Chapters 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.
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...
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...
Derpy was just finishing taking the last bites from her muffin, savoring each bite for as long as she could, and had balled up the wrapper to get ready to throw it away, but as she got up to start walking to the trash can she noticed a slight tingle run through her body, she couldn’t exactly figure out where the source of the tingling was, nonetheless why it was happening, and as she continued walking, hoping it was just something small that would go away within a few minutes, but after what felt like a few seconds, it got worse. The feelings went from tingling to throbbing, she had also started to contract a slight headache from the strong pulsing coming from her forehead.
She tried to ignore it, but as it only got more worse she knew it probably wasn’t going to go away anytime soon, and she could tell that her walking made it worse, and that short distance to the trash can wasn’t helping since the longer she walked the pains became more intensified. Even along with the sharp pains she was having to endure, it was getting harder and harder to think because of the headache that was growing into a migraine. As time seemed to be getting longer and longer, with seconds turning into hours. She just wanted it to all end, she could’ve sworn a tear had ran down her face because of all the sudden pain. Though, quite amazingly, through all the pain she had to endure at the moment, she finally got a thought out, and had came to the conclusion that it would be best to sit down.
Attempting to take steady hoofsteps through all the pain, she was near the trash can, she could see it through the corner of her eye. At this point she didn’t even want to take another step, yet she knew if she didn’t hurry up people would ask why she was walking so slow. It felt like a leisure walk at this point... She HAD to hurry... Finally she reached the trash can and feebly dropped the wrapper in the container.
Everything was a blur, things moved closer and farther, and she was getting dizzy. Then the oddest thing happened, she was in her seat...
Did I faint? She thought.
No, I couldn't have, or else everypony would be crowded around me asking me what was wrong, or if everything was okay.
Tilting her head up a little, she could see the clock, only to be completely shocked when she saw that only twenty seconds had passed.
Her face was a mixture of confusion and panic. She could hide the panic, but the confusion showed through every inch of her face. She came out of her confused state and back to the real and fast world when the mare next to her elbowed her with her hoof, laughed, and pointed it at the mare across the table. Who was obviously in despair having her pen just explode all over her coat. Of course, it was hard not to have a little giggle at the sight of it, she really wanted to help.
She moved her hooves to the arms of the chair, as to try to pick herself up. Yet, as soon as she started to push up and put some weight on her hooves, a stabbing pain had started to grow in her arms and her limbs simply went limp. Not being able to move even if she wanted to, she realized there was no reason to protest, her body had won this war, and would probably keep winning.
Simply put, she was bored and couldn't move, after sitting there for about an hour and a half, the stallion that had performed the demonstration earlier came into the room, rather nervously, though trying to put confidence in his words.
“Ok, I can see that you are all worried” he stated bluntly “but, I can assure you, there is nothing to be afraid of, your friend Derpy” he said, while pointing a hoof toward her “had pointed out that there was a problem, which I soon identified to be a radiation overload, and she pointed it out at just the right time too! A few minutes more, and I don’t think we’d be here right now. So trust me, she did us all a favor.” he said, giving Derpy a proud smile.
“Normally, we would do a radiation test to make sure nothing was affected, but since everypony took their belongings from the room like I requested when we did the demonstration, that won’t be necessary.” he stated, knowing that nopony left their stuff in the room, his face showing a bit of uncertainty.
Derpy was contemplating whether or not she should come clean about leaving her stuff in the room. For all she knew, that muffin could be why she was feeling like this... She was really hesitant, but by the time she had decided it would be a smart move to just say it, the stallion had made a sharp turn around and was starting to head for the exit of the room.
She simply bit her lip, scared, thinking that now she may not get any help. She was hoping she would be fine. Hoping. She just couldn’t stop thinking about this... But then she realized... She could think again! That haze over her mind was gone! Hoping that it was a sign that meant she would be able to have her motor skills back, she slowly rose to test it, and attempted to disguise it as a yawn. As she rose, she realized there were no more pains from moving!
Though she was scared enough with all the things that had happened to her today, she knew she had to continue on like a normal work day, and that’s just what she did. Acting as though nothing ever happened.
After work.
It was dark outside, she just couldn’t stand being up anymore. Exhausted from flying the long way home, especially after the turn of events today. Tired. All she could think of was the word tired, and the act of sleeping. She could just imagine being in bed. But, first things first, she had to get Dinky and get her to go to bed, and if it came to it... force her into it...
Derpy slowly traversed the stairs, both clumsily and groggily, finding that she almost fell one or two times, but at the end of it all she found that Dinky was in the living room drawing,and well, being a filly. Nicely, Derpy walked up to her slowly, not like she was able to walk any faster anyway, and embraced her in a gentle hug.
“It’s time for bed, you know. You got school tomorrow." she stated, giving the most bland statement, expecting Dinky to argue back like usual, so why put a lot of work in a small sentence that she'll argue with. Yet... She didn't argue like she expected, instead Dinky turned toward Derpy and pulled her arm around her into a sort of side hug.
"You don't sound so good sis, long day at work?" she said kindly through Derpy's coat, and nuzzled her softly, to which Derpy could only reply with a nod, she was happy to be there for her sister because Dinky was very caring toward Derpy, because she knew there some mean ponies out there who bullied her for Derpy eye problem, and not to mention the kids that bullied Dinky at school for her the same reason, and when they both lost their parents they became closer than they ever had before.
"Look! I drew us!" she said, breaking the hug abruptly and pointing a hoof at the two crudely drawn ponies, Derpy had to admire the effort though "See! There is the oven, that's me," she said, using her magic to pick up the pencil and point it towards the pony with a horn "and that's you" she said, pointing at the pony with the wings this time "We're cooking muffins!"
With that being said, Derpy couldn't control herself from smiling. She loved the picture "Why don't you go hang it up on the fridge? We can look at when we make muffins tomorrow!" Derpy said, giving her the happiest smile ever, as Dinky ran off to the fridge, while Derpy made a move toward the couch. Though, as soon as she started smiling, she stopped... It was back...
She could feel it again, the tingling, it was back, good thing she got to the couch as it started getting worse. She knew she couldn't get up now, so she had the most quickest of thoughts, she needed a plan.
If I can keep Dinky up a little later than usual, I can wait for this tingling to go away... Then that way she won't see me in pain when I get up to go to bed once it's gone!
As quickly as she thought of her plan, she put it into play "Dinky! You wanna stay up a little late? I know its a schoo-"
"YESSS!!!!!" said Dinky before Derpy could even finish her sentence, and with that, a light purple glow grabbed the box of crayons, colored pencils, and the stack of paper, floating them into the room next door. She could now hear the furious noise of Dinky coloring something, she couldn't really focus because of the haze, but at least she wasn't in pain is what mattered to her.
She was just lying there, relaxing and trying to sleep, while hoping the haze would go away soon, when suddenly... Her hoof felt weird, trying not to scream at the sudden feeling, instead, moving her hoof around to analyze whatever she was touching...
Gooey... Sticky... There are little beads in it... What the heck is this... It seems familiar...
What am I touching?!
Or...
What's touching me...
With that one thought, she lost it, she screamed at the top of her lungs and jumped to the other side of the couch within mere seconds. As expected, in came Dinky, running from the other room pleading to know what happened.
"Sis!!!! Are you okay?!?!" she looked at Derpy, who was obviously scared and was curled into a ball on the couch.
Derpy then looked up, she noticed Dinky but couldn't speak out of fear...
Hey! The pain's gone! Thank god!
Dinky still looked on, for she wanted answers. Derpy then decided she should know what happened just now.
"Something weird touched my hoof, I just didn't know what it was, and... Well... I kinda screamed" she stated sheepishly. Then she got a good look at her hoof.
Muffin mix? All wet and doughy ?
Why is it all sticky too...
"Dinky! What did I tell you about making and baking muffins without me?! If you spill any make sure to find a way to tell me! Immediately! I also told you not to watch television, because you can spill it in the couch! Like this!" she said, huffing with anger.
Dinky simply waited for her sister to stop the tirade. "But sis... That wasn't me, I listened to you about the couch! Because it took so long for me to get the stain out last time! I learned my lesson!" she stated, defending herself. Pretty good, 'cause Derpy believed her. After a little looking around, she noticed that there was no muffin mix under the cushion, just the top... Where her hoof was...
She knew she was right... It came from her hoof, not Dinky’s shenanigans. "Sorry I doubted you Dinky, if you say you didn't, I believe you." she said humbly.
"So where did it come from?" Dinky said.
I can't just tell her it was my hoof! Who knows what she'll think!
"I don't know..." Derpy said, trying to make her voice sound as confused as possible "I'll just go wash up before it stains the couch and my coat."
With that, she picked herself up off the couch and slowly walked toward the bathroom to go wash her hoof off. As she cleaned her hoof, she could see a hole... At the tip of her hoof, she couldnt find anything coming out of it, but she assumed that was the cause of this.
Is this... Where the muffin mix came from?
Derpy had titled her hoof up to her face, slowly, to see that, that was indeed where the strange sticky muffin mixture had been coming from. The sticky matter was slowly spewing from the hole, the weirdest part for her was that it was coming from inside her. She could’t help but to shudder at the thought. Yes, she loved muffins, but not to where she would have mix inside her body.
Even after quite a while of looking the hoof up and down analyzing it, she had still come to no conclusion about what was going on, oddly, it was just a small hole in her hoof that had muffin mix seeping from it. The mix gradually slowed down the flow, and she was able to clean her hoof off. Yet a quick look to her right showed more confusion and despair, when she noticed that her right hoof had been dripping muffin mix onto the floor the whole time that she was looking at her left hoof, she could only wonder at how she didn’t feel her standing on it as it released.
She sighed, her day was getting more and more exhausting by the minute, she felt she deserved sleep. Though sadly, she could’t sleep until she got the muffin mix to stop coming out of her hooves, it was almost like a curse to her.
