The Muffin Mare

It had been two weeks since the incident of Sound getting shot by Bit, and Derpy had spent every minute that she wasn’t working at the hospital with Sound. Just waiting for him to get better so he could leave the bland room. Sound was actually fine during the first week of his hospitalization, he was talking fine and even able to move his hoofs around while he was in bed, though she knew he would probably have had to go to physical therapy to learn how to make basic movements again. But as the second week rolled by, his condition had started going downhill.

Sound started sleeping more everyday that she visited and his voice was starting to fade away to mere air coming from his lungs. During the more recent visits Derpy would normally see Sound still in his bed at the hospital with his chest rising up and down rhythmically, breathing slowly and not moving a muscle. Anypony who would’ve seen the inanimate stallion in the bed would say he was dead, yet the heart monitor said he was alive, contradicting the fact that he never moved. Towards the foot of the bed there was a tattered brown clipboard that hung on a hook labeled ‘Status’ which read the most depressing of words ‘Coma’.

Derpy teared as she interchanged her looks between the clipboard that hung from the end of the bed and Sound as he laid there silently. The only sounds in the room were Sound’s faint breathing and the heart monitor next to him. Sound had a few other ponies in his room, there were multiple ponies who were there for only a few minutes, and then there was the stallion who had been there for the past few days. At the time the stallion who was there was a dark shade of red, and had a yellow and white mane. He said his name was SoulFire. Although, Derpy didn’t really get to know the stranger across the room because of how busy she was with Sound.

Yet, even though Derpy knew close to nothing about SoulFire, he had known quite a bit about the gray mare taking care of Sound. Due to the extensive amount of how much Sound told him about Derpy, SoulFire knew quite a bit about her abilities with what all she could do, but he also knew a lot about her, just because of how much he saw her around Ponyville. With the light from the window, SoulFire could see Derpy through the dark room sitting next to the messy bed, right in front of Sound, almost as if she was begging him to awake from his cursed slumber as tears flowed from her face and onto the bed forming a small puddle.

SoulFire felt bad at seeing the mare cry. “Hey, Derpy.” SoulFire said “He talked really highly about you… He said he was glad about taking the shot for you. He said he wouldn’t have done it for anypony else in the world!” SoulFire said as he saw Derpy stop crying to look up towards him.

“Really?” Derpy said as she looked towards SoulFire, with happiness in her heart that her friend thought that highly of her, but still sad that she had lost that one friend with her stupid mistake of trusting a criminal “I let him down though. I let him get killed, and it’s all my fault.” she said as her heart turned to sorrow and she beat herself up for her mistake and remembering that she wouldn’t have Sound for much longer.

“Hey, don’t worry. He said that everything that happened was worth it and that he wouldn’t have had it any other way.” SoulFire said to her, trying to reassure her that everything was all going to be fine and he was just hoping that things would sort themselves out like Sound told him they would.

“Well… I’m not going to let him go down without a fight… I’m going to make them pay for what they did to Sound.” Derpy said as she stood from her place and walked along the room on the cold tile, causing hoofstep sounds to resonate throughout the room as she paced around, her head craving for revenge.

“Hey, he said that they didn’t matter Derpy. He said you did. He didn’t want you getting harmed. Especially for him.” SoulFire said as he propped a pillow up in his bed, allowing him to sit up “He said something around the lines of you being vulnerable. He said it was your eyes, that they showed you. That you would never be safe until you learned to cover them.” he said as he saw Derpy’s anger leaving and seeing her soaking his wise words in and contemplating them deeply, as if she was planning her next move.

“Yeah. That helps.” Derpy said as she knew what she would have to do, walking away from the room and into the dark maze of halls to make her way out and go home. She was flying through the city, though it was teeming with life like normal. Though, Derpy was not, because of her mind so focused on the tragedy with Sound’s condition.

Derpy had finally made her way home and just stood there, looking at the worn door and waiting to go in, like she was waiting on an invitation. Yet, after some mental debating, she had found the final verdict to be to go inside. As she trotted slowly through the dark rooms she could hear Dinky humming to herself as she sat in her room and listened to her music, which wouldn’t have been too bad for Derpy, until upon closer realization, it was the song that had played at the club when she was with Sound.

