//------------------------------//
// Chapter One 
// Story: The Muffin Mare 
// by NuclearCinnamon 
//------------------------------//

	The sun was just beginning to rise over Ponyville as the residents began to wake and get ready for the day ahead. A very typical day for everypony, including Derpy Hooves. She started her regular routine of getting out of bed, getting herself ready for the work day ahead, and preparing breakfast for her two daughters, Dinky and Sparkler. Derpy had a pretty good life, she had a good job that paid well enough, friends like Carrot Top that were there for her, and especially her two beautiful children. She couldn’t ask for anything more, nor did she want to change anything about it, she had everything she had dreamed of. 
She enjoyed her life, even if some ponies made it difficult for her or her family, she still kept a good outlook. After she was done brushing her mane, she made her way downstairs, careful not to wake Dinky and Sparkler just yet. She was going to make her two bundles of joy their favorite breakfast, muffins. 
She made all sorts of different types of muffins, flavors like strawberry, blueberry, and chocolate chip. You name it, she made it. She especially liked making them with blueberry, those were always her favorites. She prepared the batter quite quickly, as she had done it a hundred times before. The smell of the goodies baking always reminded her of the Muffin Bake Off’s she always entered. 




Derpy thought back to that day, she had approached the stand that she would set up for her confections. The sun hung at its apex over the town square, the bustling even greater than usual. The Annual Bake Off, an old Ponyville tradition turned contest, was soon to begin. As ponies rushed by, scents of flour, sugar, fruits, and sweetness wafted in their wake. The judges would come around to each stand and judge the muffins based on the looks, the feel, and especially the taste. She had made her personal favorite for this contest, which as always was blueberry. They were still hot from the oven, carefully wrapped in a basket to keep them warm until she arrived. 
The three unicorn judges came up to her stand, levitating a clipboard and pen. Derpy looked up with her eyes askew and a warm smile. Each of the judges levitated a muffin closer to themselves, examining them carefully, and finally taking a bite. The judges faces were unreadable as far as a reaction to the taste, they just clicked their pens and scratched them against the paper on the clipboard. Soon after, they put the basket back on the table and moved on the next stand. A few other ponies came by to sample her goods, taking them with them to enjoy later. Since this was Derpy’s first time entering the Muffin Bake Off, she was eager to hear where her muffins fell in the standings.
 After all the judging of the muffins was done, they called all the contestants to gather up on the stage with one of their samples. The judges were still discussing off to the side of the stage, whispering between each other. Derpy wasn’t too confident when she saw two of the judges look her way and shake their heads. The judges finally broke from their huddle, making a final check over their clipboards. The three judges came up on stage, and one of them proceeded closer to the microphone, and cleared her throat. 
“Thank you everypony for coming to fifth Annual Muffin Bake Off. All of the contestants that presented their muffins today did a fabulous job!” This made Derpy perk up for a minute.  “And now, the third place winner is...” Derpy looked at the ground, not hearing her name for even third place. If she didn’t even get third place it was over, her cooking skills definitely weren’t good enough yet. The judge then announced the runner-up. 
Derpy still hung her head, as the official continued. “Now, we had a tough time trying to decide on first place because of so many good entrants.” Derpy couldn’t even stand to listen anymore, so she tried to cancel out the voice of the judge. The microphone gave off some feedback as the mare adjusted it, making everypony in the area cringe. “The winner of the fifth Annual Muffin Bake Off is...” the judge said as there was a rippling snare of a drum roll, “Derpy Hooves!” 
Surprsingly all of the ponies at the competition were blown away by her muffins, even the judges were shocked on how delicious these pastries were. Derpy was stunned; She had won! Her recipe, and nopony else’s, had stood as the best. “I did it, I DID IT! I am the Muffin Mare!” she cheered. She took off with joy, her wings twirling her through the air until she eventually let herself touch back down on the stage. It took her a moment to realize that she’d landed facing the wrong way, the audience behind her. 
The judge tapped her on the flank, prompting her to turn around with a sheepish grin. With a murmur of chuckles from the crowd, the judge placed the blue and gold medal around Derpy’s neck. “Congratulations to Miss Derpy Hooves and all of the participants.” This was perhaps Derpy’s favorite accomplishment and she’d keep it dear to her for the rest of her life. Derpy knew she couldn’t share the muffin recipe with anypony. Ponies would die to get their hooves on it. It was a secret, and was the biggest treasure she had. That is, before Dinky and Sparkler came into her life. 