Once she was finally able to get both her hooves cleaned up, she noticed something more scary, her stomach almost fell at the sight. Due to the mixture being sticky, the sink was clogged with muffin mix. Slowly, Derpy turned around and made her way to the kitchen, passing Dinky on the way, grabbing a knife to go scrape the mix off of the sink’s edges. As Derpy was cleaning she noticed just how tough the stuff really was, yet finally, after a good two hours she had gotten rid of just about all of it. Calmly, she looked her work up and down, content and proud of the job she had gotten done, she had trotted to the kitchen to go put up the knife.
The night was long for her, yet had finally come to the end she had needed since the start. Getting ready to crawl into bed, she grabbed the sheets and picked them up, while picking her hoof up to throw them towards the middle. But on the attempt to release the blanket. It didn’t fall from her hoof, it simply sat there, at the flat surface of her hoof. Right on top of the hole where the muffin mix was coming from earlier. Confused, she used her other hoof to poke at the blanket, hoping that it would disconnect.
It just sat there. The blanket was simply just saying no to all of her request to leave her hoof alone.
That’s weird… It’s never done that before…
Then again, today is the weirdest day I’ve ever had…
As she poked the blanket, it simply refused to move, slowly her poking turned into her simply shaking the hoof with the blanket, in hopes of it detaching from her. In the end, a few minutes had passed, and she hat gotten it to move.
Carefully she laid down, closing her eyes, thinking of muffins, and going into a peaceful slumber.
The next morning.
She awoke to the smell of muffin mix, which was normal for her. She just hoped that meant that today would be normal. Then she started thinking.
What if my hooves were making muffin mix in my sleep?
What if that’s what I’m smelling?
She sat there, frozen, with fear that another case of this muffin mix might have happened to her again. Quickly, she took the blanket and threw it off her bed, squirming to get out from underneath it. A look of relieve was on her face when she had seen that there had been nothing there.
Maybe today is normal
Laying there, she slowly stretched out, putting her front hooves above her head. She enjoyed the relief of being able to stretch her muscles out after not being able to use them at all yesterday, she heard her back crack comfortably, and what sounded like something getting hit, she blew it off. After finishing with stretching, she pulled her hooves back to her sides to sit up. Only. Something stopped her left hoof from going back to her side.
Confused, she looked up to see a strand of muffin mix connecting her hoof to the headboard, now she knew what that weird sound was. Her face only showed confusion, as she sat up and pulled her hoof away, though it gave resistance, it ended up breaking.
First, it was just leaking out of me, now it’s shooting?
What next?!
She had to figure this out, why it shot out of her.
Maybe I can control it?
She extended her left hoof in front of her, nothing happened. It took multiple attempts to figure out how to replicate the effects, she ended up tilting the last joint of her hoof down just a little, exactly like how she was stretching her hoof earlier in bed, then suddenly a line of the mix leaped out of her hoof and onto the wall. An expression of glee passed her face as she figured out that she now had control of whatever was going on with her. She liked it.
She was about to take another shot, when instead she shot a look at the clock to see she only had about five minutes to get to work.
Oh no!! I got to get going! Now!
She fixed her mane as quick as possible, and flew out the window as quick as possible. Though, of course with her late exit from the house, she was only a few minutes late to her job though. Not like anypony really cared, they all loved Derpy and understood that sometimes it was hard to fly with her eye issue, so they blew it off. Besides, she wasn’t always late, it was more of a once a week thing.
Though, as she got to work, she realized just how much there was, she had almost fifty or sixty new missile designs on her desk that she had to review, quite a intimidating sight for her really. Derpy looked on at the mountain of paper, and slowly started working, as she started she realized the one big mistake she made as a sharp hunger pain stabbed at her. She hadn’t eaten dinner last night because of the pain, taken breakfast this morning because of the lack of time, along with taking her daily lunch muffin. She thought of some solutions for her hunger. All of which were pretty hopeless, until she thought up a genius idea.
Wait… I can make muffin mix!
They also have a microwave oven! Maybe I can use my powers to make a muffin!
She was hoping that this would work, because if it did, she wouldn’t have to waste her bits anymore buying muffin mix. Slowly, she left her desk and went to the break room, to see that someone had already preheated the oven
That’s nice… Less work for me!
She got to thinking, she was hungry, not for a small muffin, she wanted a big muffin, not big. Giant. She looked around, and found the one thing she wanted. A coffee filter. She messed around with her hooves, and soon enough muffin mix trailed out from her hoof, slowly filling the coffee filter to the brim. The stickiness of the mix also kept the filter sticking to the mix, so it stayed in the muffin shape she was trying to achieve.
She stuck it in the microwave oven, but after what felt like forever, she finally heard the timer signaling that it was done go off. As she pulled it out, she realized how hungry she was, as she dug her face into it and devoured it. Amazingly, she didn’t eat any of the coffee filter while eating so carelessly. Yet, as soon as she finished her muffin she ended up having to go back to work at her desk.
It was a long day, and she had completed looking over all the submitted designs, occasionally eating some raw muffin mix as a snack, she found it to be quite tasty. After she had learned how to control it, she realized that it wasn’t half as bad as it used to be, except for the part where her hoofs started sticking to things for no reason, she found that she could get used to that though, especially if that meant that she could have all this muffin mix!
Before she knew it, the day was already over, it was probably muffin mix that got her through the day so easily… Either way, she was glad it was over, and it showed after the boss gave her the ok to go home, when she flew out the minute the words came from his mouth.
As she flew home she was messing with her new found ability of shooting muffin mix, she would giggle as she shot some onto windows, and after some experimenting, she learned she could ball up the mix as she shot it, and when she threw it, it made a big splat.
Though she found it really fun, it felt like the more she shot the muffin mix, the more it drained her of her energy. Now that she had mastered her ability to shoot the mix, she wanted to figure out what was going on with her sticky hooves, and how she could control it so it doesn’t get in her way like the way it did this morning, especially since it made her late for work, and she can’t have to go through that everyday…
As Derpy walked inside, she noticed that Dinky wasn’t home, which was good because she didn’t need Dinky asking her questions. She slowly walked to the table an sat down at it, with a piece of paper in front of her, all she was doing was placing her hoof flat on the paper hoping for it to pick up, nothing she tried was working, until one point when she focused, she picked it up. Then it slowly flew down to the table like a feather.
Derpy was undeterred, she was going to hold it for as long as she possible, she was going to master this, just like being able to shoot the muffin mix on demand. She wanted the same results. After hours of practice, she finally got it down, all she had to do was think about making her hoof sticky, and it happened. She was tired, especially after all that work, then she looked around.
Maybe, I can walk upstairs and go take a nap. Without the stairs. Derpy contemplated on whether it was smart to go with the idea, for if she messed up, she could hurt herself on the way down. She ended up thinking about just going with it. Which is exactly what she did.
As she walked up to the wall, it was already intimidating. She slowly hauled her front hooves in the air and placed them on the wall, then her right hind hoof. Now she was standing up on only one hoof. She, closed her eyes, took in one last breath and pushed up while laying attempting to firmly place her leg on the wall.
She was falling. It felt like she was going to hit the ground at any minute. She opened her eyes about to shout, she wasn’t falling…
It feels… weird… not moving my wings to fly, but still relay weird, I’ll probably have to get used to it…
After a few long minutes she slowly walked up the wall, completely cutting around the stairs, to go take a nap for the evening. After all, she had to go make a whole bunch of deliveries later for her side job as a mail mare.
----AUTHORS NOTE----
So please! Go like it if you like the story! :D
Derpy was walking through the streets, loving the peace of the city, and admiring every moment of the silence that shown through the town. As she walked through the streets, she could notice the familiar feeling of hunger growing in her stomach, she could’ve sworn she had eaten a nice big breakfast this morning though, but for some odd reason, she couldn't recall what she had eaten, or even waking up to eat breakfast. Either way, Derpy could’t help that she was hungry, but she didn’t want to fly all the way home, maybe she could go to Sugarcube Corner? Yeah, that sounded nice to her.
The feeling of hunger grew, it was almost getting close to painful. Not wasting any time, she went from walking, to running, to flying. Slowly, she made her way to the bakery, she loved their confections, though she knew she could do better, she wanted to taste something different. Finally, arriving at the store, she was walking toward the counter to see that nopony was standing there, she waited a minute, still nopony showed up. She inched her hoof slowly over to the bell to attempt to ring it, already knowing what was probably going to happen. She knew Pinkie Pie, and right as expected, right as soon as her hoof was hovered mere inches above it, the energetic pony burst out from behind the counter
“HEY! HOW’S IT GOING?!” yelled Pinkie Pie, right in Derpy’s face, then trailing off into random topics, as usual. Though anypony who would take this as rude, probably didn’t know Pinkie Pie. Uncaring to the fact of how loud Pinkie Pie was talking, Derpy was going to make her order, she was starving already, and needed some food. Quick. Derpy was trying to say her order without interrupting her.
“I woul-” was all Derpy could get out before getting interrupted again, she knew it was a lost cause to try to talk while she was talking, especially when she was this hyper. Instead she simply waited for Pinkie to finish talking, though it took a while, she was bound to finish at one point.
No, Derpy was wrong. All to wrong. She never finished, it had been forty-five minutes of her rambling on to herself. Derpy couldn't believe how long she could go without an answer from a second party! She was talking about pretzel muffins or something. Wait, that sounded nice! It had the sweetness of a muffin, and the saltiness of a pretzel! She attempted to order one, which was, of course, all in lost faith, because as soon as she got the order out a stallion dressed in all black, wearing a mask to cover his face. He had ran through the entrance doors, forcing them open as he moved through them with his extreme speed, while running up to the the pink pony behind the counter.
