//------------------------------// // THE DELUXE BLUE BAFFLING BERRY MUFFINS // Story: Background // by Bubble-Fics //------------------------------// (This fic will include the following characters: Doctor Whooves, Derpy & White Lightning) Doctor Whooves was sound asleep in his cozy bed, snoring every now and then whilst he dreamt of winning the Nobel Prize for finally perfecting to create his very first time machine. In his dream, Doctor Whooves was all dressed up in a royal blue suit with a white shirt and a crimson red tie, he stood firm backstage awaiting to walk up to the sound of applause. "And now I'd like to present, the winner of the science award goes too..." announced the spokes pony, who stood in the bright spotlight gaining suspense from the audience. Doctor Whooves bit his quivering lip with anticipation trying to stifle his pounding heart as sweat drenched his earthy, brown face. "MUFFIN!" Doctor Whooves took awhile to register the last word the spokes pony just uttered, his unsteadiness was replaced with pure confusion as well as a tad bit of sorrow. Frantically, Doctor Whooves turned himself towards the backstage pony, who loomed over his shoulder with an emotionless face. The stallion was too busy looking at his check board to see the worried look display on Doctor Whooves face. "Umm, excuse me, fine sir but, I thought my name was down for the..." Doctor Whooves calmly insisted before being interrupted by the undeterred pony in front of the pony. "Sorry pal but, I got Muffin on my list so you must be for some other category...or whatever" he replied with less interest towards the situation, with his eyes still permanently locked on his check board. A roar of applause erupted Doctor Whoove's ears from behind him as he quickly spun around to see a giant, blueberry muffin somehow walk up on stage to receive "Doctor Whoove's" prize. The spokes pony made way for the giant muffin before almost as if it was her superior, it coughed dramatically into the mic before lamenting on in a rather strange language: muffin language. "What bizarre fantasy is this? A muffin, is winning my prize?" he angrily complained, with an accompanied stomp of his hoof of distraught. A hoof prodded his back seeking his attention again, this time the backstage stallion had two big, muscular body guards by his side with a look that could kill. "Muffin muffin muffin, mufffffiiinn MUFFIN? Muffin..." the stallion questioned a disturbed Doctor Whooves who stood there looking at the backstage pony as if he were insane. "I'm sorry but, could you repeat that?" Doctor Whooves asked; which only seemed to make the stallion sigh, signalling for the two bodyguards behind him. He blatantly pointed at Doctor Whooves direction: "Muffin muffin muffin muffin muuuuffin!" The thud of something huge echoed Doctor Whoove's ears as in the corner of his eye the giant muffin, that was on stage, stomped right behind Doctor Whooves speaking muffin. The bodyguards soon began to gang up on Doctor Whoove's quivering form angrily screaming at him in muffin. All Doctor Whoove's could hear was the never-ending, painful sound of: "MUFFIN!" "Muffin?" "Muffin!" "MUFFIN!" "Muffin!" He was stuck in a swarm of circling sharks, barking out in such a racket that one would struggle to think. The giant muffin suddenly appeared in front of Doctor Whoove's terrified face screeching "MUFFIN!" for one final time. He awoke squealing in fright from his strange, yet, chilling nightmare of...muffins. His eyes connected with a pair of ditzy yellow eyes that were accompanied with a beaming grin from a certain light grey pegasus. "Good morning, Doc, oh it looks like you had one of them bad dreams, are you okay?" Derpy affectionately said to the shaken Doctor. He calmly wiped the sweat that drenched his brow before sitting up in his bed to check the clock on his bedside table. "Derpy! Why are you up at this time it is barely even in 6am, in the morning?" "How do you not know Doc" "What?" The Doctor then gasped in shock "Is the Science Conference for Unsung Scientists today" "No, I didn't even know that was a thing but, today the supermarket is releasing the latest blue baffling berry muffins" Doctor just sighed before resting back in bed "You know they only come round once a year due to the rareness of the berries" It wasn't long for the Doctor to suddenly start snoring again, this of course caught the attention of Derpy who calmly poked the dazed Doctor till he awoke again from his nap. "Huh? Oh right well then let's go to this opening of your" Derpy smile seemed to gleam more by the second by The Doctor's words "...muffins" The Doctor and Derpy were walking normally though the streets going to the super market. Doctor Whooves could see the pure excitement all over Derpy’s before having a question come to mind. “Derpy, what exactly is so special about these berries besides being rare”he questioned “I’m so glad