This is a short sequel series to Babbehs Make Everything Better, Right?, think of it as an epilogue where Mary’s surviving children get their happy ending. We’ll see what happens to Forrest in another story but that’s far too abusive for this little hugbox tale.
Dr Hopkins spun round in his chair to face Zach and chuckled slightly.
“Yep, they’re Mary’s kids alright.”
“Shit.”
It had been a few weeks since Zach took in the three feral foals that his Fluffy Snowdrop had found in the garden. In that time he’d learnt about their lives and their family, in particular their mother who allowed her own son to become a milk-stealing Smarty, leading to the death of the foals brother and sister.
Their mother named Mary.
He didn’t want to believe it was his old Fluffy, Mary the well-behaved mare who was happy to see him every day until she got the baby itch and ran away. But between the name and the similar colours in the foals, he had to find out for certain, luckily the vets kept Mary’s bloodwork on record and after some routine check-ups they were able to confirm that these foals were indeed Mary’s.
Dr Hopkins got out of his chair and placed a comforting hand on Zach’s shoulder. “She ran off to have kids, guess she got what she wanted.”
“Yeah, I guess. Christ Jasper you should’ve heard some of the things they were saying about her, I can’t believe that awful mother of theirs was my Mary.”
“Believe or not, the truth doesn’t lie Zach. I see it all the time in first time mothers, especially domestics, they’re constantly making mistakes and without the guiding hand of a human they will double-down on those mistakes because they don’t know any better. Mary wasn’t ready for the responsibility of motherhood, and it was the children she left you for that paid the price. Wherever she is now, you can’t help her, part of me doubts she’d even want you to. So instead, put your focus into those three little darlings you have, give them the best life you can and keep them happy until they forgot about their shitty mother and the ugliness of this beginning chapter of their lives.”
“You really think it’s that easy? Keep the smiles up until the bad stuff goes away.”
“Not only is it easy dear Zachary, it’s necessary.”
Across town at the local Fluffy daycare, Snowdrop led Dandy, Orange, Apple and the rest of the daycare’s foals in a game of hidies.
“Ok babbehs, Snowdwop gun cwose see-pwaces, an Missy Miwanda am gun counties tu fibe an fibe, wen she say ‘weady ow nu, hewe we come’, den Snowdwop wook fow babbehs.”
The foals nodded to show they understood, although Miranda wasn’t sure they 100% knew what was going on, but it was enough to play the game and have fun.
Snowdrop closed her eyes and covered her face with her hoofs, taking her cue, Miranda started counting.
“One. Two. Three.”
The room was awash in giggling and the patter of tiny hoofs scuttling on the rubber floor, Miranda watched the foals hiding away, some in surprisingly good places, others… less so. Either way it made her smile to witness.
“Nine. TEN! Ready or not, here we come.”
Snowdrop opened her eyes and looked around the room, out of the ten foals in the playgroup, three of them were still where they started. Skye and Luke could be forgiven, being two of the youngest in the group they thought that hiding behind their hoofs was enough to keep them from being seen.
Apple however, wasn’t even doing that.
“Appew, dat nu how yu pway hidies.” Snowdrop chastised her adoptive daughter.
“Oh nu.” Apple exclaimed with as much sarcasm as a Fluffy could muster. “Mummah find Appew hidie pwace, Appew gu wook afta udda babbehs nyo.”
Without so much as a second glance, Apple left the game and went over to supervise a game of Huggy-Tag with some of the other foals, even berating one of the colts for tagging too roughly. Snowdrop giggled and returned to the game, quickly telling Skye and Luke they were found but they could now get some milk from Miranda.
Some of the other foals were found easily, Lemoncakes tried to hide as a lump under the blanket but her giggling gave her away. Harper hid behind the bookshelf but got too scared of the dark and was found by the stink of scardie poopies he made. And Orange was found cowering with her best friend Berry as the two fillies cuddled together inside the playhouse.
Eventually there was just two foals left, Dandy and Sasha, Dandy was hiding behind the fish-tank, he knew the water couldn’t touch him behind the glass but hoped it would scare off anyone looking for him, while Sasha was curled up in the ball-pit, her deep purple coat blended her in nicely with the multicolour balls.
But not nicely enough, as from his hiding place Dandy could see Snowdrop eyeing the ball-pit, and noticing that one of the balls looked fluffier compared to the others. As Snowdrop got closer, Dandy did something that took even himself off-guard.
He forced a cough.
The high-pitch wheeze was short but it was enough for Snowdrop to hear him and come investigate, finding Dandy behind the fish-tank.
“Dan-dee hab gud hidie pwace, neks tu swimmie-fwiends. Bu Sah-sha hab betta hidie pwace, Sah-sha win.”
Sasha jumped out of the ball-pit with a hearty laugh. “YAY, Sasha am bestesh hidie Fwuffy.”