Just then, Derpy noticed that the stallion was carrying a cheap makeshift weapon with his wings, what looked to be a big metal pipe, he must’ve found it in an alley. He had bags in his hands. Anypony in the store knew he wanted money, and he looked like he had meant business. One slip up, and someone was bound to get hit, that was probably only if he was being nice, otherwise anypony may even get killed.
The stallion slowly walked up to Pinkie Pie, looking around to make sure nopony else was near him, he didn’t want to make a mistake himself. Soon, after seeing that nopony else was in the same section of the store except Derpy, which when he saw her he didn’t really think very much of her, mainly because of looking at her eyes, she looked harmless to him. The stallion had made his way behind the counter and right next to Pinkie Pie, which he could see the fear growing in her eyes.
“OPEN THE REGISTER!” he shouted, letting Pinkie Pie know that he meant business. To which she immediately responded by lifting her quivering hoof up to the button on the machine that opened the container, and pressing it just enough to make the register jump slightly as the cash compartment pushed its way open slightly. The stallion was expecting her to know what to do, yet she sat there in fear, unknowing what she was “supposed” to do.
“PUT IT IN THE BAG...” he said, while motioning his bag toward her. Waving the hollow metal pipe that was held in his wing, causing Pinkie Pie to flinch back out of fear that he would strike at any minute, as she placed the all the bits that she could hold in the bag, not to mention as fast as she could. Once she had emptied the register, and he could see that she finished, he walked towards the door, while facing them.
“NOPONY TRY TO BE A HERO AND NOPONY GETS HURT” he said, while making his way towards the door, then Derpy had caught his eyes. He saw her as an easy target, more like a bonus for this robbery, he could easily get fifty bits out of her,. He stopped walking towards the door and started making his way towards Derpy, who was scared for her life. She started breathing faster.
“TAKE THE BITS FROM YOUR BAG. NOW.” he said, while motioning his hoof toward Derpy’s bag with the muffin clip. Derpy knew it wasn’t a good idea to try to refuse, nonetheless retaliate, she thought it was best to just give him what he wanted and report him to the police later, and just pray that the police would find him and she could get the money back later.
“NOW!” he shouted, getting impatient. Reacting fast, Derpy opened the bag on her left side, using her wing to lift up the flap, and reached in with her left hoof. Picking up as many bits as possible, she moved her hoof toward him and extended it, almost as if she was offering it to him. Closing her eyes when he extended his hoof and had roughly snatched the money from her hoof.
Suddenly, a loud thud emanated through the room as the stallion had hit the wall. Confused, Derpy opened her eyes and looked up to find that when the stallion had snatched the money from her hand, he bent it in just the right way, causing her to shoot the sticky muffin mix from her hoof. The stallion was stuck to the wall, the floor was covered in bits from when he flew.
“HEY! LET ME GO!” he shouted, realizing that he was unable to move and was stuck to the wall. Derpy looked to the ground, only to see that he had dropped his metal pipe as well when he flew. Right now, Derpy knew she could either get revenge by hurting him, or let the law take care of him. Either way, she knew that he would learn his lesson. But she had to be responsible.
“I’m just going to let the law take care of you.” Derpy said as she walked towards Pinkie Pie, who was obviously shaking with fear, having to deal with this situation “So… Can I get that muffin pretzel you were talking about earlier?” she said calmly, as if trying to help Pinkie Pie know that it was all over.
“Uh… Umm… Yeah… Sure… Here! You deserve it!” she said, as she reached into the register and pulled out the muffin pretzel. Derpy didn’t understand how she did that, nor did she want to know.
She wasn’t really hungry anymore, because of the whole situation happening so fast, she lost her hunger. It was nice to have something to chew on anyway. She took of on her wings, flying home and most definitely taking her time. Happy of what she had just done. Saving someones life was a pretty big achievement now that she had thought of it, it put a toll on her she wanted to go home and relax.
The rest of the day was a blur, she didn’t even remember going to work. Then suddenly, she found herself in her bed. Her wings were sore.
What?
That was all a dream?
It seemed so real!
Then she was hit with a sudden realization, she could make it real.She could save peoples lives. She could make a difference in the world. She could do it.
Slowly turning to get out of bed, she saw the clock, taking a glance, she could see it was time to go to her side job as a mail mare. Slowly, she got out of bed and had completed the usual routine of getting ready for work. As she got her mail bag, she walked to the fridge to go get her muffin, when she realized there really wasn’t a need for one, she could make them now!
It was going to have to take some getting used to, not getting a muffin every morning. Yet, it was also going to have to take some getting used to eating muffins from her hoof every day for lunch, she never really thought she would say that. As weird as the thought was that she would have to eat muffins from her hoof everyday, she forgot about it and tried to make her way out the door of the house. She was just about to fly when a sharp pain had made her wings pin to her body, she just remembered that her wings were sore from this morning. She needed a way to fly around to deliver the mail, she can’t just walk from house to house, that would tire her out more than she could possibly imagine.
It didn’t take long till she realized she had the ability to shoot muffin mix from her hooves, she even thought that she could swing from it, the only hard part being that she couldn't be scared. She was thinking of how she would go through with this plan, when suddenly, she hears her time in her bag make a beeping noise, she knew this meant only one thing. Derpy was going to be late for her first stop in ten minutes if she didn’t move. Derpy knew she had to try to get off her feet without her wings.
She knew from experience that she could stick to stuff. But swinging from muffin mix seemed like a dare to try. If she goes to fast or falls, it could be a fatal mistake, but she had to move now. Quickly, Derpy turned her head to find a building in the corner of her eye. She raised her left hoof slowly, and bent it into position, causing the mix to shoot straight to the corner of the building, pulling it taut, she climbed up and began to use the momentum to swing herself across the streets and through the city, then as she reached the climax of the swing, she pulled out her right hoof and quickly shot the next strand of the mix while letting go of the other strand, as to continue the swinging motion.
She arrived at the next house, knocked on the door gently, while holding the mail in her mouth. As expected, the door slowly creaked open to show the recipient of the letter.
“Oh, hey Derpy! Is that my mail?” said the pony in the house.
“Yucsh, Itsh ishh! Cheeree! Shoo go!” said Derpy. Then noticing that the mare didn’t understand her, she took the envelope out of her mouth “Yes, it is! Here you go!” she said, with a giggle.
“Thanks Derpy, your kind of early don’t you think?” she said laughing, trying to show that she was tired, and probably didn’t appreciate her showing up that early, but she didn’t show it.
With that said, Derpy looked at her watch, nine minutes left till she was late till her first stop. She was amazed when she had seen how fast she had made it to the stop that quickly.
Maybe I’ll take this way rather than flying…
Weird, for once, she was actually early for her job and it also felt really good to know that she could get to go home early because she was going to finish her route early. So there Derpy was, swinging through the city, leaving muffin mix as she would be swinging around with this newfound ability. Astonishingly, she had completed her route three hours earlier than she had expected, plus she put in half the effort that she usually did. This made delivering the heaviest of packages the easiest task for her.
She was just so sad that she couldn't have had this amazing ability earlier! Though, as fun as it may have been for her to be able to swing through the town on muffin mix, Derpy could see that she started getting the strangest stares from people, and not the good kind of people either. She could see that if she started getting too much attention people would start targeting her, and then the attention would probably start turning negative. She needed to be like those super heroes in the comic book or the ones on television, she needed a name and some sort of disguise, that way people wouldn’t know who she was.
Then, she realized. If they can come after her, they can just as easily come after Dinky. She would kill herself if she let that happen to her, she never wanted to lose Dinky, but was she a risk to allow her to get to work on time and leave early? Though that was an easy choice to make because she knew Dinky was her first priority. She still had to make money somehow, and she wasn’t going to be able to do it by eating the muffin mix instead of using it and taking advantage of it.
Either way, Derpy knew what had to be done. She knew she was going to have to keep Dinky safe, along with her identity. Though, she didn’t know how hard that would be until she came out of her deep thoughts, about keeping her family safe, to see that she was swing right along through Cloudsdale, swinging past ponies. As she saw that the ponies that saw her were busy giving her weird looks, Derpy realized this isn’t at all going to be as easy as she was hoping it was going to be, instead it was only going to be a lot harder than she hoped for.
Yet, as more and more thoughts entered her brain about Dinky and herself, they left just as quickly, leaving her with nothing on her mind...Well, nothing more than usual, that is, which was her attempt at leaving no stress in her mind, and being peaceful at heart. She was as quick as her thoughts came and went, swinging through Cloudsdale, leaving residue of her path on the civilians houses, and before she could tell, she was at home.
Weird, Dinky’s bike was locked up and parked beside the house… School wasn’t even over yet. Derpy couldn't help but wonder why she was home so early. She couldn't think of any possible reason, no matter how bad, that the school would send somepony home. Curiously, she let go of the mix attached to her hoof, causing it to fall to the ground, and flew the rest of the way towards the house, stopping when she was within walking distance. Slowly, she trotted towards the house, opening the door as she came closer, with a creaking sound to accompany the action.
“Dinky? You there? You okay? Why are you home so early? Did something happen?” She questioned, hoping for the best answer, but asking them so fast that nopony could answer them anyway. Yet, all her went down the drain when she had heard Dinky from the other room talk.
“I’m home early because we had an early day, but I’m fine sis…” said Dinky, from the other room down the hall. Derpy thought she didn’t sound right, and when she made her way down the hall and right into the room to see her on the floor, sitting there, crying her eyes out. All of Derpy’s worries had came back to find that disturbing sight of her crying he eyes out, the sight of it was unbearable for Derpy, she couldn't stand seeing her sister cry like this, and she knew for sure that it was the work of one of those mean kids at school that won’t stop insulting everypony, let alone her. “Why are you home so early?” she asked, walking up to Derpy and giving her a hug, as if she was almost begging for comfort.
Derpy was simply stunned by the question, why was she home so early? She didn’t think of an excuse for how she finished her work so quickly “I just didn’t have much work today, is all… They said they may cut down on the work they give me!” she said trying to cheer up Dinky, which obviously didn’t work because she still had the same big frown as earlier “What’s wrong Dinky? Why are you crying?” she pleaded.