               
She came back to reality at the smell of fresh muffins. After she had finished preparing a big batch, she went back up stairs to wake up her two children, only to find that they had already been woken up by the aroma coming from the kitchen. She stood in the hall between both of their rooms and said, 
“Good morning my muffins, breakfast is ready!” Both Dinky and Sparkler came out of their rooms to be greeted by their mother, the wall-eyed pegasus. Dinky was the first to shout, 
“Good morning Mommy!” as she ran towards her mother, wrapping herself around one of Derpy’s legs. Derpy looked down at Dinky with her right eye and a big smile. Sparkler was next to speak, 
“Good morning mom.” Derpy looking up at Sparkler a whole-hearted smile at the same time, as her eyes were still askew. She tried to make her way over to Sparkler to give her a hug, but Dinky clung to Derpy’s leg, almost making her trip as she moved. All of them laughed at once. They all trotted downstairs and to the kitchen table, where a basket of fresh muffins was the beloved centerpiece. 
As they made it part way through the basket of the muffins, Derpy told Sparkler that she had to take Dinky to school today. Derpy’s day would be a bit busier than most, the office was short-hoofed today, and she had volunteered for some overtime. Sparkler nodded, it was almost a daily routine to take Dinky to school. 
Because of how busy her mother was, she grew accustomed to helping around at home after she was brought in by Derpy. She had to come to terms with it, and she grew to handle and take pride in the responsibilities she bore for her family. It made her feel important, something she hadn’t felt in some time. 
“Ok Dinky, lets go brush up and get ready to go.” Sparkler said. Dinky, still with some muffin in her mouth, nodded and bounced in place with a big grin on her face. 
Soon they were all at the front door, ready to go. Derpy giving both of her daughters a big hug, 
“Have a good day, my muffins!” giving Dinky her saddlebags that contained her books and lunch. Her lunch contained a daisy sandwich, a juice box, and of course a muffin from breakfast. Derpy also grabbed her mailbag and put a muffin inside for her own lunch. Derpy then gave Sparkler a list of a few household chores that needed to be done. Sparkler looked it for a moment, and gave her mother a simple salute. 
With that Derpy went outside and took off to the post office, as Dinky and Sparkler set off in the opposite direction to the school. Derpy wouldn’t give her children up for anything, they were her world, her life, her only family.
Derpy arrived at the post office and punched in, seeing all of the other ponies already here.  She greeted everypony in the building with a smile and a friendly “Hello”. Derpy was one of the more appreciated workers of the office, she did what she was told, and did it when no other pony would. If it was raining or snowing, she was there to deliver anyway, even if she was a bit late, she would get that letter or package to its destination. 
She knew it was going to be another long day by the sight of all the outgoing mail. With a small sigh and a little smile on her face, she loaded up her mailbags, careful not crush her precious muffin, and began on her route. Some time had passed and part way through her route she flew by the school to wave to Dinky, like she did every single day. 
Dinky looked out the window as her mother waved at her, she put a smile on her face and waved back. With that satisfaction, Derpy continued on her way, flying erratically as a few letters flew out of her bags. She had to do a few swooping passes to get the awry postage.
She only had a few letters left in one of her mailbags and was nearing the end of her first  route. The route just like any other, other than the few fights with filling some of the mailboxes along the way, it wasn’t uncommon for Derpy. She stopped to see where she had to head next. As she looked at one of the final letters, the address confused her. She had never seen this address before, nor did she usually deliver outside of her usual route. 
She remembered that she had found it in another mailbox, its flag raised as a signal that the letter was to be delivered. It wasn’t too far away, so she decided to go and deliver it. It wasn’t worth taking it back to the post office and have somepony else waste time to get it delivered. 
She ended up finding the place within the hour, it was a house that was near the Everfree Forest. She didn’t normally have to deliver this close to the forest, but there were a few deliveries that involved occasionally traveling out this far. “I’ve never been out to this address before,” Derpy thought, as she looked at the letter then back to the residence. The mailbox was up near the door, not uncommon to her but it was a change in pace because Derpy was used to the mailbox being near the paths. It was easier to deliver fast and head on her way, saving her some time.
She approached the house like any other, hovering up to the porch. She was about to put the letter into the mailbox when the door flashed open, she saw a shadow of a pony. She couldn’t see the pony’s face due to a ski mask, and the darkness inside the house didn’t help either. 
 Then, faster than Derpy could even greet the intimidating shadow, the mystery pony tackled Derpy and covered her head with a black plastic bag. She tried to scream, kick her legs, and flap her wings. It was no use, the pony had leverage over Derpy. The attacker had already won, and she knew it. She also knew that she was far away from ponyville and that no other pony could hear her cries for help. Derpy struggled to fight with what she had, little did she know she was running out of oxygen. 
She saw her life flash before her eyes, thinking of her job, her friends, and her family. Thinking of her two daughters, she started to panic. She knew that she was all they had, and same for her. She couldn't stand the fear of her not being there for her precious family. With that in her head, she felt herself start to fade in and out of consciousness, gasping for air every second she could. Before she blacked out, she thought of who in their right mind would want to attack her like this. She didn’t think she had any enemies, or anypony that would want to hurt her either. 
Within a few seconds Derpy lost consciousness, and she fell limp under the hooves of her attacker. The mystery pony pulled the bag off of Derpy’s head and checked her pulse. It was there, but faint. The pony proceeded to drag Derpy into the house by her tail. The door slammed shut and house seemed as quiet and normal as any other. 


