//------------------------------//
// and the Price to Pay 
// Story: The Smell of Muffins 
// by Votederpycausemufins 
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	Derpy loved her life. She had a kind daughter who had a nice life, and had a job which helped support the family, though barely. She spent every night making sure her daughter, Dinky, had something to eat, even if it meant she couldn’t do the same. There were times she would be so hungry, it made her feel sick, but Derpy pushed through for her little muffin.
There was one thing that was helping Derpy along on the days she had nothing to eat. Just across the street was a bakery. Every once and awhile, the pegasus would go in there to buy a small treat for herself that felt as filling as a normal meal. Just the smell from the bakery made her think she was wrapped in the warm dough as if it were a blanket. It had the faint scent of honey and something else sweet she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. Derpy had seen some of the small rolls that had been made, but even though they were so small, ponies only seemed to buy one or two from how much they seemed to fill once they had been eaten.
The baker of the shop was not the nicest. His name was Baker’s Dough, and he was a bit greedy at times. Most ponies were intimidated by him, and somepony had started a rumor that the stallion had taken on a thief with a single hoof. He didn’t tolerate any thieves, especially in his bakery. 
Dough knew Derpy from all the times she stepped into the shop, especially when she came with her daughter. He disliked the filly, as she kept asking if there was anything that they could have for free. He always had to tell her that if she wanted a special treat, she needed to pay for it, but the filly still asked every time.
One day, Dough overheard some of the ponies in his shop talking about the grey pegasus. “I feel bad for her. I mean, I know it’s good for her to be helping her daughter, but living off of only an aroma? She must be crazy from the lack of food.”
“Who are you talking about?” Baker’s Dough asked the ponies.
“Derpy, the mare across the street. She claims that if there’s ever a day she goes without food, she eats from here, but not off the food, only off the smells.”
Dough was furious. Certainly that must be some form of stealing. He kept his face straight until the ponies left before he started to pace angrily around the shop. His food cost money to make, and he grew as much of the ingredients he could manage. Dough wasted enough just to earn more, and he needed to save up to move his shop. He had already been losing business to Sugar Cube Corner, he didn't want people to stop coming if all they needed was the smell of the food he made, Dough would go out of business.
When Baker’s Dough closed his shop that day, he went to town hall to find Mayor Mare and tell her about the problem. He had to wait a while to see the mayor, but before too long dough went in her office.
“Baker’s Dough! What brings you here?”
“Well Ivory, somepony had been stealing from me, and she might end up running me out of business.”
Ivory Scroll sighed. “You know I prefer Mayor Mare while working. But anyway, who is the pony?”
“Uh, she’s a grey pegasus mare named Derpy Doo.”
“You mean Ditzy Doo. But yes, I know who you are talking about, though I can’t say I believe you.”
“She’s been eating food I make without paying! And if enough other ponies find out, they might do the same.”
“Could you explain more to me?” The Mayor asked. “I want to make sure this is real and not something you’re making up.”
Dough scoffed. “I wouldn’t make it up. Der- Ditzy has been saying the smell of my food is just like eating it. I would be fine with her just smelling the food if it didn’t act like she had actually had the food to eat. I’m already having financial troubles as it is. If other ponies decide to follow her lead, I’ll go bankrupt!”
Mayor Mare rolled her eyes. “Not to be rude, but is that really what's wrong?”
“Compare it to if the town decided Princess Twilight was enough and Ponyville didn’t need a mayor. You'd still be there, but nopony would come to you, and you wouldn't be paid.”
The mayor sighed. “I suppose you are right, though in your case it would be closer to stealing.” She sighed a second time. “Fine. I’ll talk to Twilight and get her to take your case.”
“Thanks Ivory.” Dough said before leaving.
The mayor glared at him as he left with a mischievous look on his face.


 	
“Goodbye Muffin!” Derpy called out to her daughter as she left for school. The filly waved back at her mom before racing off to find her friends. 