“Just the same kids making fun of you! I always tell the teacher! She says she can’t do anything though! She says that she needs to “hear them”! BUT SHE NEVER DOES! EVERY TIME! SHE IS NEVER AROUND WHEN THEY SAY SOMETHING!” she said, calmly at first, then started huffing, and getting louder and louder as her anger grew just by remembering the situation.
“There there, it’s okay, they’ll never make you said ever again, I promise.” Derpy said, with confidence trying to get Dinky to calm down, instead Dinky didn’t calm in the slightest, in fact, she only got worse.
“BUT SIS! THEY KEEP DOING IT!” she said, trying to show to Derpy that she couldn't do anything.
“Just. Trust me. They’ll stop. They’ll never do it again.” she said, sternly, to show Dinky she meant business. No one was going to hurt her little muffin, especially when she could control it. She knew she was going to have to take matters into her own hands. Though, first, she was going to need a bit of preparing.
I need a name
I can’t just go around without a name!
I’m a scientist pony and a mail mare.
What kind of superhero pony is that?
Well… I do deliver mail… and soon… I’ll deliver justice…
The Justice Mare?
No… That’s just dumb… What about my abilities? How about that?
I can shoot muffin mix!
THE MIX MARE!
~~~~~No… what am I thinking...
Something to do with muffins…
THE BLUEBERRY MARE?!?!
No… This was so hard! How do the superheroes do it so easily?!
The Muffin Mare?
That sounds good.
Real. Good.
Now. A disguise. She needed to hide her name.
Out of the corner of her eye she spotted something, it was her blanket from when she was a kid, her parents bought it for her, and she had kept it ever since. It had muffins on it. She got nostalgia just by looking at the simple blue blanket with the small blueberry muffins on it.
Maybe I can make that into a suit!
That. Sounds. Amazing.
She sighed. This was going to be difficult. Almost thirty minutes of staring, with much effort, she finally got the courage to take the small incisions at her childhood trophy, this was the last of the things she had from her parents, and now she was cutting it up. A tear drew down her face as she thought about what she was doing, but it was for her sister, it was for something she could never replace. That exact moment, she knew, deep down in her heart, that all this was going to definitely be worth it.
Slowly, the cutouts started to look like pony shaped body parts. After sewing them together, this little project would most likely end up coming together just the way she had hoped and planned. After a lot of work, it was done, the light blue suit with muffins all around, as she slipped it on, she looked in the mirror, it was a perfect fit, and looked just the way she wanted it to.
Things couldn't have gone better, except for the part when she cut the blanket. That could've have been way better. As she finished, she put up all the tools she used, and put on her bag, shoving the costume in it “Dinky! I’m going out! I’ll be back in a bit!” she said, an almost unheard mumble of approval came from Dinky’s room saying ok. As soon as she heard the ok, she was off.
Soon enough, she was flying around through ponyville, she was about to take matters into her own hands, but first, she needed to get into costume so nopony would target her in specific. Derpy walked into a nearby alley to go put on the costume, finding a whole bunch of trash and junk. Along with a, rather clean looking, blue box that had the label of ‘Police Call Box”.
That seems like a nice place to put this on
She started walking her way toward the box, attempting to push it open to get inside, it wouldn’t budge, and upon closer observation, there was a little lock above the handle. Though, of course, it was locked.
What good is a police box if it’s locked?!
Whatever, I’ll just put it on over here…
She slowly walked behind the box, pulling her blue costume out of the bag. With a final glance, making sure that nopony was around to see her, she slipped the costume on, piece by piece. Right as she was finishing up, she could hear people. Screaming, shouting to eachother to run.
As soon as she heard the voices, she heard some loud thuds.
Must’ve ran into this police box… Ouch…
As soon as she the voices and thuds stop, she walked around to the front of the box to find that nopony was there. One of the same voices as earlier came from the box “Oh, look! It’s her! Don’t worry! You’ll meet him soon Derpy! Though I warn you, he has an attitude!” Though, as soon as the voice ended, almost immediately, a force pushed her onto her flank, and the police box started to disappear. Then finally, it was over. Surely, she was more confused than she has ever been, even more than the situation with the muffins, and muffin mix.
Yet, with all that in mind, she had business to get down to, and she was going to make sure she would never have to do this again.
With that, she pointed her hoof towards the building in front of her, and swung till she found the school, they they were. The kids that torment Dinky day in and day out, today was the day that it was all going to be over. She flew over to them, and they looked at her, almost about to laugh because of her suit, but they didn’t know. They should be scared of her. Not because she was going to hurt them, but because they did the wrong thing.
She pushed both of them against the wall “You better stop bullying kids at this school.” She simply stated “Today. This is your one warning. That’s it.” She finished her sentence off with fury and anger in her words, pushing them harder against the wall the closer she got to finishing, moving the smiles from their faces and replacing them with looks of horror. They only nodded with approval. They couldn't do anything else. They were done.
Derpy knew that they had learned their lesson and wouldn't bully anypony at the school for a while, which meant her mission for Dinky was accomplished, and with that in mind she slowly released her grip from them and let them slide to the ground, and turned to walk away. Everything went as planned, and she knew that after this, Dinky would never come home crying again, and if she did, she would make sure that the pony responsible would pay for it. As she walked farther away she could see that the stallions were attempting to continue the game they were playing before she interrupted. Though, they were too scared to even concentrate on the game rather than Derpy flying back to get them again.
Suddenly, Derpy could hear a faint shouting in the far streets of the city. It didn’t sound like somepony was screaming in pain or shock, it was more like somepony was screaming at somepony else. Derpy knew she could go try to help, but she didn’t know whether or not she would be safe. She knew that if anything bad happened Dinky would be alone, and it was already bad enough that her parents were gone. Though, after some hesitation, she ended up deciding to go, and flew towards the source of the distress.
When she had made it as close as she could to the situation, she realized that it was a police pony chasing a stallion, who apparently must’ve stolen something because the stallion was holding a bag, full of what looked like bits. The stallion was running faster than Derpy could fly, and was outrunning the police pony at the back who was chasing him. Derpy knew she had to do something, but she couldn't do anything at the speed she was going, she was too far away! With that in mind, she extended her hoof out towards the nearest building in mid flight, and let her body flow with the momentum.
Gently swinging through Ponyville on a strand of sticky muffin mix was fun, but she wasn’t doing this for fun, she needed to be serious. Her hooves were moving back and forth, in swinging patterns, very quickly. Catching up to the thief, Derpy could see that she didn’t recognize the stallion, he probably wasn’t from the town. As a mail mare, she had never seen him before, nonetheless even delivered a single piece of mail to him. Yet, as expected the more closer she got, the more the stallion noticed her and was throwing confused looks with how fast she was flying, not to mention without even using her wings.
Finally, when Derpy had gotten right next to the stallions side, she kicked him and knocked him over. As soon as the stallion flew through the air, about to hit the ground, he winced as if preparing for the shock of the landing that never came. While he was falling, Derpy had thrown some muffin mix to cushion his fall, which apparently worked very well, seeing as how he didn’t even grunt as he hit the mound of mix. It was even better to see that he couldn't even get up after falling due to the stickiness of the substance beneath him.
Derpy could see that her job was done here, and she did it pretty well. As she flew away from the scenario she could hear the assailant cursing at her with obvious hate in his voice, while the police had been praising the mysterious mare that had made their job much easier. The praise was easy to take in, and made her feel great. With a chest full of pride, she started to make her way home. Normally a trip that took a while when she flew, but not anymore. She could swing.
Derpy gently opened the door, getting the usual loud creak along with the loving greeting from Dinky. She had seemed to cool down after the situation when the bullies had gotten to her earlier, Derpy had made her way to her room, it was a long day, she wanted to sleep but couldn't.
“Did they listen?” said Dinky, hoping for a yes.
“Huh? What do you mean? Who’s they?” said Derpy, confused with the abrupt and non-descriptive question.
“Did the mean ponies at school listen to leave me alone? ” said Dinky, clarifying her question a little bit more hoping she could the answer she wanted.
“Oh! Them. Yeah! They won’t be mean to you ever again, or anypony else at the school anymore. If they are though, you tell me, and I’ll make sure they won’t do it ever again. Trust me on this.” Derpy said with a smile of confidence on her face, making Dinky believe her a little bit more.
Derpy turned her head to the clock on the wall. It was pretty late and Dinky also had school tomorrow “Ok my little muffin, time for bed!” She said while nuzzling Dinky softly, and of course Dinky was content with the situation and didn’t even refuse going to bed.
-------------------- In Ponyville State Penitentiary --------------------
“I swear Coin! There’s this gray mare, she was swinging from this sticky stuff man!” said the stallion who had been caught by Derpy earlier “She was faster than that one rainbow pony that did that sonic rainboom! I swear! I could’ve gotten away from the police if she wasn’t there! She kicked me onto the ground and somehow she made me stick there! I could’t even get up! The police had to cut me out! I still smell like blueberries!” he finished off his last statement with another sniff of his hoof. His prison buddies still didn’t believe him, he got stopped right in front of their hideout, causing them all to get caught.
“Still! You just had to run to the house! We told you that if something like this happens to go to the dump spot in the forest and dump the bits there and we would get it later!” said the rough voice from across the room, talking to his criminal partner with an angry tone.
“But Coin! She was completely unexpected! She came out of nowhere! I didn’t even see her coming!” he said, pleading to the others, hoping they would believe him. They heard him out, and listened to the excuse, after the others sniffed his hoof a few times they came to the conclusion that the story couldn't be fake.
“Well, Bit, either way. That mare made us lose almost a thousand bits. She’s going to pay for our loss.” said Coin as if making a point that whatever he had planned was going to happen “and you,” he pointed a hoof at the stallion responsible for putting them in there “are going to be the bait for the operation.”
