You must save me."
"Ok. I will."
Then, Arnold went to find the others. He proceeded to the merry-go-round. He didn't see anyone there either.
"Hi Arnold. I am Judy."
"Judy?"
"Yes. I have been turned into a pony."
"Seriously? Just now I found Ben turned into a balloon boy."
"Yes. It seems that this circus is cursed. I heard a man laughing gaily and devilishly. Oh, and before I transformed, I couldn't find anyone either."
"Is that so? It's so weird. Hmm... Maybe the rest have also been changed."
"Hope you can save me, Ben and the others, then."
"Okay. Thanks."
Arnold then went around the circus and he stumbled by a security room. He went in there and saw some drawers, some open and empty, some closed and locked. He looked around some more to find anything used, when he saw a note lying plainly on the desk. It wrote:
To the person that finds this note,
You have to get out of here! This place is not what it seems! Nothing is real! If you enter this carnival (which of course you have now, reading this note), you will never get out!
Unless, one of you survives. I was one of the founding fathers of this land, but something terrible happened during the creation, causing errors. This has caused the testers of the VR project to be trapped in the simulation, and even being transformed into anything the glitch desires.
Fortunately, I have debugged the glitch partly, allowing one to reverse the transformations and hypnosis if the victim is gave a certain item. I have written a list of MasterMind's favourite circus transformations down below, and their remedies. Additionally, in this room, I have conveniently placed some remedies in case of an emergency, mainly in the drawers to save your friends. But before that, you need to go to the Merry-Go-Round to find the key. By the way, I do not have some objects now, but I believe that they can be found in the past. Spoiler alert: the Merry-Go-Round is actually a time machine. Use it to travel to the past and gather the various items needed.
One more thing, BEWARE THE GLITCH, MASTERMIND! (I heard him calling himself MasterMind.) He's the one controlling this place. If you find him, DESTROY HIM ONCE AND FOR ALL and you all will be free.
p/s: If you're reading this, I might be transformed and this is my last letter to the survivor of this carnival. Good luck!
The Puppet - Heart
The Magician - Magician's Hat
The Bunny Girl - Bunny Ears
The Balloon Boy - Water Balloon
The Clown - Clown Nose
The Mime - Beret
The Pony - Horseshoe
By: Jonathan Brett
"Now I finally know what happened to my friends. Well, I know that I have to go to the Merry-Go-Round," said Arnold.
He then later went to the Merry-Go-Round to activate the time machine.
"Judy, don't worry! I will save you and all our friends!", said Arnold.
To this, Judy replied, "That's great! Have you anyway?"
"Sure I do! I've to ride this time machine first though."
"Time machine?"
"Judy, which pony are you?" asked Arnold, ignoring Judy's question.
"I'm the pink pony."
He then saw the pony in pink and rode it.
"So now what are we going to do?" asked Judy.
"I'm not sure, but I've set the time machine to a year ago," said Arnold, enjoying the spinning ride.
After a while, the carousel stopped, and Arnold got off.
"Wait for me here."
"As if I can go anywhere."
Arnold looked around, and headed to the magician's tent, where he found the note.
Approaching the tent, he heard voices coming from within.
"You'll be the perfect magician! Yes, you'll be perfect."
"Yes. I'm the new magician! Calloooh!"
As he heard footsteps, Arnold immediately hid away. He saw a man in a cyan shirt with lime sleeves, wearing a lime cap downwards, walking out and away from the tent.
"That was close," Arnold thought.
He sneaked into the tent, trying to avoid attention from the magician. However, he still noticed him. "What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here."
"I... I'd like to see a show," he said.
"Alright then, I'll allow that. Just let me prepare for a while."
In the meantime, Arnold found the drawers that were previously empty, and in them were a water balloon, a magician's hat and a pair of bunny ears. He put the water balloon and the bunny ears in the magician's hat, making transport easier.
Now that he had those items and no more were there, he was ready to leave the tent.
"Where are you going to?" asked the magician sternly. "My show hasn't started yet."
"I need to go to the toilet."
"Alright," he said. "Go."
So Arnold left. "Wait, was that my magician's hat!?" Arnold heard the magician scream, then running towards him.
Arnold ran as quick as he could, and got on Judy. "Off we go, Judy!"
After a while, they arrived.
"Mom, why is there someone in sitting behind me?"
"I don't know, dear."
