The Muffin Mare

As the sunset approached slowly, barely touching the edge of the world, Derpy slowly awoke and got out of her bed, while her mind was foggy with thoughts and clouded with a tired like haze she noticed that today was... Different, she could feel it. On a normal day she would feel different, awake, light-hearted, or ready... which was primarily the sign of what made her come to the realization that today was something out of the ordinary. She slowly shook her head as if throwing the thoughts from the corner of her mind to get rid of them, while doing this she slowly got up and made her way to the mirror.

"Oh my god, I look like a mess" she said, while looking into it, attempting to fit her hooves into the handle for the brush, and slowly brushing her mane, wincing when she hit a stubborn knot... But she never has knots... That's weird... She thought, continuing.

After the daily routine of getting ready to take on the day, she picked up her custom-made bag with the special muffin latch to close the bag that her mom had gotten her for her birthday a while back, it was her favorite present. Along with her simple lunch, just like every days lunch actually, a muffin! Normally she would take a chocolate chip muffin with a specially made carrot top and a water bottle... but today was different... she was all out of her special chocolate chip muffins, so she had to resort to taking the most perfect blueberry muffin she had ever made, she worked ever so hard making it perfect so she could have it as her birthday dinner next month. Disappointed with having to take it she let out a low sigh, wrapped it up, and walked out the door for work.

As soon as she arrived at work, she was greeted with many hoof-waves and greetings, which was really warming for her heart to let her know that she had friends that loved her, even with her... Slight... Eye problem. Derpy worked as a scientist at Lockheed Equestria, a defense company that manufactured missiles, and weapons in general, to defend from the changeling armies, and as a mail-mare, only in her spare time though. She was the scientist that worked in the lab that attempted to lower the radiation in the missiles, making them less lethal before being shot, and she did a good job too! She's gotten raise on top of raise for making the most revolutionary changes in the missiles designs and saving the company millions of bits.

Most of the time at work, all the ponies on her team, including her, would be in a meeting talking about some of the designs that were submitted by each other in order to make the missiles run smoother or be more energy efficient, they would compare designs, take the best things from each one, and put all the improvements towards one new missile design. Then she realized it, right when she sat down, she noticed a big device right to the left of her, maybe one foot of space, with multiple parts jutting out of the top, tons of buttons and switches and a rod pointing toward the floor. Either she never noticed it, or it had been put there today.

Slowly she raised her hand "Umm, excuse me?" she questioned, as everypony stared at her inquisitively "Uh, what is that... Thing?" she said, while pointing a hoof toward the almost alien looking device.

Slowly, everypony in the room turned their chairs toward the stallion at the end of the table that they were sitting at, which seemed to be the stallion that was responsible for putting the hideous contraption in the room. Slowly, the stallion stood from his seat.

"It takes the radiation from the core of the missile, and absorbs it into the rod, all you have to do is point the rod, and it takes all the radiation away!" said the stallion with a smile stretched miles across his face.

Derpy still seemed reluctant as how close to the device she was sitting it was a little scary for her "Is it safe? You know... That I'm sitting here?" she said as she picked up her bag and searched through it, while her hooves shook with nervousness. Finally finding her water bottle, it took forever, but she got it. She took a small mouthful, sealed it, and placed the bottle back in the bag while laying the bag down to her left in the little space that she had, all in one swift motion.

"We've tested everything Derpy. I can assure you, there will be no problems." The stallion stated proudly, his words carrying a calming effect on everypony, making him more believable "Which is why I brought this here today, to demonstrate the power of this machine. You will all be quite amazed." He said while reaching into a container and managing to bring the heavy looking missile up to the table.

Everypony looked left and right confused and nervous until the stallion calmly stated "It's okay, the weapon is unarmed, all it has is the radioactive core. Though... Full of radiation... But none can come out, for it is sealed in the missile." With that final statement, everypony calmed down realizing it was safe.

As the stallion noticed that everypony was done and that there would be no more interruptions or disagreements, he simply walked around the table to the other side, right next to Derpy. He then proceeded to pull out a panel with buttons and switches, too many for Derpy to count, from the sectioned machine.
"This is the missile right now." He stated simply as he pressed a few more buttons causing a projector to become enabled on the same side of the room, projecting a view to the other side with a shape on the screen, the shape being that of a missile. Even for not dealing with this kind of technology on a daily basis Derpy could still tell where the radiation was in the picture.

Derpy was busy analyzing the live video of the missile when the stallion blurted "At this very moment, the missile contains eighty-five percent radiation, which could mean death to anypony handling it. Even though some radiation is needed for the missile to work, anything above necessary won't affect the outcome, instead... It will affect the handlers."