for you to ask, they say that the very first berries had formed during a full moon, in the late summer season. Somewhere discrete and hidden in a dark, woody forest near a clear, spring of water. Only a lucky few could taste the irresistible flavour of the special berries which had a very unique and distinct taste that was indescribable.” Doctor Whooves listened with interest evaluating each point Derpy stated. “And now I hope to join the lucky few of tasting that delicious muffin” she finally stated with her tongue lulled out of her mouth as she pictured herself eating the sacred muffin. They finally reached the entrance of the super market where it was packed with many pastel ponies inside. “It’s like the whole town is here” he inquisitively said. Derpy had already lost contact with the outside world as she gazed at the banners advertising the famed blue, baffling, berry muffins. She was caught off guard when the speaker erupted with a static noise. “The annual deluxe, blue, baffling, berry muffins are on limited stock on aisle 7, I repeat there is limited stock of the D.B.B.B.M on aisle 7. First come, first serve, thank you” the speaker announcer concluded with another static noise. And then, just like that a whole horde of ponies started to stampede off to aisle 7. Both Doctor and Derpy were shellshocked at how fast everyone was running as well as the numbers of ponies. The double doors of the entrance flooded with more ponies from outside of he supermarket, who obviously the heard he announcement. The swarm were so many that they sped past Doctor and Derpy in a flash leaving them on the ground. Derpy shook herself over getting up after the horde had gone also helping the very confused Doctor onto his hooves. “Come on, Doctor, we got some muffins to salvage” Derpy determinedly said before speedily flying off without warning leaving Doctor Whooves to chase after her. Derpy flew over, what felt like thousands beyond thousands of ponies navigating all around for the desirable stand holding her muffins. She clearly forgot about her friend, The Doctor, who was way, way back behind the humongous crowd barely breathing due to running so hard after her. A sudden static noise enveloped everyone’s ears once again. “Sorry folks but, I seemed to have said the wrong aisle number for the last opportunity to grab those delectable muffins it should be on aisle...1” the transmission ended. Everyone started doing a U-turn around to the entrance of the super market heading into Doctor Whooves direction of travel. He screamed at the incoming stampede of ponies as they pretty much trampled all over him leaving him at the back again with several hoof marks as well as bruises on his face. He stumbled over to a shelf of items for balance as he watched Derpy zip ahead into the distance. He stumbled over to a shelf of items for balance as he watched Derpy zip ahead into the distance. Before hearing a sound of falling items above him, the last thing he saw was a giant book called ‘How to train your dragon’ come towards him. Meanwhile in one of marketing booths, two chuckling foals were busy messing around with the mic for the speakers. The two could be recognised as a tall yellow unicorn and a stout blue unicorn, otherwise known as Snips and Snails. Somehow they had earned jobs as assistants for bagging when right now they had left there work places to have some “fun”. “OH did I say aisle 1 what I really meant was aisle 14” Snips exclaimed, trying to stop himself from chuckling whilst the mic was on. His friend, Snails nudged him out of the way to get ahold the mic with his magic. “Remember folks they are limited, emphasis on limited” he finally stated before Snips got ahold of it again. They watched as everyone skidded around to go the other direction laughing at the crazy display they had caused. “Ha! Look at them run, Snails, they’re a bunch of headless chickens” “They sure are, Snips, this beats bagging at the counter any time” “Let’s keep going” Snips tried to reach for the mic but Snails was holding onto it rather protectively. “Hey! What gives?” “It’s my turn” “No it’s not you had your turn it’s mine” “Nope, mine” Both Snips and Snails began fighting over the mic not realising they had turned it on accidentally. Everyone who was in the supermarket could hear every word they said: including their manager, who wasn’t impressed. “I’m the one who thought of this genius plan to tell the wrong aisle number for the shoppers” Snips confesses on the mic. Every shopper had halted at the sound of this new remark getting confused or annoyed. “It doesn’t matter though they trust me more than they trust you” Snails concluded on the mic before sounds of fighting were heard none the less. The manager stormed furiously over towards their current position yanking the mic out of both their hooves before staring them down with an angry expression on his face. The two gulped in