“W-What do you mean? B-Bait?” said the stallion that was caught, scared that whatever he meant, wasn’t good.
“Exactly what I said. You’re going to be bait. You’re going to be the person who figures out who this mare is, that way we can get back what’s ours.” said Coin, with revenge in his voice.
Bit was confused “How am I going to be bait?” he said, with the confusion plain in his voice.
“When we get out of here, you’re going to get caught again, and make sure she’s nearby.” he said, with a sly grin.
“B-But!” Bit pleaded, not wanting to go through with this ‘operation’ that Coin had come up with.
“No excuses, you’re lucky we aren’t beating you up right now for putting us all in here! It’s the least you could do. Besides, after the operation, if the cops catch you, we’ll bail you out. We need as many people for this operation as we can.” said Coin as he walked toward the jail cell’s entrance, running his hoof up and down along the bars out of boredom.
“This is going to be a long week in here, but when we get out. It’ll all be worth it men.” said Coin, walking around the cell pointlessly, until he looked out the barred window to see the moon lowering on to the horizon, just barely touching it.
As the sun, rose rays of it shown through Derpy’s window and reflected onto her bed, and slowly as time passed, the ray’s made their way to her face. Causing her to wake up. It was a long night, she had so many nightmares and, sadly, not enough good dreams. Things may have not been going her way lately, but at least they were for Dinky. For the past week, Dinky has been coming home happy with a smile, she said those mean ponies don’t even talk to her, let alone make eye contact with her.
All she asked was to be left alone at school, and no one at the school would take any action against the kids. Derpy was glad that she was able to be the one to take care of Dinky’s problems. Dinky was also pretty happy that she was so lucky to have someone that cared for her that much.
The whole week was full though, she had been helping out a whole bunch of ponies who were getting mugged by criminals. She helped out so many people, though she was only known as ‘That Gray Mare’ she really wanted people to call her ‘The Muffin Mare’ but she couldn't just ask people. She knew she would just have to wait for someone to ask, and with that, she walked out the door and was on her way to work.
Work was long, but at last was finally over. She flew through the town in her ‘Muffin Mare’ costume, looking for somepony who was in need of help from some sort of criminal activity.
Bit and Coin were walking down the street, ignoring most of the stuff that was happening in the streets. Then suddenly, Bit pushed Coin to the side and ran in front of him, and started screaming “COIN!!! THAT’S HER!”
Coin had a look of surprise on his face by the sudden push, but was happy about being able to get such an easy opportunity “Well! Quit wasting time! Get over in that alley and start ‘mugging me’!!” he said while running to the alley next to where the mare was flying. Whenever they both made it into the alley Coin started screaming to try to get the mare’s attention. Though it took lots of screaming, Derpy finally turned to them and started to fly to try and help him.
“What’s going on here?!” Derpy said as she flew into the alley closer to the situation.
“He’s mugging me!” said Coin, while Bit was in front of him holding a pipe, trying to threaten Derpy with it as she came closer. Almost immediately she shot Bit with a strand of muffin mix, throwing him back towards the wall. He shouted with anger and attempted to try to get free of the mixture, but to no avail, he found himself stuck.
“Thanks! Mrs… Umm…” said Coin, trying to pry for information about the mystery mare with that ‘saved his life’.
She was ecstatic, she was finally waiting for someone to ask her what she called herself, and she was finally able to say it “You can call me… The Muffin Mare!” she said, quite heroically.
As soon as Coin figured out her name and she gave him his wallet, she was off. Finally when she was out of sight, he walked over to Bit and tore apart the muffin mix from the wall “She got you stuck pretty good…” said Coin, chuckling while he said the remark.
“Shut up, just get me down from here man…” said Bit, being helplessly stuck to the wall that now smelled like muffins.
As they both walked out of the alley, they knew the next step towards their revenge, though Bit really didn’t care about the money or the revenge, it was Coin who was dedicated.
“She’s going to pay soon Bit. Soon.” said Coin.
It had been almost a week since the staged incident between the two criminals and Derpy and Coin had been planning out every single step to their revenge, while Bit was just the accomplice towards it. At one point though, Coin realized that it wasn’t safe because of the powers the so called “Muffin Mare” harnessed. Yet, he still wanted revenge, and decided he was going to have it, he had already finished the plan, now all he needed was a name to fight against her with.
“A name Bit! I need a name!” he said to Bit rather harshly, as if expecting Bit to already have a name ready for Coin to use.
“I don’t know Coin! I’m thinking but nothing comes out!” he said while pointing a hoof towards his head “I mean, I can’t think of a name that has to do with hurting a muffin! Besides! I love muffins! I don’t want to hurt them anyway! Let alone murder one!” he stated almost if saying he was in love with a muffin.
“Oh! That’s a great one! The Muffin Murderer!” he said while waving his hoof around in the air from side to side to add emphasis to his words.
“No, that’s way too gory for me Coin, we’re not murdering a confection.” Bit stated.
“Ok, so Confection… Killer? Yeah! The Confection Killer!” he said with a smile of glee on his face.
Bit sighed “Fine, whatever. It’s not like we’re going to be famous or anything and our name will matter.” he said, finally giving in to the whims of Coin.
“Ok, so what do you say we go find her and follow her around? Spy on her.” Coin asked.
Bit didn’t even dignify the question with an answer, instead he just made a grunt of approval while he got up and put his bags on and made his way for the door “But… How are we going to even going to start with finding her Coin? We don’t even know anything about her, except for the fact that her eyes are cross. There could be millions of cross eyed ponies here!” he asked while making his way through the streets.
“Well, we could start with asking somepony first! I doubt it’ll be hard to find a cross eyed pony in the midst of the smallest town in Equestria, Ponyville. It’ll be easy man, trust me.” Coin said trying to convince Bit that everything would be easier than they expected “Watch this.” he said while walking up to a random pony “Hey! Excuse me. This may sound mean but, do you know a pony with kind of… Umm… Messed up eyes?” he said while pointing a hoof towards his eyes and moving it in small circles.
The other pony started to think “Oh! I think you mean Derpy! Why are you wondering?” she asked confused why someone would be looking for the most innocent mare she knew.
“Oh, I… Uh… Met her the other day, she was really nice… and… I forgot to ask her for her name… and… Stuff… Do you know where I can find her at this time?” Coin asked trying to pry more information from the young mare in front of him.
“Yeah, she works as a mail mare for Equestria Postal Service. It’s actually right down the road over there.” she said while pointing a hoof towards a street behind them and towards the end yielded a bigger building with ponies moving in and out from it.
“Ah, thanks lady. You were some mighty help! I don’t think I would’ve ever found her again if not for you!” Coin said while giving her a big smile and patting her shoulder with his hoof before departing with her and nudging Bit to follow him on his way down the street.
“So Coin… What are we going to do when we find her?” he asked confused with why they were going to the mail office so early.
“We’re going to wait here… ‘till she gets out of work. That way we can follow her to her house. Then get revenge the way we planned.” he said confidently as though his plan was going to work without fault.
-------------------- Eight Hours Later --------------------
Derpy had just finished her shift and was getting ready to walk out of the building, while Bit and Coin were waiting for her outside near the street on a bench, next to some green pony who apparently never learned how to sit properly.
“Coin. I’m. BORED. I’M ALSO TIRED.” Bit said trying to convince his friend to go home and forget about revenge for now.
“BIT. FOR THE LAST TIME. WE’RE NOT LEAVING. She should be out here any minute now anyways.” he said hopefully, although he was getting rather impatient on waiting as well. Then, as if right on cue, Derpy had flung the front doors open and made her way out of the building, not to mention started walking along the road.
“Ok Bit, let’s go. This is what we’ve been waiting all day for.” Coin said while getting off the bench and walking in the direction of Derpy. Then, much to their surprise, Derpy slowly gets off the ground and into the air. She was flying.
‘GREAT. Now how do we get to her Coin?” Bit said hopelessly, and Coin could tell that Bit just wanted to go home.
“We do what we can Bit. Come on” Coin said.
As they followed her they found that she swooped down and made her way into an alley, stopping there for several minutes. Bit and Coin were glad she stopped, giving them time to catch up to her, but Bit was glad just to get some down time from this whole chase. Yet, as soon as they recovered she had flown straight up from the alley and was now going twice as fast. Getting around with a less natural method.
“OH COME ON! THAT’S NOT FAIR!” Bit said while trying to keep up with Derpy as she made her way through the city faster than ever.
“Don’t worry Bit, if we lose her we can always follow the trail of muffin mix she leave’s as she goes.” Coin said finally putting some thought into his plan.
“Hey! Finally say something smart Coin! Maybe your actually useful!” Bit said while snickering through the heavy breaths from running, and giving Coin a small grin.
Coin simply made a sharp move to the left, his side running right into Bit’s. Eliciting a small grunt from Bit “Sorry… Sorry… Just kidding Coin…” Bit apologized “FINALLY SHE STOPPED. Here?” he said confused with why they were at a small house “I expected something… Bigger…” he said while watching Derpy walk up to the door and unlocking it.
Coin ignored Bit’s previous statement of judgment “Oh well, we’re here, and that’s what matters. We’re going to take care of business Bit.” he said while making his way up to the house after Derpy had walked in.
“You sure this is a good idea Coin?” Bit said while he was standing in front of the door, awaiting further instruction for coin.
“Positive.” Coin said as he positioned himself in front of the door and turned around. As quickly as he could manage he pushed himself up onto his front hooves and bucked the door, causing it to fall in and straight to the ground.
“Sis! I think someone knocked on the door!” came an innocent voice from within the halls of the house.
“SHE HAS SISTER COIN! WE CAN’T DO THIS!” Bit said quietly, yet shouting at the same time, as his emotions started to take hold of him.