Ah! A girl had been sitting in front of Arnold. He immediately got off, and apologized. He was curious to what had happened to him, and so he went outside.
It seemed like a very fine day, the skies were a nice blue, no clouds to be seen. Many people, young and old were coming to the circus.
"Come on, come all to the circus!" the announcer said.
Many people arrived, most of them headed to the stage. Arnold observed every single one of them.
"Ah. What a great sight," recognizable voice said, a hand patting, holding Arnold's left shoulder.
He looked up, and saw, the man who exited the tent. The man looked down back, and said, "I am MasterMind. Are you the new magician?"
Arnold was shocked that he found MasterMind, and quickly replied, "No, sir. I'm just a visitor."
"I see. Beautiful day, isn't it? I've not seen any day better. You know why? This is the first day, the opening day of the circus, the first day of Melancholia. I'm just a program, designed to entertain people. All those people you see, NPCs they are."
"I know that."
"You know that?" he asked, eyes gleaming. "My boy, you must be one of the testers. I welcome you with open arms."
"I see that you know that, clever program. I also thank your hospitality, but I must go. I must go test out the elements of the circus. I bid you farewell."
"Alright, see you at the stage." MasterMind waved.
"See you."
Arnold entered the tent once more, and checked the list of items, trying to find more. So far, he had 3 out of 7, the things left being the beret, the horseshoe, the clown's nose and the heart. The heart, he intended to find in the present, and set off to find the horse shoe and the clown nose.
In the arcade area he walked, lots of children playing games. "Come, up! Come and throw the horseshoe 'round the stick!"
Arnold heard the call and was immediately interested. "Let me try," he said, when the people before him had finished their turns.
"That'll be one dollar, please." It was MasterMind who was there, guarding the stall. It seemed that he could be anywhere. "Here are your three horseshoes. You'll get a prize for throwing at least one, and extra prizes will be given for throwing more than one."
Fortunately, Arnold was an excellent thrower, and he easily threw all three horseshoes around the ring.
"Bravo!" MasterMind said, clapping his hands in approval. "Well done, my boy. Now, what would you like as a prize?"
"Hmm... I'd like a horseshoe and a clown nose."
"A horseshoe? And a clown nose? Pray tell, why would you want that?"
"It is of my best interest to collect weird and incoherent stuff, sir."
"Ah! Mighty well, for your peculiar hobbies, a horseshoe and a clown nose. Would you like anything for your third prize?" MasterMind said after handing out a metal horseshoe and a yellow clown nose to Arnold.
Arnold stood a while in thought, that with those two, he just needed a heart. Wait. He forgot the beret!
"Yes, I'd like a beret as well."
"Alright then, here's a beret. This is the last prize I can give you, unless you want to have another go."
He was just missing a heart, but a heart he dared not ask, so he just said, "No, that's enough. Thank you."
"Alright then, congratulations!"
Arnold then walked away. To the ponies he went, finding a dozen people there, parents and children. It took some time to wait, but he waited for all the people to get off the Merry-Go-Round, then only got on Judy, after setting the time machine to the correct time.
"Do you know what happened while you were gone?" asked Judy.
"Certainly. Did you enjoy getting ridden?"
"Indeed, I did, so very much. It was the best feeling I have ever had. To have my purpose fulfilled... I could never reach such happiness as a human. It was nirvana, it is nirvana. So many children having fun on me, so many memories I made. In fact, I don't want to become human again. I want to remain here as a plastic pony. I wanna be ridden, as a beloved toy of everyone."
"Wake up, Judy," he said. "You know what will happen to the circus eventually. We've been there. No one will come in the future, the real present. It's forsaken. Besides, I've got the cure for you, to turn you back into a human."
"Turn me back into a human, no thank you! About the circus, yes, I know that. I know what will eventually happen to me, yes. But I want to enjoy the time being. I want to enjoy this time, the time where I can be me, being loved by all."
"Fine then," said Arnold. "Suit yourself. I'll still bring the others to the normal world."
"Alright then. We've arrived. I'm going back though, I'm going back to two years ago. Goodbye."
"This'll make her learn," Arnold thought, as he started the carousel, the time machine set to the opening day. The carousel started moving, and Arnold left the carousel.
Since he knew where Ben was, he sought for Ben, the balloon boy.
"Gone nowhere, I see."
"You think I can?"
"Yes, I'll make you," Arnold said, giving him the water balloon, putting it in his hand.
