“You got a what?”
Theodore winced at Jonathan’s pissed off expression, he had expected as much but it was still frightening to see that Mongola fury firsthand.
“A Fluffy, little Alicorn mare called Robin, had her a little over a year now. She’s been a big help to me John, I know you have your issues with Fluffies…”
“Too fucking right I do.”
“…But she’s been exactly what I needed. I’m still dealing with shit in my head from the war and having Robin with me… it gives me something to focus on, a task to clear my head with and be rewarded with genuine love and affection. I don’t expect you to understand John, I told you out of the courtesy of being your friend, but Robin is staying with me no matter what you say.”
Jonathan sighed and sat back in his chair, the cuffs on his wrists feeling a little tighter than usual. He paused for a moment as he tried to find the right words to say to his friend.
“I’m not gonna tell you to get rid of her Ted, it’s not my place to do so. I mean Christ, I thought my head was fucked up but what you’ve told me about what happened over there… Jesus I don’t blame you for falling for that huggies and love bullshit. Besides, I still owe you for putting yourself at risk with my crusade against Hasbio, I know that couldn’t have been easy.”
“I just gave you some names John, contacts that could’ve helped, nothing special.”
“But contacts that could’ve connected you to me and I was basically a terrorist at that point in my life. You put yourself out there for me, I know that couldn’t have been easy for you. So fuck it, if this Robin helps you sleep easier at night, I’m not gonna be the one to dispute you.”
Theodore smiled. “Thanks John, I know it’s not much but it does mean something hearing that.”
“It’s fine, you’re just lucky you caught me on a good day, got a call from Joey’s girl, said he won’t be making it in for a couple weeks. Dumbass broke his leg tripping down his basement.”
“Ouch, he ok otherwise?”
“Oh Joey’s fine, hurt his ego more than anything. But from what Kat’s told me, the basement is the dankest fucking psycho den in the country, type of place that wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of Law & Order, Joey’s lucky this didn’t happen earlier.”
Theodore and Jonathan spent the rest of their visitation time catching up and reminiscing about the old days, before they both had to cope with loss and trauma. Theodore knew Jonathan was hurting a lot more than he let on, but he couldn’t help a friend that wasn’t looking to heal, these little visits did something but he knew it wasn’t nearly enough.
“Nyo, wift yuw WEFT weggie.”
Robin giggled as the Dancie Instructor on Fluff-TV led her through the step-by-step guide on how to be the best dancie Fluffy for your mummy or daddy. She lifted her left leg and waited for the next instruction.
“Nyo shake yuw weggies, shake yuw weggie, shake, shake, shake.”
“YAY, Wobin wub weggies shakies. Am gud dancie Fwuffy.”
After a moment the leg shaking stopped and the dancie instructor stepped closer to the screen, talking in a lower voice (well as low as a Fluffy could go).
“Ok, dis neks pawt am VEWY dangawous, su onwy du dis if yuw mummah ow daddeh am dewe tu hewp yu, ow if yu am bestesh dancie Fwuffy.”
“Wobin am gud dancie Fwuffy. Am Wobin bestesh? Wobin wan be, wan twy nyu dancie.”
The instructor stepped back onto her spot and readied herself. “Ok, on thwee, wun, two… THWEE!”
And she bucked herself upwards until she was standing on her two hind-legs, Robin gasped with amazement.
“Standie-Fwuffy.”
On the screen, the instructor happily waved BOTH of her front legs… at the same time, Robin had never seen anything like it and she had to try it herself. Taking a deep breath, Robin bent her knees, as much as she could being a Fluffy with little in the way of joints, and pushed herself off the ground, for a brief moment she thought she was going to do it, she was going to be a Standie-Fluffy like the instructor.
Then almost immediately she felt her body falling back to the floor, she panicked as the carpet came rushing up to meet her, only stopping just in time as she managed to find her flailing limbs and land on them instead of her face.
“Wobin nu wan be bestesh dancie nu mowe.” The frightened and slightly ashamed mare mumbled to herself as she checked behind her to make sure she hadn’t shit herself in fear. Luckily she was saved that indignity.
“Ok Fwuffies.” The instructor spoke up after finishing her dance moves. “Yu am AWW vewy gud dancie Fwuffies, Dance-Ah wub yu aww. Nyo befowe we gu, Dance-Ah hab speciaw tweat fow yu aww.”
“Tweat? Wobin wun tweats.”
“Dance-Ah hab biggesh heawt-happies tu intwodooce, aww da way fwom deiw own show. DA DANCIE BABBEHS!”
The screen quickly faded away to a different stage where seven of the brightest and most energetic foals from Dancie Babbehs were set up and waving their tiny little limbs around in, what could only charitably called, a form of dancing. What Robin didn’t know what that this was another insidious move from Hasbio, having happy, colourful foals turn up on a Fluff-TV channel that didn’t advertise babbehs as a way to trigger the baby-itch in mares.
What she did know, what that the dancie babbehs were SOOOOOOOO cute.”
“Heheh, Wobin wub pwetty babbehs.”
Robin sat and watched the Dancie Babbehs, bobbing her head in time to the off-key song they were waddling about to, until Ted came home. Hearing her daddy’s return, Robin happily jumped up and went to greet him.
“DADDEH, Wobin miss yu.”
“I missed you too Robin, you have fun while daddy was out.”
“Uh-huh, Wobin see pwetty babbehs on Tee-Bee.”
Theodore felt his heart lurch as he looked over towards the TV, seeing the Dancie Babbehs finish their performance. One of these days Hasbio were gonna pay through the dick for these cheap tactics but right now he had Robin’s mental wellbeing to consider.
Trying hard not to show any emotion on his face, Theodore looked back down at his Fluffy.