“Doesn’t matter, we’re to far in to stop this now.” Coin stated, trying to talk as little as possible.
“I heard it. I’m checking it right now Din-” Derpy spoke, but froze as she saw the robber staring her straight in the eye. Almost instinctively, Bit ran forwards in an attempt to headset Derpy, which failed miserably when she had punched him and pushed her hoof straight into his body, shooting out muffin mix. Sticking him straight to the wall.
It was difficult for Bit to talk, let alone breath. He used all the strength and energy he could muster up “Help!” he said feebly.
Coin could see that Derpy was focused on Bit at the moment, he knew they were done for, so he ran up to her and pulled his hoof back as far as he possibly could. A loud thud had resonated throughout the room as all went quiet and within a blink of an eye Derpy was on the other side of the room barely on the brink of consciousness.
“Derpy! What’s going on?” Dinky’s worry filled voice sounded through the hall, along with the sound of her hoof steps.
“Great! Look at this! Get me down from here!” sounded Bit as he struggled to get off the wall “HURRY! SHE’S COMING!” he said as the hoof steps were getting louder by the second. As Coin worked at the sticky material restraining Bit he realized that the hoof steps had stopped. He was silent.
A shrill voice had scream throughout the hall as Dinky had walked into the room to see that Derpy was on the floor and two strangers were in her house, not to mention that one of them was restrained to the wall with muffin mix. Yet, through the panic and shaking Coin had been able to free Bit, just in time to.
Derpy had gotten her brain back together and got back up, standing it a attack stance “What are you doing here?” she barked at the intruders.
“Revenge.” Coin said simply.
“For what?! I saved you from that mugging last week! You should be here to thank me!” Derpy said seething with rage.
“You don’t remember also putting me in jail the week before that? That cost me a thousand bits! Not counting bail too!” he argued “So now, I’m going to make you wish you hadn’t stopped me on the street that day. I’m going to stop you. Maybe even kill you. I’m the Confection Killler.” he said trying to intimidate her “This is my partner. The Muffin Murderer.” he said while pointing a hoof towards Bit.
“I TOLD YOU I DIDN’T LIKE THAT NAME” Bit said through the muffin mix, which only came out as a muffled scream, still protesting nonetheless.
“So lets put you in your place! The grave!” Coin said while going into the same attack stance and making a run for Derpy. Yet, the closer he got, the more slower he got, time was slowing down. She had reflex time.
Coin had started to jump and was already a good height into the air and as he peaked at the jump he started to extend a hood, as if trying to punch her. Though, what he didn’t know was that he stood no chance against Derpy, at least with her time being slower than his. By the time he was about to reach her, she had already extended a hoof out and it was right in his face and pushing in with ever second passing.
Derpy had struck him hard. Right in the middle of his face too. He fell straight down to the floor and was slipping out of consciousness “Dinky, watch the other one on the wall. Do something with him… Hmm… I don’t know… Talk to him or something… I’m going to fly this one down to the police station.” she commanded while she hurried in picking up the knocked out criminal.
As she held him in her hooves outside, she knew he would wake up sooner or later and with that thought she wasted no time wrapping the stallion in as much muffin mix as possible. Though, after what seemed like forever, Derpy had finally arrived at the police station “Officer, I found this guy breaking into my house.” she stated while handing the stallion over.
She didn’t mention the other one that she had found.
Derpy had just finished giving the criminal to the ponies at the police station and was now making her way through the streets towards her house to go try to talk to the other robber. The city was full of ponies and it was hard trying to get through the streets without running into somepony else. With that problem, she had to resort to flying above the streets and even that was hard enough because of everypony in the way. Yet she found her way through the mess of the street, not to mention the air, and had made her way home.
Walking into the house she had found Dinky sitting on the floor, and the robber who was still stuck to the wall when she had left, and Dinky was talking to the criminal about her drawings and how much effort she had been putting into them, not to mention she was going on and on about muffins. Yet, the robber seemed interested and was actually talking back to Dinky as if she was his own sister, asking her questions and complimenting the drawings. Derpy was amazed at how he had just attempted to rob her, but was now being completely nice and talking to her sister about whatever she felt like talking about at the time.
"Dinky. You can leave the room now, you're done here." Derpy said sternly trying to get her to leave so she could talk to the criminal alone. As asked, Dinky got up and used whatever magic she could muster, from what she's learned, and picked up all her drawings and trotted out of the room while humming a small tune "My sister. What did you do to my sister." Derpy questioned him trying to understand how come Dinky was so friendly towards him after seeing his friend hit her in the face and him break open the door.
"Nothing! I promise! I couldn't have done anything anyways! Look at me! I'm defenseless! Tied to a wall! Can't do much here!" Bit said through the mix on his face with a hearty voice and a small chuckle while trying to move, attempting to show Derpy that he wasn't able to do anything.
"Ok, sounds reasonable" she replies "But why should I let you down from the wall?" she asked trying to give him a chance to get down. Though, she felt he didn't deserve to get down anyways.
"Well... I don't think there is a reason I should be let down, or even not go to jail! I knew I shouldn't have come! But Coin insisted that we would come in and out, and that it would be an easy mission. I'm sorry Muffin Mare." he said while hanging his head in shame.
Derpy sighed "You know... You got a good head on your shoulders and you're not even using it... At least you can see that breaking into ponies houses is wrong, unlike your friend who's now in jail. I mean, if I let you go... How do I know you won't go around robbing other ponies?" she questioned him like she was his parent while pacing around the room.
"Listen... You can't, and it's my fault that you can't... I caused the distrust you feel in me right now. I'm not even asking you to let me down. I just don't want to go to jail, that's all I'm asking from you. If you could at least do that much for me, even though I did this to you." he pleaded while bowing his head in shame.
Derpy couldn't help but feel bad because of the honesty he showed him and she had decided that she had made her decision. She was about to trust the man who would've killed her if he would have had the chance “I’m going to let you go, but don’t make any stupid moves. I can put you back up on any wall again in a heartbeat.” Derpy said while tearing the mix off that had been restraining him “Maybe you can help me after this…” she said as she finished getting him down.
As Bit got off the wall and onto the floor into a more natural position on all fours he sighed happily because the pressure of gravity didn’t have the advantage anymore “Thanks.” Bit said while massaging his shoulder “I don’t know if I could've lasted up there much longer…” he said with a grin and chuckle.
“Yeah… but remember, I can still put you back up there.” Derpy stated as if she was threatening him.
“Okay, okay, so is there anyway I can pay you back for letting me down?” Bit asked out of kindness to help the mare for letting him down.
“Well, you could stay away from Dinky.” Derpy said rudely, not trusting the criminal.
“That’s almost like asking me not to stay here.” Bit said sarcastically, trying to cheer her up “I mean, what can I do to make up for what I did. I know a great club!” Bit said with excitement in his voice. Derpy could see from the joy in his eyes that Bit loved clubs.
Derpy couldn't lie, she was quite the party mare sometimes and she didn’t see why not. “Fine. I’ll go to the club, just let me get ready.” Derpy said as she walked into her room.
“Yeah. I’ll wait.” Bit said as he watched her walk away into her bedroom, this was his chance to leave “Hey, Muffin Mare, how long are you gonna be?” he asked slyly.
“A while, why?” Derpy asked from the confines of her room.
“No reason, just wondering.” Bit said as he walked towards the door to leave, but he didn’t want to leave. He wasn’t done yet. He had a mission to finish the job Coin couldn't. As he walked away from the door he saw a phone on the couch and immediately picked it up and started dialing it until it started ringing.
“Hello?” said the stallion on the other end of the phone.
“Hey, it’s Bit. Meet me at the club in an hour. Bring the whole gang.” he said through a whisper.
“What was that Bit?” Derpy said from the other room as she was walking to the room Bit was in to see why he was talking.
“Just do it!” Bit said before hanging up. He could hear her coming in the room. So, thinking fast, he threw the phone on the couch, and grabbed his rear hoof as if he was in pain “I STUBBED MY HOOF ON THE COUCH!” he shouted at her as she walked closer to the stallion who was now laying on the ground.
“Ouch… You’ll be fine.” she said as she helped him up from the ground.
“Thanks…” Bit said through fake tears and a grin, happy that he had gotten away with his sly trick “So are you done? Can we get out of here now?” Bit asked with a painful tone in his voice.
“Yeah, I just got done. Let’s get out of here.” she said to him as she motioned him forward. They were making there way to the door, only to be stopped when he tripped onto the floor after stubbing his hoof on the couch leg.
“AHHHHHH!!!” Bit shouted through the pain. “Great. Thanks karma.” he thought to himself angrily.
Derpy was confused at how he had stubbed his hoof two times in a row like that, but didn’t question it, but only helped instead “Again?! Come on! Stand up! You’ll be okay! I’m here!” she said nicely, as if she were his parent and was taking care of him.
“Thanks…” he said while walking with her to the door.
It had been a long day for the two and Derpy was kind of tired but she didn’t really mind, she was ready to have a fun time out. Since Bit was a earth pony and could’t get around as fast as Derpy could, Derpy walked the whole way with him and slowly they neared their destination.
As Derpy and Bit walked up to the club a stallion had allowed them entrance, and while they could hear the music getting louder making it hard to hear anypony along with bright light of various colors shining overhead, blinding her if she took a glance at the ceiling. Walking through the mess of dancing mares and stallions they had found a stallion who was next to the DJ booth, apparently taking song suggestions. “Hey Bit, wait here a sec, I want him to play a song. Go get us a drink or something.” she said to Bit while walking towards the stallion behind the booth.
“Hey! Can you play Pegasus Storm? It’s by Tut Tut Filly.” Derpy asked the gray stallion with blue and black hair behind the booth.
“Sure, I love Tut Tut Filly! One of my favorite DJ’s! Most people like Stephen Trotting, but I’m not a fan of him. My friend LOVES his music though! You look new here! I’m Sound by the way. I’m a producer for Monsterpony! We make a lot of good songs! Glad to see you listen to our music! I work for them under the name Zephyr.” Sound said to Derpy, excited to tell her about all his work.
