1: Introducing muddle
A beautiful Saturday morning, the streets of Ponyville were quiet, and the sun was held high in the sky. Celestia had truly done a beautiful job in making this day. A tan pony named Roseluck sat at the edge of her garden tidying her raspberry mane and admiring the days radiance. The only thing she thought could make this day any more wonderful was simply spending it taking care of the flowers in her garden. "Why can't everyday just be like this?" She said to the bird that was perched next to her sunflowers.
Then a loud explosion that disturbed this day's natural peace and tranquility. The bird that once listened to Roseluck's comments about the beautiful new day began to fly off in fear of the new noise it heard. She let out a soft sigh and said, "I almost forgot. She's the reason we can't have days like this." Roseluck then began to retreat inside her house, not wanting to know what happened or what damage was done to her plants.
Most ponies in Ponyville knew that if they were buying flowers from Roseluck to stay away from the house next door. It constantly held an aroma that even with enlightening smell of Roseluck's flowers never seemed to go away. It wasn't a bad smell, and certainly wasn't hazardous, it just was unusual. Just like the pony that lived inside the house. If you were to look at her now you could see her talking to what seemed like air. Although, through her eyes she could see a dark, shadowy figure screaming back at her.
"Muddle how did you mess up making this poison? No! How did you blow up the house when the recipe didn't require any flammable material?" The shadow's words were harsh and directed at a brown unicorn that was still coughing smoke out of her lungs and rubbing soot from her once red mane. She responded with her usual answer when things went wrong, "I don't know." She let out another cough before continuing, "I followed your instructions word for word: one ounce of snake venom, three drops of cockatrice blood, and generous helping of blast powder." The shadow's white eye's narrowed, as she lifted her hoof and hit Muddle on her head. "Ouch!" Muddle moaned, and that was all she was able to do before her shadow began chastise her stupidity, "The recipe called for suns-sour not blast powder. Why didn't you listen when I told you this, and why didn't you shield the blast instead of your self?"
Before Muddle had the chance to justify her actions. She heard a loud crash come from where her door once stood. Muddle quickly turned her head around to see a bright yellow pegasus slowly backing away from the crumbled wooden door. The pegasus gave a short, sheepish smile and said, "Sorry about that, I..um just wanted to see if you were all right." Muddle felt relived to hear the sound of the pony's voice. She knew this pony as one the few who actually treated her like she was normal, and she knew that this pony in particular would never try to hit her on her head. "Fluttershy! Oh sorry to worry you everything is just fine. I was just...cooking." Muddle began to grin in a way that almost spotlighted the lies that she told, but her friends was too busy checking to see if Muddle suffered any wounds to notice, "You're not feeling dizzy are you?" Muddle could feel her cheeks beginning to turn red from embarrassment as she began to answer Fluttershy's questions about her health, "Yes my heads fine, and I made sure not to get caught in the explosion like last time. Really Fluttershy, I will be alright."
Muddle started to wonder just how many times had she told her friend those words. How many times has she promised Fluttershy she would stay out of trouble, yet always managed to find herself into a bigger mess than the last time? A day never went by with out her wondering why Fluttershy was her friend? Why Fluttershy never stopped seeing good in her, and that's what hurt Muddle the most.
"You know the Nightmare draft you failed to created could have been for her right? Why do you insist on befriending her?" In Muddle's mind thoughts like this always swarmed her, and corrupted what few moments of peace she had. She always felt terrible for lying to Fluttershy and the few other ponies that were nice to her, but without these lies she would live a life with even fewer ponies she could call a friends. She always dreamed that there was some way to escape the narrow path fate had laid out for her, and she swore that one day she would find it. Then someday she and Fluttershy could really become friends, and she would no longer have to hide her dark secrets.
"Um... Muddle?" She heard her name and snapped out of her daze. She realized what happened and quickly began to apologize to Fluttershy, "Oh! I'm so sorry I don't know what came over me. Maybe it's the air in here finally getting to me." Fluttershy nodded her head in understanding. Then she looked around the room both of them were standing in. Fluttershy could see that Muddle's house was in shambles no longer salvageable by even Ponyville's finest repair ponies. began to speak in a low voice, "Muddle," Fluttershy said in a low and timid voice, "if you need a place to stay... I have a couch at my house... if you want to." Fluttershy quickly looked away hoping that she didn't insult her friend. Fluttershy's sensitivity never ceased to surprise Muddle. The way she always made herself feel bad for doing such kind and thought full acts, "Sure Fluttershy I would love to, at least until I have enough bits to buy a new house." After Muddle told Fluttershy that her mood seemed to brighten and the normally shy and bashful pegasus exclaimed, "Great!" then her voice began to soften to its' usual, quite tone, "Please stop by when you have everything you need. Angel should open the door." When Fluttershy finished speaking her eyes began to open wide, "Oh no! I forgot to go to Roseluck for the last ingredient in Angels dinner, and I still need to go to Twilight's. I can't wait in line now!" Fluttershy said in a mass of hasty and rushed words.
Muddle could see her friend was panicking like she had never let someone down before. So Muddle came up with a simple solution to her friends problem, "Don't worry Fluttershy I can get the ingredient for Angel's dinner when I'm done packing, and you can go to Twilight's house. I feel partially responsible for making you late anyways. What do you need picked up?" Fluttershy began to calm down and told Muddle the only item on her list, "Oh thank you Muddle, I need about two pints of suns-sour. It really helps Angel get to sleep."