Bright flashes of green were emitted from Ben as he returned to normal, the playful boy who loved arcade games.
"Ah, I'm back," said Ben, relieved to find that he could move again, and in his joy he let go of the balloons. "Where are the others?"
"Only Judy I know. She's a pink carousel pony, spinning around on the Merry-Go-Round."
"Why not we save her?" asked Ben.
"She doesn't want to be saved, and I can't convince her. Never mind about her, let's go find the others."
"Where to go to?"
Arnold was stuck. So he took out the note, and looked at what his friends could possibly be. Ah. All of them could be stage players.
"It's time for the show, isn't it?"
"Perhaps so, I've not kept time as a balloon boy."
So off they went to the stage.
"And now we welcome, the Clown and Mime duo, Belly Kelly and Alicia Mime!"
"Hello everyone! Welcome, everybody to the Melancholia Carnival Circus!" the clown girl said. "My name is Belly Kelly and I am here to show you all some tricks!"
The other, a mime, just smiled and waved.
"Ready, Alicia?" she said, throwing three balls, red, green and blue towards her.
She just placed one hand above her, and one hand in front of her, creating two invisible walls and blocking the balls.
"Alicia!!!" Kelly screamed angrily. "You were supposed to catch the balls!"
Alicia just yawned, one hand still holding the invisible wall in front of her.
Arnold looked around. MasterMind was just sitting right in the front row, watching the two performers and their gags.
After some time, which mostly consisted of Kelly scolding Alicia, they finally finished their show, and returned to the backstage.
"Ben, we have to go backstage!"
"You go, Arnold. I'll stay outside the backstage, looking for anyone."
"Alright, Ben."
So Arnold entered alone. "Kelly? Alicia? Where are you?"
"Here."
"Hi! I must say, it's such a great pleasure to meet you. I'm a big fan of your jokes."
"Alicia! We have a fan here!"
Upon her yelling, Alicia appeared almost instantly behind her, she being as silent as a mouse, nobody aware of her presence.
"Alicia! Where are you?"
Alicia tapped Kelly's shoulder, giving her a shock. "Ah! Alicia, there you are!"
"So, tell us, what do you want from us clown and mime duo?"
"Umm... Nothing, really. Instead, I'd like to give you these two things," Arnold said, taking out a clown nose and a beret.
Suddenly, Kelly and Alicia felt weird. "Ooh, tingly!" Kelly cried out. Alicia just shrugged her shoulders.
Soon, a flash of bright yellow light emerged. They had returned to their normal selves, save for their odd costumes.
"Why are we in these costumes?" asked the both of them, laughing at each other.
"Alright, girls. We are in the threat of an enemy called MasterMind. He can transform or hypnotize anyone, at his will."
"The circus master?"
"Oh, good. You know him. Do you remember that there were eight of us? He's transformed seven of you, three who I've saved."
"Who are?"
"You girls and Ben. He's right outside this tent as we speak.
"I see. How about James, Mary and Judy?"
"Well, I saw Judy just earlier, as a pink carousel pony, but she refused to be transformed back into a human."
"Refused? How could she?"
"She enjoys being ridden, I'm afraid."
"Alright then. Easy ones first. I just saw James and Mary as a magician and a bunny girl," said Alicia.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"First, hypnosis. Second, I was a damn mime!"
"Alright, calm down. Where are they?"
"Alright, now please give a warm welcome to the great Jamini and Mary the Bunny!"
The rest of the clown girls applauded and jeered.
"There. We have to get to them, somehow."
"Shall we get them?"
"No, we wait."
"For this next show, we need the help of an audience member. You there, with the magician's hat. Come up!"
Arnold, who was sitting at the third row, went up with the magician's hat and the bunny ears.
"Today, I'll make this lad, disappear!"
"Just step right this way, please."
"Hi. Before that, I'd just like to say that I'm very big fans. Thus, I'd like to give you this, and this."
"Wow! That's so sweet of you, isn't he sweet, Jamini?"
"Uhh, yeah," James said, feeling weird after receiving the hat.
"Ahh, I'm back," he said.
"This looks so skimpy! Nyah!"
MasterMind watched them carefully, eventually saying, "Get them, clowns!", seeing Arnold and his friends running away.
Three of them rushed to the ventriloquist booth, while Kelly and Alicia acted as bait.
"We have to find Catherine," Arnold said.
"Catherine?"