“Wow, well I’ll have to check your music out soon then! Maybe you could play one by you later!” she said intrigued by the conversation, but was soon cut away from him as one of Sound’s workers called him over to the DJ table making them have to say bye for then.
The song Derpy had requested to play was also just starting as she was walking back to Bit and making her way through the circle of ponies shouting and cheering at the one in the middle that was on his head twirling in circles. At last she had finally reached Bit, who was now holding two drinks in the flat area of his forehooves. Derpy grabbed one as she sat down and started to sip from the glass slowly “Aren’t you going to dance? You suggested your song!” Bit said while getting up and motioning Derpy to the dance floor.
“Fine, I’m coming. I’m coming” Derpy said as she made her way to a spot in the dance floor without too many ponies or vomit on the ground. As she stood there staring at everypony else Bit nudged her in the side and grinned while he started to breakdance and make everypony else stare at him. Bit was dancing really good, and it showed with how many people where staring at him, along with how much he was sweating. Yet, as soon as everypony had started watching, they had stopped. A loud noice resonated throughout the club as everypony in the room ducked in fear that they were going to be hurt.
Somepony had shot a gun. Derpy knew she was the only one that could do anything about it and with that thought in mind she withdrew from the ground to take look at who had shot the gun. There were two stallions at the front of the room along with multiple ponies sitting on the floor at their feet, the only one who wasn’t was Derpy. She stared the stallions right back in their eyes, though she didn’t know what to do.
But what shocked her most was that Bit was walking straight towards them confidently, as if he knew he wasn’t going to be shot by the threatening stallions in the front of the room “Bit! Stop! They’ll shoot you!” Derpy cried out in fear, trying to save her friend.
“Hey! Don’t try to be a hero. It’s not going to save you now!” one of the stallions from the front shouted at while using his magic to point the gun at Derpy.
Derpy knew then that she had been double crossed by Bit “I trusted you Bit!” she screamed at him in despair.
As Bit was next to the two stallions in the front he took a gun from their bag and pointed it at Derpy “Sorry, that’s life for you Derpy. Don’t trust a criminal.” Bit said with an evil smirk on his face. His smile grew larger as he could see Derpy’s frown grow.
As Bit had finished his sentence Sound had walked up to Derpy and stood by her side.
“Come on then.” Sound stated simply.
Derpy had never anticipated Bit to betray her the way he did, Bit just seemed so honest with his words it seemed like he had never told a lie in his entire life, at least not to her. Yet, there she stood, in front of the stallion that had betrayed her, and right next to her was her newfound friend, Sound. Derpy knew she had to think of a way to escape quickly, but a quick glance around the room revealed that the only exit was the way they came in, which was right where Bit and the other two threatening stallions stood.
Silence had taken over the room and time grew longer as the ponies in the room stood there and thought about what their next actions would be. Derpy had cowered back in fear and closed her eyes as a loud noise had killed the silence that had taken over the room. It felt like forever had passed till she opened her eyes to see the event the had caused the loud noise, and was shocked at the sight that laid before her very eyes as she opened them. Derpy was devastated to see her new friend Sound was on the floor in a thick pool of blood that was surrounding him as he lay there breathing slowly and groaning in pain in between his breaths.
Derpy had broken inside at the sight of a pony slowly dying in front of her and it was even worse to see that it was her friend. A tear fell from her face as she stood there looking at Sound. She looked up to the three stallions that had stood in front of her “What did he do to you?! Why couldn't you have shot me?! You’re after me anyways!” she shouted at the three with rage filling her voice as she interchanged her stare from Sound’s body to the the stallions that had shot him.
“I-It was an accident! I-I swear! Th-The trigger slipped!” Bit said as his hoofs became weak and tears started welling up in his eyes as his gun fell through his hoofs hitting the ground with a loud thud “I-I didn’t mean to kill him! I didn’t want to kill anypony!” Bit cryed out as he put his hooves to his face while tears steamed down them.
“You didn’t kill anypony Bit.” Derpy said through her tears and over Bit’s sobbing “You killed my friend.” she said as her tears went away and were replaced with only anger.
“I’m sorr-” was all Bit could get out before being cut off by the shock of his two friends flying back into a wall behind them.
“To think I trusted you. Does my trust mean nothing to you?” Derpy said through her clenched teeth as she walked closer to Bit while occasionally taking glances behind Bit to see the other two struggling stallions stuck to the wall with their guns on the ground beneath them, having dropped them due to the sudden surge of magic because of the impact with the wall. Derpy could see just how scared he was as she was face to face with the quivering stallion “Come. On. Then.” she said calmly.
As soon as she had finished getting her words out she reared her hoof back and shoved it right into his nose as hard as she could, causing him to tumble across the room and shout in pain. He sat there for a while staring at the blood that was dripping from his nose and falling on to the ground “Please… No more…” Bit said through his sobs of a bloody nose while holding his hoof in front of his face to defend himself as much as he possibly could.
“You killed my friend. Yet, you can’t even stand a bloody nose?!” Derpy questioned him as she walked closer to the trembling stallion across the room “What kind of stallion do you even consider yourself to be?!” she shouted at him as she got closer, unable to contain herself at this point but she hadn't given him time to respond to the question before continuing. “I know. A weak one. The weakest one I’ve ever seen. Because you’re nothing to me.” she said while stopping a few feet in front of him “Nothing.” she said as she kicked Bit with all her strength.
Upon receiving the blow to the stomach the stallion moaned through the pain and coughed up some blood while sitting there with tears going down his face. His mouth was moving but only air was coming out, causing him more pain. She had knocked the breath out of him and tears were streaming from his eyes as he begged her to stop through his breaths.
“Once they take you to prison. Remember. Tell everypony there. Don’t. Mess with The Muffin Mare.” Derpy said as she picked him up and threw him to the wall where the other stallions were. Bit had hit the wall hard and fell to the ground with a loud thud. Derpy picked up one of the guns the stallions had dropped earlier and pointed it towards Bit “Give me one reason why I shouldn't just kill you right now for what you’ve done to Sound.” Derpy said as she roughly pushed the gun into the side of his face.
Bit was struggling for the answer as he tried to speak with all his power. Yet, his will power finally showed through when he started forming words and speaking “Because… I didn’t kill him…” Bit said as he pointed his hoof towards the other side of the room. As he finished his sentence and went to drop his hoof he also ended up dropping his face onto the ground and just laid there breathing, trying to keep conciseness. Though confused, Derpy had turned around to see that he wasn’t lying to her this time.
There Sound was, laying on the floor extending a hoof towards her trying to speak. Derpy immediately dropped the gun and ran in Sound’s direction. “Are you okay?!” she asked while looking the gunshot over and seeing the blood surrounding the wound. As she touched the gunshot wound Sound flinched and winced in pain.
“Hospital…” was all Sound could say through the pain as he was on the brink of consciousness.
Derpy had turned around to see Bit who was crawling towards the door to get away and she slowly walked towards the escaping stallion. As Bit saw her coming closer to him he attempted to speed his crawl, which he found to be useless as he went the same speed but the pain just increased. She had walked right up to him and saw his face of panic and fear “I’m not done with you yet.” she said as she picked Bit up, resulting in him screaming in pain as she did.
She lifted him up to the ceiling and put the mix on him, causing him to stick to the ceiling, which only resulted in more screaming from him because of the gravity pulling him down to ground “The police will be here soon.” she said to bit as she walked towards one of the stallions in the club “Call the police.” she said the stallion as she picked him up off the ground to help him get up.
As she finished helping the stallion up she walked towards Sound who was on the other end of the room in his own puddle of blood. “Let’s get you help, buddy.” Derpy said as she picked up Sound carefully, still receiving groans of pain from him. “It’ll be all okay” she comforted him while trying to keep him on her back while flying him out the door and into the busy streets.
As Derpy flew through the streets she could hear Sound moan in pain as she would hit bumps in the air while flying and when she ran into random strangers in the streets due to her rushing. Yet, through her struggle, she had finally reached the hospital and rammed into the doors with her head, making them fly straight open and hit the wall, which had caused lots of noise and made everypony at the room look at the two that had just burst into the room.
“Help me! Please!” Derpy shouted in despair as she ran up to the main desk where the receptionist sat “He’s dying! Help!” she said as she focused on Sound and bent a wing pointing it towards the dying stallion on her back. As Derpy focused on Sound she noticed that she couldn't feel his heartbeat on her back anymore “Please!” Derpy said hurriedly while panicking at the thought of Sound dying on her back at that very moment.
The nurse behind the desk could barely fathom words to respond to Derpy because of the shocking sight of the mare with a bloody stallion, that was dying, on her back “Uh.. Yes ma’am! Right away!” the nurse said as she ran from behind the counter as she helped Derpy and got the stallion off Derpy’s back as another nurse went and ran to go get a stretcher. Right as the nurse had finished getting Sound off of Derpy’s back, the other nurse was right there next to them with a stretcher ready for Sound.
Sound was placed on the stretcher quickly and carefully as they rolled him away, while one of the nurses held Derpy back from running after the injured stallion. “Ma’am! You have to stay here! You can’t go after them!” the nurse shouted at Derpy while pushing Derpy back with all her strength and not allowing her to run after Sound. Yet, the nurse had managed to keep Derpy back long enough to make her give up chasing them. Derpy had then realized that chasing Sound was useless, she knew it wasn’t going to keep him alive any more to stay next to him than if she wasn’t.
Derpy had just stood there and went limp at the sudden realization that she wasn’t able to do anything to help Sound in his current condition, and with that thought she had fell straight to the ground and started crying. Derpy sat there in her own puddle of tears while wishing things could've gone differently, just wishing that she would’ve never met Sound just so she could let him live.
