Biscuit waited, hidden under the skip, he waited for his moment.
In front of him, the two human moving the black plastic bags filled didn’t even notice him, too focussed on their task at hand to pay attention. Biscuit didn’t like the amount of bad words they were saying, but he was far enough away from his home that he didn’t have to worry about his children hearing anything.
Then he saw it, one of the human men lifted up a black bag with an open top, the sudden shift caused the top to flap open, Biscuit readied himself, waiting for the right opportunity…
Bingo.
Half a cold hamburger dropped out and landed onto the wet concrete. Biscuit dashed out before it even hit the ground and grabbed it with his teeth before the human man could bend down to pick it up. The bun was stale and the half-chewed meat hard and cold in his mouth, this wasn’t the best food, but it was food, and it would suffice as he kept on running away, not stopping to look back.
“OI! Git back here ya wee bastard.”
“Leave it, he’s no doing anyone any harm. Better this than knocking everything over.”
Biscuit didn’t hear anything else after that, but the humans were right, Biscuit had seen a lot of Fluffies, including his own Smarty Father, meet their doom because they were rummaging through human bins for food, often leaving a terrible mess behind. Biscuit had learnt to only take food once it was on the ground. At that point it was the human that made the mess, not him, he was only taking advantage of the situation.
It was still risky, and he had often gone for some time without eating, but it was safer than the alternative.
With the burger still in his mouth, Biscuit carefully made his way back to his home, a tiny little alleyway situated between a bakery and a run-down building that used to be a Laundromat. Before Biscuit met his special-friend, he used to take food from the bakery’s waste goods, but the owner caught wind of him and tried to scare him off, now Biscuit went elsewhere for his food, only taking from the bakery if the food had been dropped and forgotten about.
Biscuit turned the corner into the alley and snuck into a hole in the brick wall, inside he found the reason he went to all this trouble. His family. His beautiful special-friend, a light orange Pegasus mare with a white mane called Marigold lay on her side while their three chirpy children nestled and shifted in their own little Fluff-pile, occasionally moving towards a strange noise, or the scent of their mother’s milk. Biscuit watched as one of his children, a light brown unicorn filly like himself, inched forward towards Marigold’s teat and softly started suckling.
Marigold smiled when she saw Biscuit’s face. “Hewwo speciaw-fwiend.” She spoke softly so as not to rouse the children. “Yu hab nummies?”
Biscuit nodded and dropped the burger. “It nu gud nummies, bu wiww gib miwkies fow babbehs.”
“Anee nummies speciaw-fwiend bwing am gud nummies. Wub speciaw-fwiend.”
“Wub yu tuu.”
The couple softly nuzzled each other before Biscuit lay down, completing the circle of protection around their foals. He could feel his back getting wet from the soft, misty rain outside the brick wall, but he paid it no attention, so long as his family were safe.
It was a short while later when he heard it.
The rustling came first, the sound of plastic being moved and metal being tapped against. Biscuit almost didn’t pay it any mind until he heard them.
“Dummeh bwudda huwwy, wan nummies nyo.”
There were other Fluffies outside, and they were trying to get into the bins outside.
“Speciaw-fwiend stay hewe, Bis-ket gun see wha noises am.”
Biscuit was off like a shot, terrified of what might happen if the meanie mister in the bakery heard the noise. Outside he saw two other stallions, a bulkier yellow unicorn with a green mane, and a slimmer blue Pegasus with a matching green mane, if the conversation he heard earlier hadn’t tipped him off, the matching mane colours would’ve confirmed these were brothers.
The Pegasus had his front legs up against the metallic bin, trying to push it over while the unicorn watched from the side, and unfortunately for Biscuit, the bin was due to be emptied within a few days, so it was already fairly top-heavy.
“NU!” Biscuit hissed out as he ran towards the newcomers. “Nu make woud noises, meanie mistah heaw yu.”
The unicorn turned to Biscuit and scoffed. “Wion nu scawdies of hoomin, am bwavesh Fwuffy awound. Meanie mistah nu gib huwties tu Wion.”
Biscuit pleaded again. “Pwease, nu wan meanie mistah find Bis-key an famiwy, speciaw-fwiend jus hab babbehs, dey stiww jus chiwpees.”
The Pegasus let out a raspberry. “Gu way dummeh, Bwuebiwd an bwudda am wowstesh tummeh-huwties, need nummies nyo.”
And with a push, the Pegasus knocked the bin over with an almighty clang, Biscuit could hear his children suddenly wake and start wailing at the sudden noise but he had no time to think about them just yet. He had to get these two away before the meanie mister found them.
