Waking Eyes

"Yes, I do have a muffin." Flare said, turning around to see Derpy. If he saw anypony else it would have been extremely awkward, but it was indeed Derpy. "Do you want it?" Flare knew he had another so he had no problem giving Derpy the first one. He held out the muffin for Derpy to take it.

"Oh, muffins. I love these so much." Derpy said taking the muffin from Flare's hoof. Derpy smelled it; Flare couldn't tell if it had the same effect on her as it had on him.

"So I have heard," Flare said, while taking the other muffin out of the bag. "Wanna sit down?" he moved over to make room for her. When Derpy sat; she sat an odd angle and position. This forced Flare to move even more over.

"Have you ever had one of these?" Derpy asked, with a really goofy grin. It made Flare smile; he laughed a little bit, leaning back. When he leaned back, he had fallen off the bench. He hit the ground, and in terror watched as his muffin fell towards the unforgiving ground. Flare reached to catch it, but before he could it hit the ground. He looked at it, and then put his hoof on the ground next to it and laid his head down on his arm.

Flare looked awfully sad that it happened, Derpy noticing this. She put her muffin on the bench and picked up Flare's. He looked up to see Derpy examining it with only one eye, the other appeared to be watching him. She blew on the part that landed on the ground. Dirt and a single blade of tiny grass fell from it. She then wiped it off, and looked at Flare's sad eyes.

"Are you okay?" she asked, pulling him onto his feet. She handed the muffin to Flare, who smiled and was even more excited to see that it was fine. "All better?" Derpy said, acquiring hers from the bench.

"Yea," Flare said, seeming a little embarrassed that he acted so foalish. But, Derpy fixed it without a problem, like she had been used to it. "Hey Derpy, do you have any fillies or colts?" Flare asked, still looking deep into his muffin.

"Why?" Derpy turned around, wondering why the question came from nowhere.

"Because, you seem like a good mother. The way you just handled it, like it was nothing. I would have let it sit there for minutes before eating it over depression," Flare laughed, but knew it was true. "It would have been funny to most, but you saw it as a problem that needed to be fixed."

"I have a filly" Derpy confessed "but I didn't give her life. I found her in a box on the side of the road in ditch. I heard crying, and to my surprise a filly appeared when I opened the box." Flare's thoughts went crazy. Derpy had saved a filly, which most likely would have died if she hadn't. If she lived, her life would have been like Flare's with no doubt. "I took her home and fell in love with her. She’s my little muffin." Flare smiled.

"Found her with no family?" Flare said. "Lucky, I was never found, but she was really young wasn't she?" Flare asked; he could easily guess yes. Flare felt terrible for her, she must have been so afraid. He knew he was left all alone. He ran as far as he could. One of Flare memories came back to him, one he had ditched a few years ago.

-

It had been a day since his parent’s death. He was going insane, having crazy thoughts that it was his fault that his parents had died. "Mother! Why?! I'm sorry, I can't live without you!” He screamed in the fields, where he had ran from his parent's murderer. He looked back in the direction where the house was. He sprinted as fast as he could towards the house.

When he got there he was completely out of breath, but like he cared. Flare ran up to his room, and inside it looked it hadn't been touched since the night of terrible pain. He hadn't eaten in ten hours, he felt weak, too weak to continue. Flare thought about letting his starvation kill him quietly, then he could join his parents. He took a picture off the shelf. He had drawn it; it was a picture of Flare and his parents, all smiling and having a great time. Flare cried as he ripped it into as many pieces he could.

Flare saw his school saddlebags in the corner; he went to them and duped them out. He stuffed his favorite stuffed puppy in one of them; he looked for anything else personal to him. He saw a picture of him and his family on his third birthday. It was framed and relatively small, Flare begin to cry harder as he stuck it into his saddlebag next to the stuffed animal. His body felt as if it was being torn apart, it hurt so much. But that pain was sufferable and that isn't what made him cry so much. His parents death was what so painful, it hurt him physically.