The pegasus went into the dining room where a plate of muffins sat. Lyra had brought them last night like she tried to do every other week.
Derpy picked a blueberry one off the plate and started to take of the wrapper when somepony knocked at the door. She quickly took a large bite before running out to see who it was. 
“Mayor Mare! Why are you here?” Derpy asked when she saw Ivory outside her door. The mayor sighed and asked Derpy to come to town hall, though she was allowed to grab the rest of her muffin first.
The pegasus was worried at first about what would happen if she was late for work without calling in first. The mayor said she had already contacted the post office and explain her disappearance.
Finally, the two of them reached Ivory’s office and sat to talk. “Ditzy, Baker’s Dough has come to me and said you have been stealing from him.”
Derpy’s eyes widened. “No, I would never do that! I pay for everything I get to feed my muffin, or else we get it as a gift.”
“Well, Dough seems to think that if there are days you go hungry, you full up on the smells from his food.”
Derpy gave a small nod. “Well yes, but they’re just smells, he still sells his food.”
“You are still treating the smells as food, don't you?”
“Sort of…” Derpy replied. “But it’s absurd!”
Ivory shook her head and explained how she thought it was absurd. The mayor explained how Dough made a good enough case that she considered it, but found out he had also gone to Twilight about it. The princess wanted to take their case and asked for Ivory to tell Derpy about it.
"The princess would like you to be at her castle in a little over an hour. Enough time to get ready for whatever may happen over there."
Derpy left the mayor's office and ran to find somepony who would be able to take care of Dinky when she got out of school and tell her why her mom couldn't come. Eventually, she came across Vinyl and Octavia who were out shopping.
"Have either of you two seen Amethyst Star? I would go find Lyra or Bon Bon, but they went up to Canterlot at the break of dawn. Lyra told me they were last night."
"Why do you need to find Amethyst?" Octavia asked the grey pegasus mare.
"Something came up and I may not be able to pick up my daughter at school."
"I believe we could find her. Vinyl and I saw her just a few minutes ago getting some fruit. Right Vinyl?"
When her roommate didn't respond, Octavia nudged the unicorn and repeated her sentence, to which Vinyl gave a quick nod and turned her music back on.
"Whatever is going on, I hope it’ll end up well." The earth pony said to Derpy before she and her friend walked off.
Derpy flew home as fast as she could and left a long note propped up on her dining table. She explained what was going on and how she was glad somepony was looking after her muffin.  She gave a few instructions as well and to try and not make Dinky worry. Derpy also straightened the place up just a bit before running off to the castle.



Twilight was waiting just outside the door when Derpy arrived. The alicorn led her visitor inside to a room with six large crystal chairs, all baring one of the element bearers cutiemark, and one smaller one right next to the one with Twilight’s cutiemark, devoid of it’s own symbol. In the middle was a large table that had a holographic map on it. Sitting in one of the chairs which had three diamonds engraved at the top was Baker's Dough.
Derpy looked away when he started to turn towards her. The princess led the pegasus into another chair with three butterflies instead. She recognized them as Fluttershy's cutie mark. They had been in the same class in Cloudsdale and both had been poor flyers.
Not a moment later, Twilight sat in her seat and the starburst above her head started to glow.
"I would have asked my friends here as well, but all of them has some sort of connection to this case, and I didn't want to make it unfair. Dough, can you restate your case for Derpy here?"
Dough nodded and stood up. "I have heard reports of Derpy stealing my smells, saying they fill her up much like eating them would. I don't believe she will deny it." Twilight looked at Derpy and she shook her head in agreement. "I would pass it up normally, but if others decided to follow in her hoofsteps, I will go bankrupt, and I'm already losing ponies to Sugar Cube Corner."
"And Derpy, your counter?" Twilight asked
Dough sat down and Derpy took his place. "I barely have enough to feed my growing daughter all the time much less myself. There are times where I give her all the food I would have for my meals. I do still go to Dough's bakery and buy food from there, it's just I don't have much to pay with and the food is slightly expensive."