Derpy stood against the wall as her body froze and her brain shut down. A chill shot down her spine at the sudden realization of what challenge life was throwing at her. Derpy had broke on the inside, she couldn't handle the depression and the only way that she had ever found her way out of it was to eat. Which is where her love for muffins and food came from, her parents always used to argue , but when they did, her mom had always found something for her to eat to comfort her, though it seemed to help her, she knew it wasn’t very good for her. Yet, it was the only way she knew she could feel better.

Derpy walked through the house and made her way to the kitchen, stopping right in front of the fridge. She knew that if it were to be opened, that it wouldn’t be closed until it was empty, which was why she was reluctant to open it while attempting to firmly hold her hoofs to the ground.

Through all her mind’s protests, her body had defied her wishes. Derpy was disappointed as she could see the fridge door opening and the bright light glowing from inside, right onto her face, and her hoof was attached to the handle. The fridge was full, but after what felt like a few minutes to Derpy, the sun had started rising and there was trash all over the floor. Derpy had woken up to find herself laying on top of a bottle of honey label ‘Buzz’s Honey’ along with a yellow mare with a blue and green mane, that was half way full and still oozing out onto the floor.

Along with the sticky mess that was around her and on her body, glances to the left and right had revealed bread loaf wrappers around her along with milk jugs and cake crumbs as well as half eaten pickles and muffins. All she could do was lay there and fall into the gluttonous sleep that her body was being beckoning her into.

“Sis… Wake up… What happened? You okay?” Dinky said confused as she prodded her hoofs at Derpy while asking her questions, but not even giving Derpy time to answer her.

Derpy mumbled through her sleep and had eventually awoken “Huh? Oh… Hey Dinky…” Derpy said as she woke up, obviously still half asleep as she rolled on to her side and forgot about Dinky, while trying to fall sleep again.

“Sis! Wake up!” Dinky said as she walked around Derpy, and the mess, and continued to poke her with her hoof from a different angle, but still able to attack the mess of a mare on the floor “It’s ten o’ clock! Don’t you have to go to wor-” Dinky said curiously, but was quickly cut off as Derpy got up onto her hoofs and tried to run to her room to get ready after the sudden realization that she was already late for work.

As Derpy flew up to her room she ran into walls and stumbled around the house, due to her tired state. Yet, she had finally arrived in her room through her grogginess and had started go grab her bag and put it on before realizing her mistake. She didn’t have to got work today, or the next week, she remembered that she took off so she could make sure she could see Sound while he was in the hospital. Now the choice of what her day was going to be like was in her hooves. She could stay at home and do nothing, or go see Sound.

Though revenge was a completely viable option, in her opinion, and also a strong feeling in her heart. Though, Derpy knew she would have to prepare for any plans she had before she could act upon any of them. With that in mind, she walked towards the door frame and stuck her head outside the door “Dinky! I don’t have to work today! I’ll clean up the mess later!” Derpy said while pulling her head back into the room as she finished her statement and trotted towards one of the tables in her room and sat down.

She pulled out one of her old goggles that she used in the lab ˙and set them on the table “Is this really the right thing to do?” she thought to herself as she thought about all the things she could do to get back at the stallions who had shot Sound and had ruined his life, just as well as hers. She slowly painted the goggles the same color as her cape, then took out the plastic lenses and dipped them into a bowl of dye that she had bought, tinting the plastic in the process. “Good. Now everything’s done. No one will figure anything out.” Derpy said as she pulled the goggles over her head and positioned them over her eyes, fixing them into their proper place on her face.

As she walked over to the mirror and stared at her reflection, taking in every detail of her newly made goggles, along with how it looked with the rest of her suit, and loving her job well done, until she heard Dinky’s hoofsteps, as they started trotting up the steps and making her way closer to her room. Derpy froze as she looked in the mirror into her own reflection and stared deeply into her tinted goggles, the adrenaline rushing through her as she realized that she was fully dressed as her alter-ego.

Derpy knew that Dinky was about to see her, Derpy knew thatDinky was moving fast because of how quick the hoofsteps were coming. As the sounds of her hoofsteps got louder Derpy could hear Dinky calling out to her from the hall, which had scared Derpy even more. Dinky was looking for Derpy, she would be scared to find the muffin mare. All at once, the loud thoughts running through Derpy’s head had seized at the sound of the door handle turning along a growing creak to accompany the slowly turning door and an innocent young filly’s voice “Derpy? You in here?” she said through the slowly opening door.