“Nuhuuhuu , pweae gu way, if meanie mistah see Fwuffies den he find famiwy, Bis-key nu wan famiwy hab wowstehs huwties.”
The two brothers ignored him and started eating their easy picking, the bread was stale and the cakes were soggy, but neither of them seemed to care, about either the state of the food or Biscuits pleas for them to leave.
Then came the shouting.
None of the Fluffies could understand what was being said by the man in the bakery, but they could hear his voice through brick walls and closed doors and they knew he was angry. Lion and Bluebird quickly scampered, Lion intentionally knocking into Biscuit as he did, sending the brown stallion onto his stomach. By the time Biscuit had recovered and was back on his feet, the two brothers were away.
And the back-door to the bakery was open.
Biscuit looked over at The Baker, he was a large man, tall and wide, both in terms of fat and muscle, with a clean-shaven face that about like 90% chin. In one hand he had a rolling pin, in the other a corkscrew, and his venomous green eyes were staring right at Biscuit who, unfortunately, was standing right in front of the tipped over bin.
“YOU! I fucking knew there was Fluffies in here, buncha fucking VERMINS!”
“Pwease nice mistah, Bis-key nu du dis, was udda Fwuffies an…”
TWACK
Biscuit was cut off by the rolling pin soaring through the air and crash-landing into his side, he felt several things break inside him as a bulge of blood and bile blew out of his throat, coughing violently onto the ground.
“KAFF KAFF! HUUUUUU! Wai gib Bis-key huwties, am gud Fwuf…”
CRACK
The Baker had stomped over and picked up his rolling pin, only to slam it back down onto Biscuit’s back, the hefty instrument shattered the poor stallion’s spine, rendering his back legs useless.
“Huu, wai weggies nu wowk, need wun way fwom meanie mistah.”
Desperately he tried to crawl away, he was still conscious enough to crawl away from his home, not wanting to risk this monster finding his family, but where else he could go, he had no idea.
Suddenly a shadow loomed over him, and the Baker growled at him.
“I told Jerry, I told him there were shitrats in this alley. But NOOOOOOOO, they’re ‘not doing any harm’. Do you know how much shit I get into if the health-board finds you? If they see my refuse isn’t stored properly? You’re costing me my fucking livelihood.”
“Bu… bu, Bis-key nu du aneefing won…”
SMACK
The Baker pulled back his arm and golf-clubbed Biscuit in the face, the unicorn went thrown across the alley and into the wall, part of his skull dented so badly that he could no longer see out of his right eye.
Outside the alley, Lion and Bluebird watched Biscuits assault were glee, this was perfect, they got to feed and this idiot got all the blame. As soon as the Baker left they planned to rush back in and steal more food.
Biscuit meanwhile was dazed and hurt, unaware of what was going on anymore, other than he was in immense pain. He remained dizzy as the Baker gripped him by the scruff to lift him into the air.
“Wha… wha guin…”
Biscuit was vaguely aware of the Baker spitting on him before a sharp, twisted, crushing pain shot through his groin as the Baker shoved the corkscrew into Biscuits testicles.
Bluebird winced at the sight, his initial acceptance of Biscuit’s abuse faded away at this overblown reaction. No Fluffy deserved this kind of treatment.
Suddenly conscious, Biscuit howled. “NUUUUU, NU HUWT SPECIAW-WUMPS, NEED WUMPS TU BE GUD DAD…EEEEEEEEKKKKKHHHHHHHH!!!”
The Baker twisted the corkscrew deeper into Biscuit’s crotch, ripping and tearing vital parts of the stallion’s anatomy. Biscuit could only let out a high-pitched whine as he shit and vomited all over himself. The Baker scowled at the disgusting sight and ripped out the corkscrew, tearing off Biscuit’s entire genitals and a fair chunk of his intestines.
The Baker dropped Biscuit onto the cold, hard ground, likely breaking something else but that clearly didn’t matter anymore, Biscuit was bleeding out and badly, if the bloodloss didn’t kill him soon then his inability to move would either starve him out or leave him vulnerable to predators.
He was going to die no matter what.
With his dazed vision, he could just make out something orange in the distance, Marigold had finally calmed down their children and came to investigate the noise. She looked in horror at what had become of her beloved and she cried out to him.
“SPECIAW-FWIEND!”
Biscuit reached out to her, but before he could answer he cries, the heavy boot of The Baker slammed down on him, crushing what remained of his skull and turning his light into darkness.
Marigold wailed, her precious Biscuit was gone, the stallion that had saved her when her human family abandoned her, that had taught her about living as a feral, that had tended and cared for her throughout her pregnancy was now dead. Dead before his children even got the chance to know hi, to even see him with their own eyes.