Derpy sat there on the floor for almost two hours before looking out the window to see how late it was. Even though she was completely distraught with the current situation and couldn't barely think, she realized one thing. It was late and Dinky was at home. Her eyes opened wide as the thought hit her in the head, she couldn't help but think about how long she had left Dinky home alone. With all that panic in her mind for her sister, she had forgot about Sound and darted out the door and flew out into the streets and made her way through the sky and on her way home.
She flew through the sky as fast as she could, letting the tears clearing from her eyes as she flew, and had finally made it home to Dinky, and was completely relieved to see that she was okay this whole time “Dinky! Did anything happen while I was gone?” Derpy said through her sorrow as she ran up to Dinky embracing her in a hug.
“Nope! But I made you a muffin! I thought it would help!” Dinky said with an innocent smile.
“Help with what?” Derpy said confused, thinking that she somehow knew Sound was shot.
“Your tummy monster! It’s roaring! You better feed him!” Dinky said playfully as she poked a hoof at Derpy’s stomach “You were gone out so long, so I made you a treat!”
Derpy couldn't speak as the familiar pain of hunger kicked in, she was so busy being shocked at all the problems that had happened that she forgot that she was hungry. “Thanks Dinky.” she said as she picked the muffin up off of Dinky’s hoof and took a bite while embracing her into a tight hug “Thanks.”
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.
As Dinky slowly opened the door and called out to Derpy one more time, she walked into the dark room, which was only bright enough to see due to the window on the other side of the room which revealed to Dinky that her sister wasn’t there, or anywhere to be found, Dinky called out to Derpy a few times before giving up and accepting the fact that she was nowhere to be found. Except for the buckets of tinting fluid on the floor that filled the room with a pungent smell, and the small mess left on the floor, along with Derpy’s bed. A few moments had passed with Dinky waiting for her sister to appear. Yet, to no avail, Derpy never showed up.
As Dinky’s patience ran low on waiting for her sister she had left the room and started walking through the house almost aimlessly while calling out to the air for Derpy. Dinky wandered the halls calling out for her sister, almost tearing at the thought the her sister, the last person she had in her life to love and care about, might have disappeared forever and abandoned her. As the long hours had passed, more tears had fallen down her cheeks and onto the floor and her body feeling colder as she lost faith in her sister ever coming back for her.
Though her body was getting colder, it was not the fear of her sister that had caused it. It was a literal wave of cold passing through every part of her body, as well as the house, due to the window in Derpy’s room that was left open. Though as she grew cold, so did the house and everything in it. Dinky was young, meaning that she didn’t pay attention to the small details and didn’t even notice that Derpy’s window was left open, and that she didn’t open it.
Derpy had barely escaped from her room in time, hardly being able to open the window and take her suit off, almost unable to make the quick choice of throwing her costume under her bed and making a dash out the window and just in time too. Derpy flew above the city streets staring at all the earth ponies and unicorns trotting below her. Her staring down at the street causing her to almost run into some of the pegasi that were flying with her as well. She didn’t even know where she was going at this point. Her heart was racing with adrenaline while she flew trough the street, realizing how close she came to getting seen by Dinky.
Derpy knew she could go to the hospital and go meet Sound, with the hope that he could’ve woken up by now, but she couldn't see the point in that, Derpy knew it would just make her more sad about his situation than she already was if she were to go there and see that he still hadn’t woken up from his coma. Derpy flew through the city pointlessly having no idea of where to go or what to do, but realized what she needed to do when she saw the horizon. The bright yellow sun was now starting to set on the grassy horizon and the land was starting to get darker.
Her mind kicked into gear and she started to fly back home as fast as she could, running into trees and buildings as she realized how late it was and that Dinky was home alone, not thinking straight because of her fear. Derpy was actually more afraid that Dinky was sad about losing her sister rather than being scared that the house could’ve been robbed for revenge by one of the criminals she had previously busted. As her thoughts and paranoia flooded her mind, Derpy flapped her wings up and faster and stronger than she ever had and for a reason too, her sister.
Derpy had flown through the night sky and up to her house, slowing to a stop as she reached the door but barely able to see the door, or the handle, through the dim moonlight that was shining onto her. She fiddled her hoof around the area in front of her, until hitting the door. Finally, after multiple attempts, she hit the handle and slowly pushed it down causing the door to become ajar with the frame that it sat in. As she pushed the door forward slowly, it responded with a creek that started from a whisper and made it’s way to a quiet shout.
Derpy could tell that Dinky was out of earshot due to her not running straight for the door as the creaking got louder, as the door Derpy slid into the constantly growing gap between the doorframe and her, gaining her entry to her house. As she walked through the house there was no sign of life anywhere, and a call to Dinky would yield unknown results of either happiness or shoutings, results of which Derpy didn’t want to deal with right now. As Derpy made her way through the dark house and back up into her room she noticed a faint sound coming from her room which she quickly made out to be Dinky.
As Derpy walked into her room she saw one of the more familiar sights she had seen, Dinky, laying on her bed. Though it was completely normal for Derpy to see Dinky on her bed, there was one thing that drew small tears to Derpy’s eyes as she stared at Dinky. Through the midnight light that shined onto the bed Derpy could see the glimmers of dried tears as they reflected off of Dinky’s face along with the stained puddle on the bedsheets. Derpy’s mouth went agape as tears flowed down her face when she came to the sudden realization that Dinky had cried herself to sleep.
As Derpy walked closer towards the bed, the sound of Dinky’s slow breaths, mixed with some muffled crying started getting louder but stopped as Derpy slowly laid a hoof on Dinky’s back, giving Dinky the comfort and love she craved ever since she thought that Derpy had abandoned her. The longer Derpy’s hoof was on her sisters back the more calm she became, slowly as Dinky’s breathing calmed down Derpy started laying down next to her and closed her eyed, happy that she was there to comfort her sister. As the room went dark and time passed, Derpy’s mind shut down and she let her mind and eyes rest.
Slowly the night passed and the sun started to rise into it's regular position, shining at just the right angle into Derpy's room and beaming right into her eyes, gently waking her up. Derpy awoke from her slumber with a few confused mumbles and gently maneuvered her way around Dinky, trying to not wake her up, allowing her to get up from the bed, and as she left she wrapped the sheets around Dinky to help with her shivering. As the blankets ran over Dinky, her body responded immediately by calming down and going into a more peaceful slumber, one that somepony would actually want to be sleeping in.
Derpy walked further from the bed and closer to be window, and standing there, staring out into the land and the depths if the sky. She didn't know what to do anymore, she lost her friends and almost her daughter because of what was going on with her body, all these confusing new abilities and powers. Derpy couldn't help but think about what was going on and at least trying to make sense out of the world that was laid before her. "What did I do wrong?" she spoke quietly to herself, but still loud "I took care of everypony and did the right thing. Yet, here I am. Getting punished. For no reason other than doing the right thing." she said as she tapped her hoof on the bottom of the window sadly and confused until she stood up and flew out of the window and out onto the land.
Time passed and eventually Dinky woke from her slumber, the only emotion showing was her shocked face when she saw Derpy, glad that she wasn't abandoned. Dinky got up from the and ran towards her sister pulling her into a tight embrace and smiling all the while "Sis! I knew you wouldn't leave me!" Dinky shouted happily though the Derpy's coat "But I just got so scared! Because you came up here, then I couldn't find you in the room when I opened the door! I even checked the whole house and I couldn't find you! Anywhere!"
Derpy simply sat through the embrace, accepting it, but not returning it. Though, Dinky didn't seem to mind, or even notice that she wasn't paying attention to her, due to all of her attention being so focused on the fact that Derpy didn't abandon her. Derpy looked on through the window and could see buildings, with multiple lines of muffin mix stuck to them, hanging down below above the ground but not touching it, or getting in anypony's way. Derpy stared on and could see the obvious path that she had taken with her muffin mix transportation method earlier. It led right to her house, and straight to the hospital.
As the realization of her mistake hit her, she realized that if anypony caught on to the muffin mix and it's trails to her house, she wouldn't be safe for very much longer, especially with all the people that now hated her for her abilities. Derpy's thoughts were broken as she faded back to the world, not surprised to still hear Dinky rambling on about her disappearance. After all, Dinky loved her more than anything in the world, and Derpy knew it. But she didn't want to lose that love because of a stupid mistake like this.
"So, sis, where were you last night?" Dinky asked "you don't normally disappear like that, especially without even telling me! I mean... It's not like you have to... But still! Plus, your room was a mess... You normally clean it before you go anywhere..." Dinky said as she loosened her embrace with her sister and stared at Derpy, looking for answers. Derpy simply sat there as she remembered were she went that morning, as the memories flowed back tears came along with them, and as they began to cloud up her vision, the sun shined straight onto her, making the tears more visible than ever, especially to Dinky, who was right next to her.
Dinky could see the tears forming on Derpy's cheek through the light from the window and started to tear up a little on her own by the sight of Derpy crying "Sis! What's wrong? Are you okay? What happened?" Dinky pleaded for an answer to understand Derpy's sorrow through her sobbing.
Derpy simply sat there staring out onto the land beyond the window, almost ignoring Dinky and going into her own world, until she felt the need to comfort her sister, to tell her it was all okay, that there was nothing wrong, that she would always be there for her, and she knew that was her job as the older sister, especially without the parents. Slowly, Derpy opened her mouth and started her attempt to form words to explain her sorrow an pain "Dinky." she said as she started to turn herself towards Dinky and look her in the eye "Everything is fine. Nothing is wrong Dinky, and everypony is fine and safe. Especially you."
Derpy lost herself in her thoughts as they began to echo in her mind repeating over and over again at what she had just said to Dinky. All she could hear "Everypony is fine and safe." The words repeated on and on in her head and stabbed at her brain like daggers as she realized the magnitude of the lie that she had just told to her sister.
Nopony was safe around her.
