Jitters hurried into the house, following Loretta’s directions into the ‘preparation room’. It was an interesting renovation Loretta had shortly after starting up her breeding business, complete with a wall of medium sized kennels for quarantining new arrivals, a sink for clean up, counters and cabinets for at home medical equipment and fluffy supplies, and a table with a decent light overhead to get a good look at the fluffies in her care.
If Jitters hadn’t known any better he would’ve thought he’d stepped into a vet’s office.
“Found her in an alley coming back from the convenient store…”
Setting the box down on the table, he quickly backed away from it to finally receive some breathing room away from Lady Bell’s rank stench and incessant noise. He grimaced at the faint residue of red smeared on his arms.
“She was in the middle of giving birth. Asked me to help her, wanted me to hand her the babies so she could clean them.”
“She asked you to touch her babies? Definitely a domestic.” Loretta scoffed as she shook her head. Moving over to one of the cabinets, she pulls out a container of wet wipes and helps wipe the mess off his person as he carefully deposits his bag of snacks onto the nearby counter.
Lady Bell can be heard fussing at the lack of attention, yet both of them ignore her.
“What’s up with that one?” Loretta asks, gesturing to the peeping foal in Jitters’ hand.
Jitters holds it up carefully to give her a better look, his hands cradling the squirmy baby as it cries and tries to find a sense of direction in his hands.
“She was fine until she saw it, called it a monster and just-just lost her shit! She fuckin’ crushed one of the others trying to get it away from her, and then she went ballistic trying to get me to let her kill it-I’m not crazy right? That’s not normal?” He asks, a deeply concerned look on his face as Loretta glances up at him after inspecting the alicorn.
“No. You’re not crazy, but it’s not exactly uncommon.” Loretta explains. “Alicorn-phobia is unfortunately a common circumstance with a lot of fluffies. Most of them can’t seem to comprehend that a fluffy can have both a horn and wings, so they categorize it as something scary and unfamiliar, thereby calling it a monster. It’s nothing personal, they’re just that fucking stupid.”
“Oh…” Jitters couldn’t believe that was a thing. It was just… So stupid. “W-Well, what do I do with this one? It’s gonna starve if it doesn’t eat soon, right?”
“Yeah. Give it to Trixie. She’ll take care of it.” Loretta says, pointing Jitters in the direction of a doorway adjacent to the room they were in.
“Oh, okay-uh… She’s okay with alicorns?” He worriedly glances from Loretta to the alicorn. After all he’d done so far to keep it alive, he kinda didn’t want an ‘accident’ or another shriekfest to happen.
“Oh yeah, as long as it’s a baby, she’ll be head over heels for it.” She assures, making herself busy as she gathers the necessary items she needs to process Lady Bell and her other babies.
Jitters chances to spare a glance at the filthy box, just barely catching a glimpse of Lady Bell’s ears and multi-coloured mane, before leaving to to deliver the baby alicorn to it’s new surrogate mother.
He could already hear the chipper fluffy singing coming from the room with a brightly coloured baby-gate in the doorway. Peeking inside he spotted Trixie, Loretta’s personal fluffy pet and first real success story, singing as she rearranged her bedding to make a comfy looking blanket nest.
“Twixie gon’ be mummah soon!”
“Make gud cweanies in pway woom!”
“Mummah ‘Wetta gon’ be su, su pwoud!”
“Nestie be su soft wike a cwoud!”
It was mildly humorous, watching Trixie busy herself. Knocking on the wood of the doorway to not startle the fluffy, Jitters clears his throat. “Uh, hey, Trixie. Remember me? Jitters? I’m Loretta’s friend?”
Trixie quickly turns to face him, big, doll-like eyes practically piercing into his soul through the thickest eyelashes he’s ever seen in his life. “Twixie 'memebah! Hewwo Jittews!” She smiles cutely, and trots over as he kneels down to meet her.
He was never sure why, but there was just something about this fluffy that always made him feel nervous. Maybe it was the eyes, their unnaturally icy-blue hue. Or maybe it was how she stared at him like he was a piece of meat ready for carving. Or… Or maybe he was just overthinking things, and he really didn’t have anything to be worried about. Though, after seeing Lady Bell’s freak-out… He wasn’t too sure anymore.
“What dat?” Trixie’s voice piped up, bringing him out of his runaway thoughts. Her nose sniffing at him eagerly. “Smeww wike Babbeh! Am babbeh?! Babbeh fo’ Twixie?!” Her ears perk up at the sounds of peeping in his hands, and for a moment he thinks the unicorn is about to start bouncing off the walls in excitement.
“Y-Yeah, but uh, you gotta be careful with this one, okay? You know what an alicorn is, right?”
“Yus! Am pointy wingy babbeh! Suuu cute!” Trixie answers, shaking her head yes as she lifted her hooves up, ready to receive the baby with open arms. Her answer was reassuring, causing Jitters to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Good. Very good! This baby was born just today, but it’s mom was really bad, and wanted to give it, uh, ‘forever sleepies?’ So it hasn’t been able to eat yet. Can you make sure to feed it?”
There was a moment of pause where he could have sworn Trixie’s eye twitched at hearing that a baby’s mother tried to kill a foal. “Gib babbeh hewe.” It was a curt order, and the chipper tone had completely disappeared within those short words. It almost sounded like an adult human using a stern tone. The sudden shift was enough to make Jitters’ blood run cold and hand the foal over without any more fuss.
The odd shift was gone as quickly as it was there the moment Trixie laid eyes on the foal. Giving an excited gasp shortly followed by a bubbly giggle, Trixie promptly took the foal in her hooves and checked it over for any injuries while licking it’s fuzzy body clean.
“Thewe, Thewe poow, wittwe babbeh. Nu mowe heawt huwties, Mummah hewe. Gib ‘ou wicky cweanies an’ huggies an’ wuv!”
Jitters watches her for a moment, taking a mental note that Trixie was actually cleaning this alicorn more gently, yet just as thoroughly as Lady Bell had done to her other foals. He pondered if the gentleness was due to her knowing that the foal had been through a lot, or if it was due to her being a much more experienced mother.
He didn’t get to ponder for long though, as Loretta called him from the doorway, asking for assistance.
“You good?” Loretta asks, holding a red bucket and a couple of pairs of kitchen gloves in her hands.
“Y-Yeah, Yeah, I’m good.”
Getting up and stepping away from Trixie’s play room, he glanced back at Trixie and the alicorn foal, seeing that the infant was finally being fed. “You sure it’ll be safe?”
“Positive. Trixie’s the only one I’ve been able to successfully cure of BMS. Besides, she’s literally been going out of her way to steal my other breeder’s foals, so this’ll be a good distraction while we deal with the bitch mare. Now grab a pair of gloves and follow me.”
Following Loretta, he took the yellow pair of gloves from her and entered the preparation room. “Now, let’s see what we’re working with…”
Trixie and Loretta belong to @UndercoverPallasCat