Flare took a few other things that were important to him, making his saddlebags overweighed on one side. He ran to the kitchen and started putting food in the other side of his saddlebag. When this food ran out he knew he would have to scavenge and starve. He figured he would have about two weeks if rationed correctly. The tears hadn't stopped since he entered the house. He saw something that made him die inside. It was the necklace his father gave to his mother when he married her. Flare picked it up and clutched it tightly, and put it into his saddlebag. Flare knew that they were gone, but he had to say goodbye. He continued to his parent’s room and opened the door. Flares mother lay dead on the floor and his father in the corner, both with terrible cuts and dried blood in their coats. He walked up to his mother's dead body.

"G-G-Goodnight, m-mother," Flare said hugging, crying and kissing the lifeless body. He was crying so much he could see at all. "Sleep well..." He managed to say before crying into her shoulder. Flare stayed like this for five minutes, crying nonstop. He then stood, and wiped his eyes enough to see his father, dead in the corner. He walked to towards him.

"And... Goodnigh..." Flare started, but couldn't get it out a second time. He hugged his dead body and put his head on his father’s chest. "F-Father, sleep w-well." He whispered; barely able to hear through all the tears and whimpering from Flare. He couldn't take it; he screamed like he was getting murdered. Flare wouldn't have cared to die at that moment, if he took a sword through the heart, it wouldn't hurt considering it was already dead to him.

Flare then left the room, but not before looking back and saying, "I-I'm sorry... That I wasn't good enough..." Flare had to pause for a moment. "I couldn't h-help you..." Flare again couldn't see through all the tears in his eyes. He just ran for the door, and opened it and ran. Ran as fast as he could, Flare couldn't take it anymore if he was in there one more second; he might have killed himself.

Flare just ran, to nowhere, running as fast as he could.

-

Flare didn't know if he was crying at all, and he was crying pretty badly too. Derpy had to stop him from crying, she couldn't help but to wonder what Flare had gone through. She wanted to ask, but she didn't think Flare could handle telling her the whole thing. Derpy hugged Flare.

"Shhh, everything will be okay," Derpy said, wiping tears from Flare eyes, "It'll be fine, you done good so far, It will work out, you'll see." Derpy took the muffin from Flare's hoof and peeled off the wrapping. "Here, eat this." Derpy said softly, holding it close to his mouth.

Flare took it from Derpy and took a small bite. It was delicious, just like his mother's he had tasted many years before. He had lost everything in those saddlebags except for his mother's necklace; that was in a special spot. But here in Ponyville he found something from his mother that he had lost, her muffins taste. One more tear appeared in his eye, while eating it. Derpy knew to let this tear fall.

"I'm sorry Derpy, I'm just really happy to hear that you did that." Flare apologized, "You would think every pony would do that, but you would be surprised." Flare needed to let Derpy know about a little of his past. "Only one pony helped me, three years after what had happened, one pony that was only a year older." Flare was talking about the one who had his mother's necklace; when Flare had a safe spot for it he could retrieve it.

Derpy was indeed surprised. "Well, I'm different," Derpy said, "In many ways." Flare knew that her eyes pointed different directions, her voice was a bit different and she was the only one Flare knew that could care for a stranger so much. The moon had risen at this point, and Flare kind of wanted to sleep after a day like this.

"Derpy, thanks for eating muffins with me. But, I need to go, I need to find or make a safe place to sleep tonight." Flare said quieter than normal, like he was trying not to wake some pony. "Plus, I think you need to get back to your muffin," Flare smiled, "I'll see you around, Derpy." Flare waved and made his towards Everfree Forest.

Flare had a weird feeling in his chest after leaving Derpy. It wasn't painful or anything like that, but he had never felt it. Flare hoofed his face after sitting and thinking for a moment. But he kind of didn't believe it. He had fallen in love with Derpy. Flare felt that wasn't right, he having a crush on Derpy was as far as he was willing to accept. Flare's body didn't care what Flare accepted, it knew the truth.

Flare made it halfway to the Everfree when he spotted a pony having trouble with a broken saddlebag. He trotted over to the pony; she was a yellow coated pink maned pegasus. She pony saw Flare and hid her face.

"Do you need any help?" Flare offered, he heard a small noise come from the pegasus. "I don't mind helping, you seem to need it."

"Umm, no I don't need help, thank you." She said, her voice getting quieter through the entire sentence. Oh look, a quiet one, Flare thought to himself.