Miranda clapped her hands and smiled. “Ok kiddos, good work. Now everyone follow Snowdrop through to the nummie room, it’s lunch time.”
The foals got into a single-file line behind Snowdrop and dutifully followed her and Miranda through for lunch, Dandy took a spot near the back of the line only to find someone else beside him. Looking over he saw Sasha smiling at him.
And for the first time in his life, Dandy felt his heart skip a beat when he looked into her eyes.
“Wai Dan-dee du pwetend coff?” Sasha asked with a knowing tease in her voice.
“Wha? Dan-dee nu du pwetend coff.”
“Uh-huh, Sah-sha knyo Snowdwop see hew, Dan-dee awmosh win Hidies but wet Snowdwop heaw him du pwetend coff, Sah-sha wan knyo wai.”
Dandy thought about it for a moment, he didn’t really have an answer for her, except maybe…
“Dan-dee fink wan Sah-sha win Hidies. Fink Dan-dee wike Sah-sha.”
Sasha giggled but Dandy noticed that she stepped a little bit closer to him as they walked together, their Fluff so close they were almost touching.
And it felt nice.
At the back of the line, Apple watched her brother and Sasha and she smiled, Dandy deserved a little bit of happiness. Hell they all did.
Zach arrived during the lunch hour, looking through the window into the Lunch Hall he saw Snowdrop, Orange and Apple all chatting and laughing with the other Mares and foals, he was happy they were fitting in nicely, Snowdrop especially since she was now one of the Helper Mares and worked for the Daycare.
Dandy though wasn’t with his sisters, instead he was off to the side sharing a bowl of kibble with a pretty purple filly, both of them looked deep in conversation. Well, she looked to be, Dandy looked lost in her eyes.
Zach chuckled, poor boy was crushing hard.
“Adorable, aren’t they?”
Zach looked beside him towards the voice that had spoke up, the man who had taken the spot to his right was surprisingly fashionable for such a low-key daycare, his beige panel coat was still rack-smooth, not a crease to be seen, his white shirt was almost blindingly bright if not for the multicolour patchwork waistcoat he had over it or the chic sunglasses he had on indoors and his brown leather shoes were polished to a near mirror shine.
Zach partly wondered if this guy was too high-class for this place, and yet something about the man seemed right at home.
The man looked over his sunglasses at Zach and smiled, giving him a hand to shake. “Charles Mulberry, I take it that’s your little man chatting up my Sasha there?”
Zach took Charles hand. “Uh, yeah I guess so. I’m Zach, that’s Dandy, and over there are his sisters Orange and Apple and their adoptive mother Snowdrop.”
“Oh Snowdrop’s YOUR Fluffy, delightful darling, Sasha has nothing but WONDERFUL things to say about her. Listen, I hope I’m not being too presumptuous, but could I invite you and your Fluffies over to my place for a little playdate, Sasha gets terribly lonely in the house and I’ve just felt AWFUL about the whole thing.”
“Uh, that’s a little forward don’t you think?”
“Why waste time, Sasha clearly likes your little Dandy and I want to give the whole family a chance to be her friend. You’ve clearly raised them all well and I’d like to offer you all a little relaxation.”
Zach took a moment to think about Charles offer when his train of thought was interrupted by Miranda.
“It’s ok Zach, Charles here is a little on the dramatic side but he’s harmless. Mostly.”
“Oh hush Miranda let the poor boy come to his own decisions.”
Zach looked back into the lunch hall, he wanted the foals to be happy, to look past their mother’s shortcomings and have good lives. And seeing Dandy lost in contentment in Sasha’s presence made him wonder if this was a good first step.”
“Sure, one playdate shouldn’t hurt.”
“Wonderful, I promise you Zachariah, you will not regret this. Here’s my card, give me a call anytime through the week and we’ll set this up. Chao for now.”
Charles handed a business card to Zach before heading through into the lunch hall to pick up Sasha, Zach watched the very animated Charles pick an excited Sasha off the floor and held her close as she introduced him to her new friends. If nothing else Sasha was at least happy to see him which eased Zach’s mind a little bit.
Zach heard giggling beside him and he looked over at Miranda.
“What?”
“You have no idea who that is do you?”
“Should I?”
“Zach, Charles Mulberry is in charge of Fancy Fluffy Friends, one of the leading brands of Designer Fluffies in the country, maybe even the continent. He’s second only to Carter’s Creature Comforts and he’s about as rich as God, long story short he’s a big deal.”
“Really, then why is he here, and what does he want with me?”
“Those are questions you’ll have to ask him yourself, all I can promise you is that you and your Fluffies will be safe.”
Miranda went back into the lunch hall to gather up the Fluffies for storytime, Zach saw Charles and Sasha leaving, both waving to him as they left. He waved back and briefly wondered exactly what he’s gotten himself into.