The princess turned to Dough and asked for his response. He said how all his food was fresh, but if she asked he would bring out what old food he had left. Normally other ponies would come and buy it as feed for chickens and certain pets.
The case went on for a while. At first, Derpy thought she could end up winning soon enough, but Dough seemed to have some form of silver tongue.	The more he talked, the more it seemed Twilight was favoring his side of things.
Eventually, she asked the two to leave for the day and come back tomorrow at the same time. Derpy looked at the clock and saw that Dinky would be most of the way home by now. She panicked at how long it had been and was about to race out when the princess stopped her.
"Derpy, I have to say that I'm going to have to say that Baker's Dough should win this case. He's asking for a lot of bits, more than I believe you even have. Still, I would like it if you brought all the bits you have in a large bag. I believe it will be enough in the end."
Derpy gave a sad nod before heading out the door. She didn't bother to race home, instead, she thought about what it could mean. Her daughter would have barely anything to eat. The mortgage for the house was going to be due soon, and there was no way she could earn that much in just over a week. Maybe she could get her friends to help, but she doubted they would be able to raise enough money in time. Hopefully she and Dinky could move in with one of them until they had a new house.
Eventually, Derpy reached her house. Just after opening the front door, she could hear hooves from upstairs running towards the steps downstairs to greet her. Dinky jumped up and hugged her mom and asked what happened. "Never mind all that Muffin. I'm here now. I'll need to go out once more tomorrow, but it will be during school. And if I take too long Amethyst will just take care of you again. Now you should go and work on your homework some more."
"How do you know I'm not done?" Dinky asked.
Derpy smiled. "Because I'm your mother and you're normally not done yet."
Dinky stuck her tongue out at Derpy before running back upstairs. Amethyst said she would come up soon before asking Derpy what happened.
"The princess wants me to bring all of my money to her castle tomorrow for Dough. I'm not going to have anything to feed Dinky soon and there's no way we'll be able to stay in this house much longer with so little money left."
"Don't worry, we'll-" But Amethyst was cut off.
"All help. I know that." Derpy finished. "But It's not going to be enough. If I run through it, who knows how many times, in my head, and unless you're all super generous, we won't have enough."
"It can't be that expensive. Not to try and offend you, but even with the little money you make, you've still been able to stay in the house all these years. Until you told me now, I didn't even know."
The two argued on for a bit more before they seemed to remember Dinky might listen in and stopped. Amethyst Star left for the day and Derpy went to prepare dinner. It was smaller than usual, so there was no chance of Derpy eating some. At least there were still a few muffins left that she could have in the morning.
The pegasus called down her daughter and Dinky came to the table. She sat down to a bowl with potato soup. The filly looked at the food, then at her mom.
"Are you going to eat some?"
Derpy turned to her daughter. "No, I need to make a run to the store. We're running out of food."
Dinky looked at her mom skeptically. "But we had a bunch yesterday. What happened?
"I needed to clean out the fridge. Some of it was spoiled and it's much more empty now."
"Are you sure? There have been other times where you don't."
"Y-yes Muffin. Besides, I have to go get ready for tomorrow. I don't want to get in trouble for forgetting."
Dinky tried to retaliate, but her mother stopped the filly. She went upstairs to find a sack to put her money in. As Derpy worked on filling it, she could hear hoofsteps coming up the stairs. A door out in the hall closed and Derpy was about to go downstairs when she heard crying coming from Dinky's room. The mare went over to the door and knocked on it slightly. The crying stopped, and a slightly wavering voice answered with a yes.
"Is everything okay in there? I thought I heard crying."
"N-no. Ev-everything's fine."
Derpy wanted to go in, but she felt Dinky needed to be alone right now. Instead, Derpy continued downstairs. She put away a few toys Dinky had left out and then went into the kitchen. Sitting on the table was Dinky's dinner bowl. 