“Oh, and what did you think of them?”
“Wobin wub pwetty babbehs, wan see dem gain.”
Theodore sighed, he knew she was lost. “Robin, I’m sorry but we can’t… hold on, what did you say?”
“Wobin say wan see pwetty babbehs gain, dancie babbehs gib Wobin biggesh heawt-happies.”
“Um… sure, I’ll see what I can do. I think one of my cousins mentioned there being tickets to one of their shows next months. Is that all you want, nothing more… close to home?”
Robin shrugged. “Wobin wike hab babbehs, bu mummah Co-co say dat onwy Fwuffies who am awwowed by deiw mummahs ow daddehs can hab own babbehs. Daddeh nu gib Wobin speciaw-fwiend yet su Wobin nu ask fow babbehs.”
Theodore stared at this wonderful, loving, well-trained creature, and he couldn’t help but smile at her.
“Y’know, sketti day isn’t for a while yet. How about we bump it up a little and have some tonight.”
“Ek-twa skettis? Dis am bestesh bwite-time eba.”
As Robin danced and cheered for her extra sketti-day, Theodore laughed and made a mental note to look into grabbing tickets to The Dancie Babbeh Tour, and to call up the Fluff-Mart and tell them Cocoa was a phenomenal teacher.
That night, as Robin made herself comfortable on Theodore’s bed “For the last time, and I mean it this time”, Fluffy and owner settled in together for another peaceful night.
Only this night wasn’t peaceful, Robin was awakened by Theodore tossing and turning something awful, she’d gotten use to her daddy having ‘bad sleepy pictures’, but this felt different, she could see his body shivering like he was in the cold-times, but his face dripping with sweat like he was in the hottest hot-times.
And she could hear him mumbling.
“Delta Squad need… Evac needed at… Robin get… Robin get back, Robin… ROBIN!”
“Am hewe daddeh, Wobin hewe, nu wet meanie sweepies gib yu huwties.”
“No, no, you’re dead, Robin’s dead.” Still mostly unconscious, Theodore blindly waved his arms at the perceived ghost in his head.
“Wobin nu gu foweba sweepies daddeh, am stiww hewe.”
“NO! NO GET BACK, GET BACK AND… AND… A…”
Theodore opened his eyes, still frozen from his cold sweat but slowly he began to recognise his surroundings and the worried face of the Fluffy in front of him.
“Daddeh? Am yu ok nyo?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m… No, I guess I’m not ok Robin.”
Theodore sat up, pulling Robin in to softly stroke her while he talked. “I’m sorry you had to see that, I should’ve known it would happen, I always get nightmares after I see Jonathan, too many reminders of the old days, but I thought I was safe with you, I haven’t had any bad nights since you came here.”
“Daddeh keep saying Wobin gun foweba sweepies, Wobin keep sayin nu hab.”
“I wasn’t talking about you Robin, I was talking about… Actually, I suppose it is time I told you the story of how you got your name. Do you remember the human war daddy told you about, where I got these hurtie marks?”
Robin nodded, having heard many stories about the war over the months she’d spent with Theodore.
“Well, when I was overseas my squad, my herd I’d guess you call us, we met a local boy who agreed to show us around town. His name was Asif, but he insisted we called him ‘Robin’, because he thought we were the heroes like Batman and since he was helping is, he should be Robin.”
“Wobin wike hewoes.” Robin giggled, she’d seen some of the old Adam West Batman clips on the TV whenever Theodore was looking for something to cheer him up.
“Yeah, so did Asif, he was with us all day, every day, sort of became the Squad mascot, we all loved him. We made the mistake of forgetting he wasn’t a soldier, that he was just some local kid with hero worship, we forgot that he wasn’t one of us. There was an ambush, the other herd had meanies sneak up on us with noise and burning, we couldn’t call for help from our other herd members, we couldn’t fight back effectively, we could barely even see. That’s when daddy was hit by an R.P.G., a very loud, very dangerous weapon that gave him the worst burning hurties on his face and body. Daddy almost died, daddy would’ve died if not for Asif, if not for Robin.”
Theodore wiped a tear from his face as he remembered the horrific events. “Robin was even more hurt than I was, half his face was missin… his hurties was ever worse than daddy’s, but he pulled me to safety, used all his strength to pull me behind a wall and keep me safe from harm. Even stayed with me as I fell unconscious from the pain. When I woke up, I was back with the rest of my herd, in a safe place to help hurties heal, I was told that seven of my friends had died in the attack, as well as Robin, his body was found next to me having bled out hours ago.”
“Dat am su sadies, Wobin am sowwy daddeh hab wowstesh heawt-huwties.”
The little blue Alicorn cuddled up closer to Theodore, wrapping her hoofs as tight as she could around his torso.
“Thank you Robin, it took me a long time to accept what happened, I still have trouble dealing with it. Not just losing my friends but losing Robin and knowing that not only was it my fault he was even there, but knowing he gave his life to save mine… that guilt killed me for a long time. Until I met you, since you came into my life I’ve felt happier, I’ve felt more relaxed, I’ve gotten the best sleep I’ve had in years. Tonight was the first bad night I’ve had in months and it’s still pretty ok by comparison. I was told by some of my friends that naming you after Asif was a mistake, that I’d just be opening old wounds by having a constant reminder of him here. But I think they’re wrong, I think I was right to name you after him, because Robin protected me in the war, and you’re protecting me here now.”
“Wobin awways pwotect daddeh, neba wet heawt-huwties take yu way fwom Wobin.”
Theodore lay back down and kept one arm over Robin as tiredness took them both over again.
“No-one’s taking me anywhere Robin, I’m with you for as long as we have together.”
The last thing Theodore saw was Robin’s contented smile as the two of them drifted back to sleep.
