The Lost Firefly

Waking up early in the morning, the mare that was once a filly stretched in her bed and rolled out of bed, hitting her jaw on the wooden floorboards. Her muscles weakened as she tried to lift herself up from the dirty floor. She hit her head off of her bedside table and blood squirted out her nose. She coughed painfully and tried her hardest to get back on top of her bed. She felt like crap, as if someone had beaten her to near death.

Firefly trotted downstairs after restoring her energy a bit, and prepared some breakfast. It took her an hour to finish it. Once it was finished, she brushed her hair to the point where she couldn't due to it being too knotty, and set off to Sugar Cube Corner. On her way she could see ponies looking at her with concern. This has been the second time she had walked down the streets in an ill state.

Amongst arriving to her workplace, Pinkie immediately jumped on her and shook her around, which didn't help her headache. She was enthusiastic about something, but when asked what was wrong, she only responded with 'I'm glad you're here'. Firefly waited patiently for a response, and only got one three minutes later.

"You've been looking for some friends, right?" Pinkie jumped around the kitchen, grabbing certain ingredients for their first batch of cupcakes. She even grabbed some extra decorations.

"Yeah, I guess." Firefly shrugged, helping her get some ingredients. "I have you, and I would class the Cakes as my friends." She saw Mrs Cake smile softly in the corner of her eye.

"Well, that's just not enough!" Pinkie laughed. "You need a lot of friends!" She stopped flinging things on to the table and turned towards Firefly, who was looking quite confused. "You shouldn't just have 'a few' friends, silly! You should have tons!"

"Tons?" Firefly grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and set it on to the table, watching Pinkie as she poured in some flour. "I... Don't think that is necessary. Plus, no one really likes me."

Pinkie gave Firefly some eggs to put in to the mix, and then leaned against the counter. "That's what I thought! But then, I was like, what if there is someone out there who might like you? And then it hit me!"

Firefly looked up at Pinkie once she cracked the eggs and threw away the shells. "Might?"

"Do you remember Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle?" Pinkie grinned, adding in another ingredient and then started to mix in the paste.

Firefly backed up a little, almost knocking a spoon off the table. "Uh, um... Y-Yeah, a... A little, yeah."

Pinkie stirred furiously. "Well, I thought, maybe they'd be friends with you! You know, since they knew you." Pinkie stopped stirring and gave Firefly the bowl, and then set the cupcake cases on the cupcake tray. "I didn't get a chance to ask Sweetie Belle, she's helping someone in Manehatten."

"Helping?" Firefly tipped the cupcake batter in each case and made sure they all had an equal amount of batter. "With what?"

"That's what the Cutiemark Crusaders do!" Pinkie's grin turned into a joyful smile. "They help ponies know what their talent is, help them get cutiemarks, remind ponies about their destiny... It's really cool. There used to be the three of them, but..." Pinkie looked at Firefly, who had no clue who the third one was. "Anyway, she was busy, so I found the other..."

Firefly took the tray and popped it into the oven. "You found Scootaloo?"

"Yep! She said she would be delighted to meet you again!" Pinkie turned on the oven and set the timer.

"Are you sure I should meet her? I left so soon..." Firefly leaned on the counter.

"She understands why." Pinkie told her, lowering herself to check the cupcakes. "So I told her to meet you tomorrow here!"

"Here?" Firefly watched Pinkie rise up from the oven.

"Yeah, just to meet up." Pinkie licked the spoon that had some cupcake paste on it. "You can go where you want from there."

"Seems fair." Firefly agreed. She laughed, and then saw Pinkie giving her a concerned look. "What's up? Something on my face?"

"Your nose is bleeding..." Pinkie told her. Firefly rubbed her hoof below her nose, and saw blood on her hoof. Her nose was actually bleeding. She ran towards the sink and splashed some water on her nose and wiped it off with a cloth. She leaned her face into the sink and started coughing up blood. She quickly turned towards Pinkie as soon as she stopped.

"I... Don't feel well."

Mrs and Mr Cake sent Firefly home. She was too sick to finish her shift. Sleepily trailing down the streets, she soon noticed that the path she was on wasn't even the correct one. It took her an hour to get back home. Sheepishly, she managed to find her house and entered. She then threw her body on the floor and slammed the door closed.

Her stomach started turning, her vision blurred and the room started to turn. If she stood up for any longer her head would start to bash itself into the walls. Tensing up her muscles, the earth pony crawled over to her sofa and attempted to rest her body on the cushions. She tried to relax her muscles, but couldn't.

After a while of resting and taking medication, Firefly finally gained more strength, and sat up. She jerked her head towards the window and daydreamed for a while. She thought of how she got sick a lot when she lived in the Everfree. Maybe she brought something with her? Coughing, she noticed smoke in the distance once she broke out of her trance.

Sugar Cube Corner was over there. She didn't seem alarmed, as it may have been some faulty cupcakes... Until she realised that overcooked goods do not produce that much smoke. She fell off the sofa, and quickly got up, racing towards her door and smacking her face on the wall. Getting up, she slammed open the door and bolted out her house, not bothering to close the doors.

Rapidly, she ran towards her work place, and saw a large gathering of ponies around it. Sugar Cube Corner was on fire. Firefly's pupils went small. Her ears pointed straight down and she lowered her body towards the ground. Her visions blurred again, and hallucinations filled her view. She began breathing heavily, until she saw Pinkie, Mr and Mrs Cake and the baby Cakes outside the blaze. She sighed in relief, and watched in awe at the ember rising into the sky.

Some ash went into her eye, and by the time she rubbed it out some pegesi came and began putting out the fire with buckets of water. Everyone began helping, carrying buckets filled with water to put out the flame. Firefly sat back and watched as they all helped one another. She wasn't in the right condition to help anyone, as she couldn't see straight. She felt a hoof on her back, and turned to see Pinkie smiling softly and hugging her with tears in her eyes.