guilt before getting off one another, and smile nervously at their outraged boss. “Umm, Hi boss, funny seeing you here” he nervously chuckled but, his boss was not amused. “Funny? You think this is FUNNY? You two have violated numerous rules here which I have set down by slacking off your jobs, annoying good paying customers and INFURIATING ME!” The two held each other for support at the manager’s wave of fury. “The next time you want to trick some pony around here DON’T ANNOUNCE IT TO THE WHOLE SUPERMARKET!” he yelled, before finally switching off the damn mic. “So does this mean we get promoted?” Snails dumbly questioned. The manager answered his question by kicking both of them out of the supermarket before screeching “YOUR FIRED” whilst he closed the doors. Doctor Whooves awoke groggily in Aisle 13, worst of all he started hallucinating things that weren’t there. It seemed that any time he wanted to escape the aisle he would just wind up back in the same spot over again. “This can’t be happening I’ve been here for hours if not days. How in Equestria do I get out of this damned place!?” he fearfully said to himself. “By facing the guardian sir” a cheerful voice replied Doctor Whooves spun around scared, not expecting an answer. He looked around trying to figure out the direction of the source. “W-Who was that?” “It was me” replied the voice again from behind him. Doctor Whooves spin around to see little Dinky Hooves wearing some sort of costume related to D&D. She wore an elvish blue dress that hid her back hooves, her hair was neatly braided resting on her shoulder and her ears seemed more pointed than usual. “You look” he inspected her more “...different” “I may be sir but, you are in danger, the guardian will be here soon to face you. And you must prepare for battle” “Battle? What guardian?” “The guardian is what has troubled you in the past, something you fear” The elvish Dinky began to slowly fade away before so she somehow magicked up a sword for Doctor Whooves to take. “Time is of the essence, noble warrior, fight what you fear and escape this nightmare” she finally said before vanishing in a beam of light. Doctor Whooves watched as Aisle 13 became more dark and ominous in front of him and all around. Somehow he had earned some armour through his distress which covered every inch of him. His ears perked at the sound of loud thumping, knowing all to well what it could be. The thumping became louder and louder before finally reaching Doctor Whooves whereabouts, he shakily bared his sword in a defensive way. The thing revealed itself to him with an monstrous roar as Doctor Whooves frightfully whimpered “Oh muffins”. Derpy, on the other hoof had successfully got herself in front of the crowd as well as locate the correct aisle containing her prized muffins. Her eye turned into love hearts at the site of them all she needed was to get to them before any pony else. She triumphantly sped towards the stand of prized muffins, falling over clumsily in front of the stand before victoriously getting up to take the last muffin. But, a streak of white flashed before a ditsy eyes and as she axes upon the stand: the last muffin was gone. Derpy watched a smirking white Pegasus with teal hair triumphantly hold he muffin in her clutches. This enraged Derpy even more. “Hey! White lighting, you stole my muffin!” “What are you talking about? I got here way before you could even touch it” “Why you-” “If you want the muffin so badly then, I guess you better” she unsuspectedly flew off “..hurry” she finally said. Derpy grit her teeth in anger as she did like a Tasmanian devil and sped after her fuming. ... Doctor Whooves was down by his luck getting pounded by this humongous, mother of all muffins. He cowered away in fear as the thing got rid of his sword and hulk smashed him into a shelf. He wearily got up from the fallen items watching the distance between him and the muffin grow thin. Derpy wasn’t doing well at all to keep up with the ‘lightning’ speed of White. No matter how hard she pushed other passer buyers out of the way or tried to block her she always got away, but in the back of her mind she felt like she was missing something, something very important to her. Doctor Whooves felt the same epiphany and remembered a certain joyful, grey pegasus was counting on him to defeat this...muffin. He couldn’t let her down after all, her joyful enthusiasm brought him the best of joy through hard times. He reflected on a distant memory Flashback... Doctor Whooves furiously chucked some mechanical parts behind him, hitting his wooden door leading to the remainder of his home. Derpy was stunned by his outburst and stopped outside his door, carrying a tray of muffins. “Doc, are you okay?” she questioned. “It never works, every time I try or think that thing is fixed it just spasms out and ugh!” he slammed his head on his work bench, spilling his now cold hot chocolate