	

Slowly, Derpy’s senses started to return to her. She felt like she was dreaming, then reality suddenly came down like the other horseshoe. She came back to awareness with a strong twitch that seemed to engulf her entire body. With such a violent movement, she had hit something with her hooves. Derpy had found herself in a cramped space. Even with her eyes wide open, it was pitch black. She put her hooves to her eyes, to see if this was still a dream. She started to feel the dried up tears on her face, slowly cleaning them off.  
She tried to feel about the area with her hooves. She discovered that three sides of this prison were the same, and one side having a different pattern and feel to it. It felt like some kind of bars and some sort of small opening. She tried to find a knob or latch to let her out of this nightmare to no avail. When she tried to stand up, she managed to hit her head on the top of whatever contained her. The small box was barely big enough to hold her. There was nothing but blackness, she tried not to panic or break down into tears.
Derpy thought back to the incident, she somewhat knew she was lucky to be alive. She tried to think about her past, “Who would want to attack me?” Derpy thought. She couldn’t think of anypony who would have something against her. She pondered this for a moment longer, “Did I do something wrong?” “Did somepony hold a grudge?” Many things started running through Derpy’s head, but what she thought of most was Dinky and Sparkler. Tears started to form in her eyes. She missed them now more than ever on the account of her near death experience. She could never imagine herself without them, and they were the greatest joy of her life. She was worried about them, she had no idea if they knew that she was missing or not. She did tell them both that she had to work overtime and would probably be home after they were asleep. She did not know how long she had been in this cage, nor if it was still day or far into the night by now.
 After what seemed like an eternity, Derpy ears twitched as her heard a door open. It was barely audible and distant, but she managed to hear it. Next came a clear sounding noise, somewhere along the lines of hooves on wooden staircase. She shouted with what voice she had left, 
“HELLO?!?” her voice echoed inside the small space. There was no response and even for a second it went silent. She put her ear up against one of the sides of the case, listening for anything else. Something that sounded like something heavy being draggged across the floor. After this, there was a thump, thump, thump. Whatever was being lugged was going up the wooden stairs, with the faint noise of hooves. With that, the she heard the door slam shut.
Derpy at this point couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. Rivulets started streaming down her face. She was very upset, but she quickly became enraged at the same time. She started to lash out with her hooves against the walls of the cage, screaming and crying in pained hysteria. This went on for a few minutes before she gave up, curling up into a ball and burying her face in her forelegs. She stayed like this for quite awhile. Only the faint sobs could be heard against the stoic silence that surrounded her. Eventually she cried herself into another nap. Little did Derpy know, the sun was just starting to set.