She was so distraught that she didn’t even see the Baker strolling towards her.
“Speciaw-fwiend am gun, babbehs nu hab daddeh nu mowe, hab wowstesh heawt-huwties!”
“I fucking knew there had to be more of you, I ain’t leaving until this is finished.”
The Baker raised his rolling pin, ready to end this shitrats once and for…
“HEY!”
The Baker turned to the end of the alleyway, Bluebird had had enough, Biscuit didn’t deserve to be tortured just so he and his brother could eat and his children certainly didn’t deserve to die for them either. Ignoring his brother’s shouts of defiance, Bluebird charged forward to face The Baker, the corner of his eye just catching Lion’s cowardly form running away without so much as a goodbye.
The Baker snarled at him. “Great, more fucking pests.”
“Weave babbehs awone, dey jus wittew babbehs, nu du aneefing wong.”
“I don’t need to be told what to do by a fucking shitrat, this is my business and I can do with it as I like.”
“Bu mistah awweady gib huwties tu wun Fwuffy, wai gib huwties tu babbehs tuu?”
The Baker went to argue when suddenly his mind went blank. Most of his rage had subsided after Bicuit’s death, killing Marigold and her foals were just clean-up at this point. He didn’t technically HAVE to kill them, but his business was still at risk of them being there.
“Look, I got a business to run here, and I can’t have a buncha fucking Fluffies about the place, doesn’t look good.”
“If mistah pwomise nu tu huwt babbehs ow mummah, den Bwuebiwd take dem way, nu gu neaw mistah pwace gain.”
The Baker scowled, part of him couldn’t believe that a fucking Fluffy was trying to negotiate with him, another part of him was feeling the sudden tiredness from his rage burning away, and he still had a long day of work ahead of him.
“Ugh, just git rid of her. If I see you again then you’re fucking dead.”
With the wind died out from his sails, The Baker trudged back inside, slamming the door behind him. Bluebird waited for a moment to make sure this wasn’t a trap before rushing over to the weeping Marigold.
“Nyu fwiend? Nyu fwiend, need tu gu.”
Marigold looked up, tears still wet in her eyes. “Wh… wha?”
“Mummah an babbehs need gu nyo.”
“Bu, dis am homesie.”
“Nu aneemowe, meanie mistah gib mawe an babbehs foweba sweepies if stay hewe.”
Marigold lowered her head, her lip quivering again. “Nu wan gu foweba sweepies, wan speciaw-fwiend, wan homesie.”
“Bwuebiwd take mawe tu nyu homesie, bu need gu nyo.”
Marigold looked over at the remains of Biscuit, she shuddered thinking about the same happening to her of her foals, and reluctantly she stood up.
“Ok, Mawigowd nu wan be hewe nu mowe. Nu am safe fow babbehs.”
Marigold quickly gave her foals a small drink of milk for the journey then followed Bluebird out of the alley.
“Am nyu fwiend’s namesie Bwuebiwd?” She asked after a moment.
Bluebird nodded. “An wha am mawe namesie?”
“Mawigowd.”
“Dat am gud namesie.”
“Fank yu. Wai Bwuebiwd hewp Mawigowd an babbehs.”
Bluebird paused, wondering how much to tell her. In the end he decided to truth was probably for the best.
“Cos Bwuebiwd an bwudda am weason Mawigowd speciaw-fwiend am foweba sweepies. Bwuebiwd an bwudda make woud noises, git meanie mistah ousside, if nu dewe den Mawigwod speciaw-fwiend stiww be hewe.”
Bluebird turned to Marigold, the betrayal in her eyes hurt him more than anything. “If Mawigowd nu wan aneefing tu du wiv Bwuebiwd, den Bwuebiwd undastan, bu if Mawigowd wet Bwuebiwd, den Bwuebiwd pwomise tu wook afta Mawigowd an babbehs tiww hab nyu homesie.”
Marigold was torn, on the one hand this stallion was responsible for Biscuit’s death, on the other she knew she would need help looking after her children, especially with the weather started to get colder.
She sighed. “Bwuebiwd hewp Mawigowd find gud pwace fow babbehs. Afta dat, we see wha happen.”
Bluebird bowed his head and smiled. “Fank yu, Bwuebiwd pwomise tu be gud pwotektoh.”
Marigold said nothing, but Bluebird caught the faint start of a smile on her face. As he stepped forward to lead her to a new home, he knew that it would be a long time before she ever forgave him, if she ever did.
But at least this was a start.
