//------------------------------// // AKA Cupcakes VS Muffins (edited) // Story: The Muffin Mare // by Dragonfire2lm //------------------------------// "Ok girls! Another day, another chance to earn our- What in tarnation?" Applebloom had walked into Sugarcube Corner, the new meeting place for The Cutie Mark Crusaders ever since Rainbow Dash crashed their headquaters after another failed stunt (Applejack was repairing it). She was smiling and optimistic until she saw her two best friends and their latest in a long series of arguments. "Cupcakes are better!" the white unicorn filly, Sweetie Belle argued. "No way, everypony knows muffins are better!" the orange pegasus called Scootaloo, replied just as strongly. "Cupcakes!" "Muffins!" "Cupcakes!" "Muffins!" "CUPCAKES!" "MUFFINS!" "CUP-" "That's enough!" Applebloom shouted, finally having lost her patience with her friends. The other two looked a bit sheepish when they looked over at her but as soon as they caught eye contact with each other the two arguing fillies huffed and turned away from each other. "Now what in Equestria is goin' on here?" the yellow earth pony asked her comrades. "Well Sweetie said Pinkie's cupcakes are better than the muffins made by the muffin mare! When everypony knows they're not!" the orange filly explained. "No way!" Sweetie began. "What's a Muffin mare?" Applebloom asked. "You don't know?" Scootaloo exclaimed as Sweetie rolled her eyes. "The muffin mare is the best muffin maker in ALL of Equestria, and the best thing is no pony knows who she is! She could be anypony, nopony has come close to finding out who she is! Not even Derpy the mailmare, and she knows more ponies than Pinkie," the small pegasus rambled on excitedly. That is until a certain pink pony with a talent for parties and fourth wall breaking popped up next to her. "Oh Scootaloo, Derpy may know more ponies than me, but that doesn't mean she's friends with all those ponies. Right Dragonfire2lm?" Pinkie asked while staring at the ceiling. Oh crap not again....First Discord now her..Please excuse me readers while I go fix the fourth wall. Some timey-whimey stuff later "Ok girls, so you two are fightin' about whether cupcakes are better than muffins?" Applebloom asked, somewhat confused by her friends latest disagreement. "Did Discord put yah up to this or somethin'? 'Cause this is crazy, even for you two" "Um no," her friends replied. The three fillies quickly glanced around, wary that the reformed prank loving draconeqqus could pop up any minute. Satisfied that the spirit of chaos was nowhere to be found they sighed in relief. "Ok..So if you two wanna stop fightin' then...maybe we could find the muffin mare?" Applebloom suggested. "But how will that help?" Scootaloo asked. "Well, if we find the muffin mare we could ask her how she makes her muffins and uh..Oh! Then we could ask Pinkie the same thing and see which one is better or something," the earth pony replied. "I don't know..." Sweetie said, unsure of her friends idea. "Yeah!" Scootaloo agreed "We could be Cutie Mark Crusaders Muffin Mare finders!" At the mention of yet another way to find their cutie marks, all three fillies yelled in a voice that could rival the fabled 'Royal We'... "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS MUFFIN MARE FINDERS YAY!" And after blowing out the eardrums of all ponies in the vicinity, they rushed out of the bakery and into the streets of Ponyville. Applebloom and Sweetie hopped into the wagon as Scootaloo jumped onto her signature scooter and with her wings flapping like a hummingbird's, the CMC's were soon whizzing down the street. "So what do we do first?" Sweetie asked. "Do you think we should go and ask somepony to see if they know anything?" Applebloom suggested. "Uh, I did say nopony knows who the muffin mare is, so who would we ask?" Scotaloo replied. "I know! How about her?" Applebloom pointed skyward and the others looked up to see Equestria's greatest Mailmare, Derpy Ditzy Doo, flying above the street on her morning mail route. "But-" the orange pegasus that powered their mode of transportation began, but was cut off by Sweetie Belle. "Yeah! She delivers mail to all parts of Equestria! She might not know who the muffin mare is, but maybe we could get some clues!" the unicorn filly suggested. "But we gotta catch her to ask her first, let's hurry Scootaloo!" Applebllom stated. "On it!" the orange filly grumbled. Ponies side-stepped and jumped out of the way of the group as they zipped through town, chasing after the grey pegasus, keeping their eyes on the sky. Applebloom and Sweetie called out directions that Scootaloo hastily followed. "Left!" "Right! No My right!" "Hurry up we're losing her!" "I'm flapping as fast as I can!" their driver yelled in frustration as they narrowly avoided colliding into a pedestrian. They continued on, reaching the outskirts of town and as they passed a water fountain, the two fillies in the wagon watched as Derpy punched a hole through a cloud, flew through it, but to their amazement did not appear on the other side. "Huh?" Applebloom and Sweetie looked at each other, Scootaloo heard their confusion and looked up as well. "Hey where is she?" she asked. "She went through the cloud...So where is she?" Applebloom asked as she looked up at the sky again. "Uh girls...who's watching where we're going?" Sweetie asked. All three had realised that they were still moving, they looked ahead of them to see that they were moments away from going off a small cliff into a patch of forest. Scootaloo slammed both back hooves onto the ground to try to slow down, but with the sudden decrease in speed, both the scooter and the wagon lurched forward and caused their respective occupants to go flying over into the forest below. Luckily, the drop wasn't high and all three landed on the ground with a few minor cuts with tree sap and pine needles stuck to their coats. "Ew.....I thought we were done with tree sap after we tried zip lining," Scootaloo remarked and eyed the sticky substance with annoyance. "Tell me about it, Rarity is going to be so mad if I come home looking like this again" Sweetie complained. "Cheer up girls, we can just go to my place and use the hose to wash of, come on everypony!" Applebloom cheerfully declared and led the way to Sweet Apple Acres.