Sparkler had just finished making dinner for Dinky, preparing salads for the both of them. When they sat down for the meal, Sparkler was first to speak, 
“How was your day, Dinky?” 
Dinky sitting across the table from Sparkler, tried to speak with a few leaves of lettuce in her mouth, “It wus gweat!” 
Sparkler rolled her eyes and said, “You know you shouldn’t talk with your mouth full.” Dinky smiled and swallowed the food that was in her mouth, she then continued to talk about her day. Sparkler, still eating, was starting to drift off from what Dinky had been saying. She noticed Dinky’s saddlebags were behind her on the counter. There was some pencils and some paper sticking out of it. Sparkler noticed something in particular. One of the pieces of paper had some words written on it as far as she could tell. She squinted at the it, trying to figure out exactly what it was.
Sparkler then interrupted Dinky’s rant with a question. 
“Hey, what’s that in your saddlebags?” Dinky turned around to spot a note that had the words, ‘To mommy’ written on the top. Dinky turned back to Sparkler with a big grin on her face. 
“It’s for mommy!” she shouted. “I drew her a picture!” as she started to bounce up and down. Sparkler said with a smile, “Well let me see.” 
Dinky was eager enough to hop over to the saddlebags and pull out the paper. Sparkler was just about to take another bite of her salad when Dinky jumped up into Sparklers lap. This startled Sparkler, but only for moment. Dinky was holding the sheet in her mouth with a smile. Sparkler used her magic to levitate it over to herself to see what Dinky had made. Sparkler looked at the hoof-drawn picture in awe.












She couldn’t believe how well it was drawn, even for Dinky’s age. Sparkler complimented her little sister. 
“Wow, Dinky this is really good!” This put a big grin on Dinky’s face.
 “Thanks big sis’!” Sparkler stared at the picture for a few more minutes before saying another word. 
“Lets put this on the refrigerator.” Sparkler picked Dinky up off her lap and put her on the floor. Sparkler still using her magic to hold to piece of paper, made her way over to the fridge. She placed the picture higher up so it could be displayed proudly. Having done so, Sparkler looked back at Dinky. 
“There, now mom can see it when she gets home.” Dinky looked up at the drawing, obviously very pleased with her work.
“Ok Dinky, I think it’s time for you to get to bed” Sparkler said looking back down to her younger sister. Dinky looked back up at her, somewhat disappointed with being put to bed without mommy coming home. Dinky replied, 
“Are you going to read me a bedtime story?” 
Sparkler rolled her eyes, “Of course, but first go get brushed up.” Dinky gave one of Sparklers legs a big hug. Sparkler returning the hug by putting one hoof around Dinky’s shoulder. 
After Dinky had took off to the stairs, Sparkler looked back at the picture one last time, she tried to figure out how Dinky could have drawn it so well. “Could see use her magic better than me?” She thought. She could only do simple tasks with her magic, like levitating small objects and opening doors. “Just wait until mom sees this.” was her last thought before finally making her way over to the stairs.
By the time Sparkler got to Dinky’s room, she had already tucked herself in for the night. Dinky was holding onto a book full of stories, lullaby's and nursery rhymes. Sparkler made her way over to the bed and sat down by Dinky. She grabbed the book from Dinky with her magic, opening it up to the table of contents. 
“What story would like for me to read to you tonight?” the elder sister asked. Dinky leaned up, putting a hoof on one of her favorite tales. 
“This one!”