Everypony nodded in understanding, which he followed by picking up the rod on the end of the machine that swiveled, and pointing it straight at the missile. Pressed a few buttons "Now the rod is locked in place, and ready for the absorption of the missiles radiation. Now if everypony will please leave the room, as the timer is counting down, and any stray radiation may cause harm."

With what the stallion just said, Derpy hurriedly got up and left the room not waiting for any other warnings, she was already scared because she had to sit by it, she was more than glad for the chance to be away from it. Nopony was taking any chances with the machine, seeing as how they all grabbed their bags and left. Almost... Everypony...
Everypony stood outside of the room... Waiting... While the stallion stared at his watch, a few minutes later "Now." He said, next thing everypony knew, a loud noise filled he hall, though only for a few measly seconds. Then one of the scientists walked towards the stallion and asked "Is it safe to go back?" to which the stallion responded "I would believe so..."

As the ponies made their way through the halls most of the scientists were talking to each other in low whispers, Derpy couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but it sounded like doubt for the experiment working, since nopony there has been able to get the radiation lower by means this easy. Yet, they walked to the room, with hope in the experiment and within due time they all found themselves in their proper chairs once again, very impatient to see the final results on the test.

Once more, the stallion pulled out a section from the machine, the midsection panel to be exact, and started to, what looked like mash, press multiple buttons and switches causing them to see the projector view on the wall once again. When everypony looked at the view, their mouths went agape with astonishment. Though Derpy was amazed, she was suspicious she saw the radiation levels go from eighty-five percent to thirty-four percent! Nopony had ever gotten it that low without a design change!

Then Derpy, by mere coincidence, decided to look to her left, to see that the rod was not only covered in a interesting looking liquid that was green and had a glue-like consistency and was just sitting there threatening to drip, but not daring, and on top of having the weird sludge on the rod, the rod was supposed to be fixed in place, but apparently lost its locking place during or after the process and was now pointing at the ground... Right at her bag...

She had to resist the urge to scream at what looked like the green sludge trying to make a move to drop itself all over her bag, so with great resistance she managed to not scream, yet slowly kick her bag underneath the chair she was sitting on. After moving her bag, she shot the stallion a pleading look and simply said "Did something go wrong?"

The stallion just looked at her confused, till she raised her hoof and pointed at the machines rod. The stallion tried to keep cool while turning his head to see that the rod was covered in something. When he saw it he knelt down, titled his head to the left, analyzed it for a moment, and took in the situation. He honestly knew this was a possibility, and was just hoping it would never happen, as it were a one in a million chance of something like this happening. As he understood what he was looking at he slowly looked away and said "Everypony, go to the room next door... And take your stuff... I don't know how long we'll be out of here."

Everypony looked around, wanting to obey, but to scared to get up. Soon enough when one pony got up and grabbed his belongings to leave, it snapped into everyone elses mind that the longer they were there the more the danger of being in there rose. Though everypony wanted to get out, so did Derpy, yet... Something... Was stopping her, she wasn't sure if she wanted to help, or if she was just curious, because she wanted to know what went wrong, because she just... didn't know.

In the end, she made the choice to leave, hoping it would be for the better, and for each step she took away from the table that took her closer to the door, she regretted not asking what happened. As she slowly opened the door, it creaked, and a voice called out to her from behind "Derpy!" said the voice, It was the stallion! She made an effort to reply quickly, which came out as a bunch of stutters, which she then finally formed into a word.

"Yes?" Derpy asked, inquisitively, as if hoping to figure out what was going on.

"Thank you Derpy," He began "It turns out it was a radiation overload, any longer and I don't know what could have happened to us, but... Most of all, you saved our life's back there Derpy, and I just wanted to thank you personally for that."

Derpy couldn't even contain her happiness knowing what she had done, and she could only reply with a blush as she opened the creaky door and walked out into the hallway towards the room with the rest of her co-workers.

While walking through the hallway she heard something... Then a sharp pain hit her, right in the stomach, she stood there for a second writhing in the pain that was hunger. Then she remembered, she didn't even spare time for breakfast this morning... She knew she had a muffin, but it wasn't even past ten yet, and as she pulled it out she entered the room where everypony else had gone after the incident in the other room, and as she sat down she finally came to the conclusion that eating the muffin now would be fine, because she could go buy some lunch or go eat with a coworker, and with that, she took a slow nice bite.

This doesn't taste perfect... Or like blueberry... she thought...