near him. Derpy smiled as she gracefully came into his workplace and placed the tray of muffins down by him. Derpy though hard, squinting her ditsy eyes before picking up an empty muffin holder and slammed it in front of the Doctor who raised his head. “Derpy, what-” “See this muffin" "What muffin, it's-" "Empty? Well that's how most muffins start of as" The Doctor looked at her, slightly confused "Think of this as your foundation..if you don't add the yummy ingredients to this empty holder then how will it rise to its fluffy texture in the oven" "..." She patted him on the back, knocking his work goggles back on his face before grabbing her tray of muffins leaving the empty one on the Doctor's workbench. "I'm sure you'll get it, Doc, eventually, and I'll be here to support you all the way" "Thanks, Derpy" They both shared a compassionate smile. End of flashback Something split inside Doctor Whooves and he felt the adrenaline burn inside him. He burst into flames which blinded the monster muffin before him, halting its torment. When the sudden light had dissipated, what was left was a brave warrior, equipped with the finest, strongest armour. His chestnut brown hair swayed in the subtle breeze as he raised his mighty sword that reflected his noble expression. "Let us finish this" he announced, getting ready to charge. The monster muffin bellowed an extravagant roar before charging towards a well prepared Doctor, who only smirked as he readied himself for the onslaught. He swung his sword down, which connected with the fluffy outer structure of the muffin slicing a piece of it. Enraged by this, the muffin swung the Doctor towards a whole of stock of items which collapsed on top of the Doctor as soon as he made impact. The muffin growled as it advanced on the fallen Doctor it tried to swing at him again but ended up receiving a jab in the side from his sword. It leaned back pulling the Doctor and his sword with him before twirling around and chucking him to the other side of the aisle. "What is wrong with this thing, it doesn't seem to get weakened by any of my attempts unless..." The Doctor saw some discarded flour to his side and thought of a plan. An unsettling roar caught his attention, yet again, the muffin grunted and charged at him with the impaled sword within it. As it neared, the Doctor, opened the packet of flour spraying it on the muffin temporarily blinding it for just enough time for him to reach the sword. The muffin tried to shake free but the Doctor held it in place. "Arrivedeci, muffin!" The Doctor used all his strength to lift the sword straight through the middle of the muffin's core ripping it into two separate pieces. As the pieces fell, a new fire burned deep inside of him: it was victory. He watched as everything start to disappear around him into darkness before awakening to see a joyous face. "Oh Doc, you really scared us there, we thought you were stuck in a coma or something" The Doctor rose himself up in a seating position to see that he was laying in a pile of items particularly seeing the massive book that caused him to black out. "How long have I been out?" "Long enough" Derpy hugged him "I'm so sorry for running off like that, it's just, I really wanted to eat those muffins but, I didn't even realise you were hurt" "It's okay, Derpy, seriously I'll be fine" Derby broke their hug, with a beaming smile as she sat by the Doctor. The two were interrupted when said special muffin was presented in front of them. Derpy gazed up to see White Lightning standing before her in an apologetic way. "Sorry to interrupt but, I think this muffin belongs to you" she calmly admitted, Derpy watched in awe, almost salivating at the sight. She quickly grabbed the muffin but had second thoughts when she saw White Lightning walk away without another word. White Lightning was about to leave but she was pulled back onto the ground by Derpy, near the Doctor. They both confusingly watched Derpy karate chop the muffin successfully into three (sort of messy) pieces. She daringly each of one of them a piece before sandwiching herself between the puzzled pair. "Why are you guys pulling that expression?" she questioned. "It's just..shocking to see you actually split a muffin in order to share with others" the Doctor explained. "What's so shocking about it?" "You're crazy for muffins, so for you to-" "Don't think too hard on it, Doc. It's not a big deal" "Why are you giving me a piece? I mean I stole it from you" White Lightning intervened in the conversation. "Many ponies are misunderstood, take it from me but, if you guys don't eat your pieces in the next few seconds, I will eat them for you" They both took no further inquiries and enjoyed their pieces with pure delight, all three relished in the ecstasy of the flavour and texture of the muffin. The sun began to set outside the windows of the super market on the beautiful setting of Ponyville.