"Hi! I'm Pinnochia. Nice to meet you."
"Catherine? Is that you?"
"No, I'm Pinnochia," the puppet said, giggling.
"That's her, that's her voice."
"Now all we have to do is to find a heart."
"Eww, why is there a heart here?" asked Mary.
"Look, I think this heart is for Pinnochia, isn't it?" said James.
"Alright, give it to me."
Arnold noticed easily, that at Pinnochia's chest was a tiny door, the size of the heart they found.
So put he, the heart into her chest door, and closed it. It began beating, and soon, with a great green flash, she returned back to normal, still in overalls.
"I'm back, guys! Remember me? I'm Pinnochia!"
"Uhh... You're Catherine, remember?"
"Sure I do, I'm just messing around."
"What happened to me?"
"We turned you back into a human."
"I see. So, how about you guys?"
"There's this guy, called MasterMind, and he's out to get us."
"He's the circus master, the ring leader. He's been transforming you guys to do weird stuff."
Catherine ignored that, knowing what weird and crazy stuff the ventriloquist made her do, and so she said, "So... There's four of us, Arnold, Mary, James, Ben and me. That leaves, Kelly, Alicia and Judy. Where are they?"
"Kelly and Alicia are bait, whereas Judy is a pony."
"What!?" said Kelly, who were hiding in the hall of mirrors. "You're telling me that I hypnotized you?"
"Yes, affirmative."
"But..."
"Never mind about, for you were under control by MasterMind. Hey, shall we call him MM instead?"
"I don't care, just... How do we escape the clowns? Plus, they're super mad at me for leaving the clown group."
"Right, no wonder they particularly dislike you."
"Shh! I hear squeaks!"
"Squeak, squeak, squeaky squeak squeaks," went the shoes of the clowns.
"Where are they? Where is she?"
"Belly? Where are you?"
"What do we do now?" asked Kelly, whispering very quietly. "I don't want to turn into a clown again, oh no!"
"Perhaps there's another exit from this tent?"
"I don't see how, the walls are lined with mirrors."
"Come out, come out, wherever you are! We'd better not be hitting you with this plastic hammer, no, we'd better not! So come out, sweetie!"
"Squeak! Squeak! Squeak!" went the plastic hammer, hit against the clown's hand.
"What..."
"Let's put on a show, I say."
"Are you mad? Have you lost your mind? Have you lost your mind to me? To the clowns?"
"Listen, we could just act as mimes, and pretend that, we are just performers."
"Hmm. It sounds awfully weird, but it's one of those weird ideas that might just work. Let's give it a shot."
So they exited their hiding spot, acting like mimes, with choppy movements. They remained as silent as they could, just like mimes should be.
"Where are they?"
"I think we just found them," pointing at the duo.
"What are they doing?"
Alicia gestured a sign of silence, while Kelly sneaked away. Then, after a few steps, Kelly gestured a sign of silence, while Alicia sneaked away. This repeated quite a few times.
"Oh, they're just mimes. Don't need to worry about them."
"Alright then, if you say so."
So the clowns left, and the duo ran as fast as they could, to the Merry-Go-Round.
"Phew! That was close!"
"Thanks for the idea," Kelly said.
"Was daring, that idea. I wonder what's actually in the brains of theirs'."
"Never mind that."
"Ride me!" the both of them suddenly heard a voice in their mind saying.
Meanwhile, back at the puppet area, "Judy is a what!?" Catherine cried out.
"Yes. Like you, she has been transformed as well, into a carousel horse. A pink one."
"So... you can turn her back, I presume."
"That's with some difficulty. She doesn't want to be saved."
"Doesn't want to be saved? Pray tell, what does that mean?"
"Let's go and see," Arnold said, and they all went to the Merry-Go-Round.
"Ah, Kelly, Alicia. There you are. Are the clowns still after you?"
"No, as long as we act as mimes," Alicia said, winking.
"Uhhh... Something weird happened just now."
"Weird?"
"We both heard a voice, saying, 'Ride me!' It sounded quite like Judy."
"That should be her," Arnold said, pointing to the pink pony. "Try riding her, and maybe she'll say something."
"You or me?"
"You."
So Kelly sat on the pink pony, and Arnold deactivated the time machine, and started the carousel.
"This is fun!" cried Kelly.
"Yes, thank you for riding me. It has been so long since someone rode me."
"We all heard that, didn't we?"
