Another day passed, and still Clover hadn’t returned.
Mary was beyond worried, the fear of not knowing what happened chilled her even more than whatever the truth could be, was Clover stuck, did he run into danger when in the human place, was he dead, or did he abandon her because she was a bad special-friend, a bad mother?
She felt like a bad mother, all of her children were beyond starving, their tiny bodies even smaller and skinnier in the two days without food, even Forrest was starting to look less round than he had before. But being so young and inexperienced with the harshness of feral lifestyle, the foals were quick to voice their pain.
Mary though, wasn’t so quick to listen.
“Mummah, wen daddeh come bak.” Orange pined for her father, missing the running game they used to play together.
“Nu knyo babbeh, hope soon.” Mary said with a clenched jaw.
“Huu, miss daddeh, miss miwkies, wan miwkies mummah.”
Mary took a deep breath. “Nu hab miwkies babbeh, need wait fow nummies.”
“Nu hab miwkies in FOWEBA, hab wowstesh tummeh huwties an…”
“SMAWTY WAN MIWKIES!”
Mary seethed as Forrest waddled over to her, immediately taking a teat into his mouth and suckling. A moment later he spat out the dry nipple and looked up at his mother with a face like thunder.
“Wai mummah nu hab miwkies.”
“Mummah towd yu babbeh, need nummies make miwkies, daddeh nu bak wiv nummies yet.”
“Wai mummah tawk bout miwkies if nu hab miwkies, Smawty hab tummeh-huwties.”
Mary took a deep breath, trying not to lash out at her son. “Mummah onwy teww Owange babbeh dat nu hab miwkies, Fowwest nu wisten…”
“SMAWTY NU NEED WISTEN, NU TAWK BOUT MIWKIES IF DUMMEH MUMMAH NU HAB MIWKIES! Daddeh weave cos yu am bad mummah, he nu wub dummeh wike yu.”
Forrest promptly let out a watery shit onto his mother’s lap and stormed off, Mary burst into tears and fell to her side, weeping about how terrible her life had become. Orange tried to comfort her mother, but there was little she could do so she left to rejoin her siblings.
Brightball and Apple were trying to keep Brownie’s spirits up, now they were all starving but Brownie was facing the worst of it with barely the energy to even lift her head lately.
“Come on sissie, daddeh be bak soon.”
“Bwow…nee… miss… dad…deh.” The little brown Alicorn wheezed out.
Orange looked at her siblings. “Wha babbehs du, nu wan sissie gu foweba sweepies.”
Apple nodded in agreement. “Sissy nu desewve dis, babbehs need find nummies.”
Dandy looked shocked. “Nu can du dat, am onwy babbehs.”
“Mummah nu wan weave nestie.” Apple spat back, no longer caring if her mother heard her or not. “Mummah tuu scawdies dat daddeh nu find us, bu she nu hab nummies hewe, nu can git miwkies if Mummah nu hab nummies. Babbehs need find nummies fow Mummah.”
With Brightball and Apple being the two strongest foals, it was agreed that they would go looking for food. Leaving Dandy and Orange with Brownie, the two foals took a deep breath and stepped out of the safety of their home, ready to face the dangers of the world and…
“Whewe babbehs guin?”
Apple and Brightball looked back to see Mary jogging towards them, a worried look on her face.
“Babbehs nu weave nestie, tuu scawy fow babbehs.”
“Bu mummah.” Brightball squeaked out, scared for his sister’s health. “Need find nummies su sissie nu gu foweba sweepies.”
“Babbehs siwwy, daddeh bak soon, he hab wots of nummies.”
Brightball and Apple tried to argue but Mary just pushed them back into the nest to rejoin their siblings. The five of them al cuddled together around Brownie and tried to make her feel better.
Mary just scoffed at them as she lay down near the entrance to the nest.
“Siwwy babbehs nu wan wait fow daddeh, be bak soon, Mawy knyo it.”
She kept vigil all day, ignoring her own hunger and the hunger of her children as their cries of hunger pains dissolved into white noise.
The next morning Mary was awoken by rough kicking, grumpily she opened her eyes to see Apple standing over her, her face scrunched in fury and tears in her eyes.
“Wai babbeh gib mummah kickies, wan sweepies.”
“Bwow-nee am foweba sweepies.”
Mary looked over at the foal bedding, all of her children – except for Forrest who was off in a huff – were around Brownie, Brightball holding onto his sister in the vain hope that huggies could save her. The poor, emaciated little filly was limp, her eyes glazed over and her tongue flopped out, she’d been dead most of the night.