While Derpy stirred in her uncomfortable restless slumber, she had been having a dream. Her dream involved nothing but muffins, muffin oceans, muffins mountains, muffin houses, even the land and clouds were made of muffins. She danced and frolicked through muffiny fields and ran through pastry forests. It was heaven made real... for a time. Then Derpy’s worst nightmare came true: all of the muffins suddenly transformed into biscuits!
She woke up with a scream, 
“YOU’RE NOT MUFFINS!!” kicking her legs all about. Derpy finally realised it was a nightmare only to come back into the harsh reality in which she had dwelled in for quite some time. She had no idea what time of day it was, or if it was even day anymore. It didn’t feel like it since she was in such a dark area so long, thinking that there would be no hope of ever seeing the outside world or her kids ever again.
 At the same time Derpy perked up at the smell of something cooking. The smell was breaching through the cage, and into her nostrils. She had realised that she had never ate lunch before she had been captured, as her stomach spoke out to her. At least Derpy knew she was at least near an oven, that was for sure. The scent was all too familiar to Derpy, she thought about it for a second. It hit her like a ton of bricks; the smell of...muffins. Derpy knew it the instant it had entered her nose. 
Somepony was baking those delectable treats, and the source was close by. A sound echoed into the tiny prison, like some noises she had heard before. It was the door opening, and the sound of hooves on the wooden staircase. As soon as they stopped, she began to bang furiously on the walls of the cage. She began to scream with whatever voice she had left, tears pouring from her eyes. This was her last hope, all was lost if nobody could hear her cries for help. She continued to do this for several minutes, until she couldn’t scream any more. As she put her hooves on her face, she heard something.
Her ears jerked, as she slowly calmed down from her tantrum. The sounds of clopping got louder and louder, until finally they were in front of the case. The locks on the box clicked open, and the door swung aside. This made Derpy cover her eyes, she had been in the dark for so long that she needed time to adjust to the change in light. When she finally was able to open them, she was met by the sight of light, iron bars, and a pony. She inched forward towards the light, still trying to comprehend the brightness of the outside. She put her hooves on the bars, then finally focused her eyes.
She looked around the room, only to see what looked like any ordinary basement. Junk everywhere, and little slits where the windows were. She looked at the pony that was directly in front of her little prison. She couldn’t see a face through the black mask obscuring all of the pony’s features, save for their blue eyes. She could only assume that it was her attacker. If she was right, it was the same pony from before that had almost killed her. Derpy was upset and furious, tears still running down her face. She started to speak. 
“Why did you do this to me?” The pony didn’t respond at first, only observing her captive. At this point Derpy grew impatient. 
“Let me out of here!” she yelled. The mystery attacker chuckled sadistically with a raspy mare’s voice.  At least Derpy knew now that her attacker was female.
“Who are you?” Derpy said. This time the pony actually did respond. 
“Oh Derpy, you don’t remember me?” Derpy couldn’t recognize the voice right away. The masked pony continued, 
“Such a shame, we used to be such good friends.” Derpy had a confused look on her face, still trying to put a hoof on who it could be. She tried to think into her past but just couldn't focus. She was just too eager to get out of this hell hole once and for all. 
“Are you going to let me out of here?”: Derpy spat with an annoyed attitude. 
“That,” the mare stated smoothly, “is up to you.” Derpy didn’t know what the mystery mare meant by this, she just stared back at her captor with a dumb-founded expression.
The mysterious mare chuckled again, turning around and picking something up with her teeth. With a jerking motion she threw something in Derpy’s direction. She flinched as the object hit the bars of the cage. When she looked back, there sat her mailbags on the floor. Derpy then reached out from the box to retrieve her bags. To her disappointment they were empty, she knew that she had left... 
“Looking for this?” the masked captor said as she slid something from behind her to just out of reach to Derpy’s cell.
Derpy’s eyes widened, it was the muffin that she had put in her bag for lunch. It was now on a plate and sitting between the two mares. Derpy tried to reach for it, knowing it was the only food within her grasp. Just before Derpy got to it, the mysterious mare pulled it back just out of arms length of Derpy. 
“Please, I’m so hungry,” Derpy whined. The mystery mare snickered. 
“Oh, you want this?” Derpy shook her head up and down in a swift motion. “Ok, I have a proposition for you then. I will set you free and let you have the muffin on one condition.” Haughtily proud pony continued. 
“Only if you tell me the secret ingredient to your delicious little goodies.” Derpy fought inwardly for a moment. She had decided to keep her precious recipe a secret, she promised herself she wouldn’t divulge it. Derpy turned around in the cage facing away from the mystery mare and crossed her forelegs. 
“Forget it.” Derpy snarled. Turning her head back towards her interrogator with her eyes crossed and tongue sticking out. 
“Fine, have it your way, my offer still stands.” The mystery mare groaned. 
“I’ll just leave this here.” as she pointed her hoof back at the baked sweet on the sliver platter. 
“Let me know when you change your mind.” The foalnapper trotted off back up the stairs. However she didn’t close the door on Derpy’s cell, nor the one at the top of the stairs.
And there Derpy sat, being stared down by a lone muffin. Her stomach aching and growling from hunger. Derpy had to think things through, she could risk losing the recipe that she had cherished and had never shared with anypony...

or risk losing her life.