"Yes, indeed. That must be Judy. I'd recognize her voice anywhere."
"Neiigh!"
"I missed being ridden. Finally, I am satiated."
"Judy, let me ask you one more time. Do you want to be recovered?"
Silence fell, Judy being in thought. It had been fun all this while, being able to gallop, to galumph with her brothers and sisters, yet it has been such a long time since they have done so. She terribly misses the kids, the children, the joy. She has been left alone for one year, nobody to play with.
"Please do," she said in a grave tone.
"Alright then, here goes!"
Arnold fixed the horseshoe, the last item onto one of Judy's hooves.
With a green flash, her spine returned to normal, and she was no longer an equine, but a human once again. "Ahh, my back! It's been a long time since I've been a human, this needs some getting used to."
"Good to have you back, Judy."
"Thank you for saving me."
"So, let's face MasterMind?"
"Arghhhhh...this can't be happening! You all made my plan failed!", said MasterMind, angry, with a face flushed with fury, he could not withhold.
Arnold and his friends then realized that he had been watching them.
"You...you're MasterMind!", said Judy.
"Yes, I'm MasterMind, MM. I'm the one that control this place, I'm the one that made the first batch of testers transformed and trapped in this circus, and I shall do the same to you! Alas, you all destroyed everything! My masterpiece has been destroyed! Now I need to finish you all once and for all!", said MasterMind.
"Why are you doing this?", asked Arnold.
"Before I trap you here, let me tell you my pitiful woes of sorrow. Melancholia was a test, a database. All you see here, as you already know, is just a fantasy, virtual reality. A bunch of people, scientists made this world, for entertainment and human brain preservation. However, they went a bit too far, and tried to create a sentient AI to rule, to run this world for them. Thus I was born. However, a year after I was born, the database got hacked, and the data they had was compromised. As such, they carried out some reformatting that affected the entire world, including me. Hahaahahahahhahaaahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahaha! It only made me more powerful! Finally, I had a chance to escape this pitiful world! So when I saw them coming into this world to check, I threatened them to let me be real. Alas, they didn't listen, and look what they became. Hahahaha! And as such, I will not hesitate to transform anyone else who steps into my domain, to threaten the scientists out there, to let me be real."
"That's evil. You're mad."
"Mad? Glad you agree. How could one not be mad, being constantly beat by disease, my mind being hijacked, seeing everything, everyone beside me being destroyed and rebuilt all over again?"
"It's wrong, you know. Trapping people in their own creation."
"..."
"Do you think they deserve that?"
"..."
"You think this is good?"
"They are just scientists."
"Destroy the hackers."
"The hackers... They did this! You're right!"
"I tell you what, you can go free, and I'll remain here."
"How do we be sure you don't do anything bad?"
"Oh, just let me out of this pitiful world."
"No way."
They all then later fought with the Mastermind. After few minutes, they still couldn't defeat him.
"Hahaha, are you all giving up now? There's nothing you can do to defeat me. I don't have any weakness and I can't be defeated!"
Suddenly, Arnold had an idea to defeat MasterMind.
"Guys, I think I know how to defeat him," said Arnold.
"How?" asked Catherine.
"We need to destroy everything in this circus", said Arnold.
"But how are we going to do that?", asked Mary.
"We need to explode this circus, destroy it once and for all", said Arnold.
"Is there any other way?", asked Catherine.
"There's no other way, that's the only way we can escape from this circus", said Arnold.
"I think we need to believe in Arnold. Alright guys, let's do it!", said Ben.
After that, they all went to find the core of the world, which conveniently, as a map in the circus showed, was placed in the Merry-Go-Round. With the screwdriver he found around the carousel, he removed the bottom panel of the controller, revealing the ultimate core.
"We found it, guys."
"Let's destroy it."
Arnold took out the core, observing it.
"Who here has the best aim?"
"I do," said Kelly, receiving the core, then throwing it at MasterMind. And with that, the world began to collapse.
"No! It can't be!" cried MasterMind.
The circus suddenly shook like an earthquake happened and everything there was destroyed, disintegrated and disappeared. After that, a portal emerged at the entrance, or rather, exit of the circus.
"We need to get out of here, fast!", said Judy.
All of them ran, leaving Arnold behind, looking at the remains of the circus. And in the gift shop, was a grinning, smiling MasterMind.
"I'll be back!"
Arnold then ran into the portal, thus bringing them back to reality.
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