“Yu am wowstesh mummah.” Apple spat at her mother before turning back to rejoin her siblings. Mary jumped up and stomped over to her children.
“Yu fink Mawy nu hab heawt huwties, Mawy nu cawe dat babbeh gu foweba sweepies? Mawy twy, Mawy twy be gud mummah bu dewe am TUU many babbehs, Mawy neba hab enuff miwkies, babbehs AWWAYS cwyin bout miwkies bu Mawy nu can gib enuff, NEBA gib enuff.”
“Appew an Bwitebaww gu wook fow nummies wast bwite-time bu Mummah nu wet us. Say it tuu scawy fow babbeh, it tuu scawy fow babbehs in nestie. Maybe sissie nu gu foweba sweepies if mummah wet us find nummies.”
“Daddeh come bak soon, he hab nummies, he nu weave famiwy…”
“DADDEH AM GONE!”
Apple screamed at Mary, taking everyone in the nest by shock, Dandy held onto a weeping Orange as Brightball slowly let Brownie’s body go, ready to protect Apple should Mary react poorly.
Apple wiped tears from her eyes and stared her mother down. “Daddeh am gone, maybe he gu foweba sweepies, maybe he weave cos he nu wan see babbehs gu foweba sweepies, Appew nu knyo, bu it be tuu many bwite-times an daddeh nu bak, he neba come bak. Mummah need find own nummies, need wet babbehs hab miwkies, bu mummah tuu DUMMEH tu weave nestie, nu find nummies, nu wet babbehs find nummies wet fat-tee fukin Fowwest dwink aww da miwkies cos he wittew poopie babbeh an mummah tuu dummeh tu handew him. Nyo Bwow-nee am foweba sweepies an it aww mummah’s fauwt.”
The tense moment between mother and daughter was suddenly and violently undercut by a loud fart coming from Forrest, no longer in a huff but now with a cruel grin on his face.
“Mummah num poopie babbeh, wet Smawty hab miwkies den.”
“NU!”
Brightball shot up, finally reaching his breaking point with his selfish brother. “Sissy am gud Fwuffy, Bwitebaww nu wet yu ow mummah ow anee-wun neaw hew. Mummah shouwd num YU!”
“Sissy was dummeh poopie munstah, better nummies dan Fwuffy.”
“AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”
Brightball charged at Forrest, the two young colts reared up and started smacking their hoofs into each other’s faces. Brightball had rage and agility on his side, but his fatter brother was bigger and stronger, and more importantly Forrest still had a tiny amount of milk in his system, whereas Brightball hadn’t eaten since before Clover disappeared.
Mary looked at her two sons fighting, her blood chilled seeing the anger between them both.
“Babbbehs pwease, nu sowwy-hoofies, nu boo-boo huice.”
Dandy, Orange and Apple cheered on Brightball, wishing for their brother to finally rid their family of their fat blight. But their cheers slowly vanished when they saw Brightball struggling against Forrest’s weight. He was getting more hits in sure, but Forrest was hitting harder and Brightball was getting noticeably weaker and weaker with each passing moment.
Mary was beside herself, her fear and worry was turning into anger and hatred. How DARE her babbehs blame her for their sisters death, how DARE they not listen to her, she was their mother and if they didn’t love her enough to listen, she wouldn’t love them enough to care.
“MUMMAH HATE DUMMEH BABBEHS!”
“Wha…”
Mary’s outburst distracted Brightball just long enough for Forrest to smack him in the side of the head, Brightball fell to the ground where Forrest lifted his hoofs over his brother’s head and slammed down back down again.
Brightball’s last thoughts on this earth were wondering why his mother hated him.
Forrest, uncaring to Mary’s outburtst, turned to his mother, bloodstained and smiling. Only for a furious Mary to smack him away, the much larger mare sending the fat foal slamming into the bushes, he hit his head against a thicker branch and was out cold, blood pooling around his head.
“MUMMAH HATE BABBEHS, NEBA WISTEN TU MUMMAH, AWWAYS WAN MIWKIES, AWWAYS HAB TUMMEH-HUWTIES, MUMMAH HAB TUMMEH-HUWTIES TUU. NUFFIN EBA GUD NUFF FOW BABBEHS, WAN MOWE AN MOWE AN MOWE. MUMMAH NU WUB BABBEHS NU MOWE, FOT BABBEHS MAKE EBEWYFING BETTA, JUS MAKE FINGS WOWSE, MAWY WAN GU HOME, WAN BEDSIES AN TEEBEE AN DADDEH, MISS DADDEH SU MUSH, NU WAN HAB BABBEHS, JUS WAN GU HOMESIE AN…”
Mary opened her eyes as her rant trailed off, interrupted by the silence. She looked around the nest, but Dandy, Orange and Apple were gone, only the bodies of Brightball, Brownie and Forrest remained with her.