Derpy was surprised to see it there. Normally the filly would put her dishes in the sink. Derpy grabbed it herself before noticing the spoon to the side of it. It was perfectly clean. The mare looked in the bowl. All the food she had put in were still there. Her daughter hadn't taken a single bite.
Derpy decided to put the soup in the fridge so it could be eaten later. She also grabbed a jar she kept in one cupboard which had a few bits in it for an emergency. Walking slowly back upstairs, she couldn't hear Dinky anymore, and when she peeked in, the unicorn was asleep.



When Derpy woke up the next morning, she set out one of the muffins for Dinky. The mare apologized to her daughter in case they were stale. Eventually she sent the filly off to school, noticing she hadn't even taken a bite of her breakfast.
Derpy realized that Dinky must have overheard at least some of last night's conversation. The pegasus thought about going after her daughter, but she didn't really have time. Derpy grabbed her bag of bits and raced towards the Ponyville Castle.
On the way, a few ponies asked where she was going, since some of them remembered her from her job.  Derpy didn't really respond, other than saying she was in a hurry. When she  finally reached the castle and went inside, she realized she was tense from her fear of being late. Derpy calmed herself down before heading into the room of chairs. All of them were already filled by the princess and her friends. 
Derpy looked around and noticed that Dough hadn't arrived just yet. She gave a sigh of relief which made Twilight notice her. "Ah, you're here. I was hoping you'd arrive first. And I see you brought all your money. Good, this should work out fine."
That made something inside Derpy snap. "Fine? FINE?! This is literally all the money I have! Enough here to keep my daughter and I living in our house and to feed her! She only just found out I have little enough to feed myself and ever since last night, she hasn't been eating anything! What you're doing for Dough will leave us homeless and starving and you think it's going to be PERFECTLY FINE?!"
Twilight winced a little. "No, that's not what I meant. Please if you just listen-"
"No! Until you absolutely have to, you can't say anything!"
Derpy stood next to the wall, glaring at Twilight until Baker's Dough finally arrived. When he saw Derpy with her bag of bits, he smirked, thinking about how much money he would have now.
After about five minutes of silence, Twilight stood up and asked for him and Derpy to come in the ring of chairs. The two followed the order and stood next to each other looking at the princess.
“I have looked at the case presented by Dough.” Twilight started. “I found a punishment that seemed fit for this act of thievery and the others here have agreed with it. Derpy, I asked to bring all the money you have in a bad, correct?”
Derpy motioned to her bag. “Yes princess.”
“To make sure, can you please pick up the bag and shake it.”
Derpy picked it up and shook it, letting the coins jingle, before she dropped the bag to the ground with a loud thud.
“Baker’s Dough, did that sound like bits to you?” Twilight asked.
Dough nodded. He smiled again at the thought of all the money in there.
“Then I have to say this case is closed. Derpy has stolen smells, so she has repaid with the sound of her money.”
Derpy and Dough both looked at the princess with surprise. “W-why didn’t you tell me that was your plan earlier?” Derpy asked.
“You asked me not to talk to you, so I listened.”
Dough was very angry, but he had to admit that Twilight was being fair. He was cheered up by Pinkie Pie, who asked if she could buy some cinnamon rolls from him. “...I mean, I’m good with sweets, but the way you cook them makes my mouth water. Those are like your MMMM.”
Twilight ended up helping Derpy back to her house. Derpy tried to protest, but the alicorn insisted after what she had put the mare through.
The pegasus eventually found Amethyst and told her the good news. In return, The unicorn decided to give some of her earnings to Derpy since she had more than she needed herself.
When Dinky came home, Derpy already had a snack out for the both of them. She told her daughter everything before the two started to eat the food in front of them. Dinky ran over and hugged her mom, knocking the cinnamon bread out of her hoof. The filly caught it just before it hit the floor and levitated it into her mother’s mouth. “Don’t drop that, mom, you juzz might have to shake a few coins again.” The two laughed together as a happy family again. For long they just talked about their day, one crazier than the other.