"I really insist that you let me help," Flare said, letting his voice lower than hers, but loud enough to hear. "I can carry one and you can get the other, if you want to, I could carry them both. When we reach where you are going I'll simply put the bags on the ground and leave you be." Flare couldn't exactly play shy against some pony that really was, so he took worried in a dropped tone instead.

The pegasus made another noise. "okay...” she said, even quieter than earlier. Flare was going to have to try to her voice like he could hear pony's hooves while walking. Flare was going to have to really be as quiet as he could be when they start to carry the bags, but he couldn't help himself.

"My name’s Flare," He was just as quiet as her, "Can I ask for yours?" The Pegasus hid her face even more. Oh no, he thought, I messed up.

"Fluttershy." She said so quietly Flare was surprised he caught it. She picked up one bag and he picked up the other one. Flare could never drop his voice that low, even with years of practicing. Flare figured it was a good name, considering he’d caught only a single glimpse of her face.

Then they were off to where the bags needed to be. Flare realized it had been going outside of Ponyville. It was a wonderful path, it was quiet and peaceful. Too bad this path only lasted about 5 minutes, before reaching Fluttershy's house. She walked up to the door, put her bag down and unlocked the door. Flare heard something inside, did she have a pet?

When the door was open a little white bunny appeared. She defiantly had a pet. Flare put the bag down, as Fluttershy had to explain her reason for being tardy. Flare found the bunny disliked eating late, it was obvious. Fluttershy then turned to Flare after the bunny went inside.

"Thanks Flare." Fluttershy said a bit louder than earlier. Flare couldn't help but want to see inside her house, but she was a little shy for him to ask that directly. So he took a bit of a different route.

"Is that bunny the only pet you have?" Flare asked, his voice however stayed as low as earlier.

"No, I have many. Want to see a few?" Fluttershy said seemingly more confident if they stayed on subject. Flare didn't want to intrude, but he wanted see a few indeed.

"Maybe one, do you have any birds?" Flare asked. Fluttershy knew what to do, and she gently whistled. About five different birds flew to her. One however flew to Flare, a blue jay. Flare held out his hoof, and blue jay landed on it and chirped. Flare smiled, this was really cool; he’d found some animals that didn't want to eat him. It was great, but he had to return it and pushed his hoof towards Fluttershy. The blue jay flew off his hoof and towards Fluttershy.

"That’s really amazing," Flare said forgetting to lower his voice. "You must really have a way with animals. If I ever whistled at a bird, it would probably fly as far as possible." Flare joked and laughed a little, he couldn't whistle. "Well it has been nice meeting you Fluttershy, but I need my rest. Goodbye." He waved.

"Bye Flare, goodnight," Fluttershy said with her voice once more a bit lowered.

Flare continued towards the Everfree Forest. She was really nice; she was also shy, but really good company. The way those birds just simply flew to her after she whistled was incredible. Flare wondered if that came naturally, he should have looked at her mark; that could have helped prove something. There was always a next time.

When Flare had entered the Everfree Forest, he felt like the last spot that he had slept was really peaceful. But as he headed for that area, he noticed that there wasn't anything to stop him. This was weird, but Flare figured that they were all just in another part of the forest. So he took the chance to run to his area, not letting anything else find it first. It was his spot, nothing else was allowed!

Flare arrived at his spot to see that nothing had been there. He noticed there was no trace of that timber wolf. It must have put itself back together and told the others not to mess with Flare. He chuckled, before leaning back on his tree to sleep. Today had been a very busy day, and Flare was tired. He thought about everything that happened today. He had been crushed by a pink blur, helped pick up books, bucked apples off of trees, got kidnapped and had his mane brushed, met the most colorful pony he had ever seen, ate a muffin with a friend, and held a blue jay. Flare was pretty sure this was one of the busiest days he had ever been through.

Flare then closed his eyes and then remembered how many memories he lived through today, some sad ones and some happy ones. Flare also thought about how many new ponies he met.

"Well, today was a great day." Flare said, not thinking anything was listening to him. But a moment later his eyes shot open, and he jumped into the air. An arrow had struck the tree where he had been sleeping not even a second before; it grazed the end of his tail. He looked at it and then turned to the direction it was shot from.

"Well, you’ve made yourself well known," Flare said trying to make whoever shot that to come out. "Might as well show yourself." Flare grinned, as he issued the challenge.

"It's been too long, Flare..." A voice came from the bushes.