“BABBEHS!”
Mary shot off, trying to save them from the horrors of the real world. But wherever they’d gone, they were long vanished.
“BABBEHS, MUMMAH AM SOWWY, NU MEAN BY MEANIE, BABBEHS COME BAK!”
Her pleas went unanswered, she looked around for tracks to follow but the foals were too small and their movements too chaotic to track properly. She tries to smell them out but the stench of Forrest’s bad poopies and her weak, domesticated nose meant there was nothing for Mary to latch onto.
Sparked by fear and terror, Mary chose a direction and ran, ran out of the nest, ran away from her home and unknowingly, ran away in the wrong direction from her foals.
She searched for them all day, but she found no trace of them, as the sun began to set Mary realised that not only had she lost her foals, the only family she had left, but she had lost her home and the only safety she knew of.
And it was all her fault.
Finding shelter under a low branch, Mary curled herself into a ball and wept, the loneliness slowly crept into her and she whispered two words into the darkness, the only thing around that would listen to her.
“Wan die.”
“Dis way, huwwy.”
Apple led Dandy and Orange out of the tree-place and towards the human place. They knew it was dangerous, but they couldn’t stay with their mother anymore, they had to fend for themselves and that meant taking the risk.
With Apple leading the way and Dandy pushing the traumatised and terrified Orange to keep going, the three siblings ran by a row of picket-fences, searching each one for any sign of a human, anyone that could help them. They ran for so long until…
“Babbeh? Hewe babbehs.”
The foals saw a Fluffy hoof waving out of one of the fences, they raced over and climbed their way through into the garden. The Fluffy was a light brown Alicorn mare with a white mane but the foals didn’t care, she was safety, she was warm and she was kind.
The mare gathered the foals up and cuddled them all. “Dewe, dewe babbehs, Snowdwop hab yu nyo, nu need tu wowwies nu mowe. Babbehs am diwt-ee, wet Snowdwop gib yu wickie-cweans.”
Slowly and gently, Snowdrop took each foal individually and licked them clean of the muck and tears staining their faces, the foals still shivered but they felt themselves comforted by the brown mare, more so than they ever did with their mother.
At that moment, Snowdrop’s owner arrived. “What do you have there Snowdrop?”
“Wook daddeh, thwee babbehs, dey hab wowstesh heawt huwties, can Snowdwop an daddeh wook afta babbehs, pwease.”
Zach knelt down to look at the foals, there were clearly scared of something, but more importantly they were dangerously underfed. Seeing the Dandy’s yellow coat and Orange’s orange Fluff made him think of Mary, his last Fluffy who went missing a few weeks ago and her similar colours. And he knew the answer.
“Of course Snowdrop, let’s take them inside and get them something to eat, then maybe we’ll see about letting them stay for a little bit.”
“YAY, fank yu daddeh, Snowdwop be bestsh suwwo… suwwogit… suw… be bestesh pwetend mummah.”
Snowdrop quickly laid down and helped the foals climb onto her back where they could rest their little legs and wrap up warm in her Fluff. Apple looked up at Zach and smiled.
“Fank yu nice mistah, Appew an bwudda an sissy wun way fwom meanie mummah, neba fink be safe gain.”
Zach wondered if he should ask Apple about her mother, but figured it was a question best left for another day.
It was almost dark by the time Forrest woke up.
His head was splitting, his unicorn horn pulsing from the impact of the branch and the ground, and he was still hungry, but he was alive.
After getting his bearings and realising that he hadn’t gone forever sleepies yet, Forrest looked around, only to realise that his nest was empty.
“Mummah? Mummah?”
No answer, Forrest was alone with just the corpses of Brightball and Brownie for company. He walked over to Brightball, smirking at his brother’s body, his head slightly caved in from where Forrest had given him the worst sorry-hoofies.
“Dummeh bwudda, nu wisten tu Smawty, nyo yu gu foweba sweepies.”
Forrest turned round and shat on Brightball’s corpse, a final insult to his brother.
But the green colt was still alone, and the low setting sun was getting lower by the minute. Forrest knew he could find another herd, play nice as the lost little foal then take his rightful place as the Smarty. Then there would all see what his family couldn’t, that he was the biggest, strongest Fluffy around, and nothing could stand in his way.
Forrest smiled to himself and set off into the night, grinning with all the havoc he was ready to unleash.
Forrest will return in The Devil’s Daughter
Well at least the others survive, was the guy that found them Marry’s old owner?
