The rest of Loretta’s evening was spent in hard work and exhaustion. She hardly had time to eat and she was running on her fourth cup of coffee just to stay awake.
The remains of Bonnie’s mess had been cleaned up, and rowdy stallions that started to bicker over who needed to bring more nummies to their special mares due to having to care for Bonnie’s foals were corralled with Betsy Boo’s help and an extra few scoops of kibble. Trixie was released from solitary confinement after a brief test for her behavior, and in turn was given Lady Bell’s remaining foals to look after. None of the foals were the babbeh she was missing, but she treasured each of them anyway and was content enough so long as she didn’t have an empty nest. Next thing was to check on Bonnie.
The purple mare seemed to be healing alright. No signs of infection, and she was still sleeping off the surgery. The blood bag had been drained, and after checking her blood pressure, Loretta deemed it safe enough to remove. A small injection of some pain killers and a pink band-aid later, and Bonnie was set to continue recovering in her kennel.
That left Loretta to deal with Lady Bell. The automatic milk pump had long since stopped milking her after running it’s timer, and after being forced to dangle from the stocks for so many hours her legs felt numb and useless.
Removing the suction cups from her teats must’ve been a relief, but Loretta knew by the look in the mare’s eyes she was both terrified and enraged.
“You haven’t eaten or had any water in over a day, so you must be starving. I know you saw what happened with Bonnie over there, and I know you don’t want that to happen to you, do you?”
Lady Bell shakes her head, whimpering through the muzzle on her face.
“That’s what I thought. Let that be a lesson to you. Actions have consequences, if you be good, you’ll be fed and allowed to see your babbehs, if you’re bad, you get punished. Got it?”
Lady Bell gives a muffle sob, trembling against the wooden restraints.
“Good.” Loretta sighs, grabbing hold of the naked pegasus and releasing her from the stocks. Lady Bell struggles to control her limbs for a moment, relying on Loretta’s grip to keep her upright as she tries to stand. As she’s distracted with trying to gain her balance, Loretta removes her muzzle and points her in the direction of a food and water dish.
Lady Bell stumbles over to the food and water dish like a drunk pug. Her face nearly planting itself in the water as she loudly slurps and laps at it. Her throat was so dry and her tongue felt thick and sticky from how badly she needed water after crying so much. Once her thirst was quenched she quickly moved to stuff her face in the dish of kibble, spilling down out of it on the cold tile floor. She didn’t care, she would chase after every crumb of the not-so-tasty kibble and lick it right off the tile. Her tummy grumbled at how hungry she was.
The mare only slightly noticed how the human munstah moved around, quickly packing as many things into a cardboard box that she could. Including two bottles worth of her milkies stolen from the meanie milkie thief machine. The pegasus thought about raising a complaint, but the drive to keep eating overruled the notion. Lady Bell didn’t care what she was up to, so long as she didn’t touch her.
After a few moments, the Dummeh Munstah Mummah spoke again.
“Stay here and eat, I’ll be back in a bit.”
Didn’t have to tell her twice, Lady Bell was content to stuff her face.
With Loretta gone, and the kibble and water quickly depleted to full emptiness, Lady Bell looked around the room. Maybe she could escape? She’d have to find her babbehs first though. Even if they were dummies that forgot how to drink milkies and didn’t recognize their mummah without her fluff, they were still hers and hers alone.
Her thoughts on escaping were interrupted by the sound of shuffling. She turns to see the purple mare in the kennel stir and groggily lift her head.
“M-Mummah…? B-Babbehs? Did Bonnie hab babbehs? Huuuuu… Hab huwties…”
Lady Bell snorts before approaching the bars. Her eyes linger on Bonnie’s tummy scar.
“Oh-Hewwo, nyu fwen?” Bonnie asks as she sees the pegasus approach. “Am Bonnie, what yo namesie?”
Lady Bell’s naked wings flutter as she instinctively poses. “Am Wady Beww! Pwettiest wingie fwuffy ebah!”
“Weawwy?” Bonnie asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. Loretta certainly did her best to train her fluffies to not disrespect others based on appearance, and Bonnie most certainly didn’t mind brown or not-so-pretty coloured fluffies, but it wasn’t every day she saw a fluffy, well… Without any fluff claiming to be the prettiest. Didn’t you have to have fluff to even be a fluffy?
Lady Bell quickly caught on to Bonnie’s hesitance and confusion and shrank back from her boisterous posture, quickly filling with embarrassment and shame. “W-Weww… Am was pwettiest wingie fwuffy, buh… Munstah stowe Wady beww’s fwuff… Nao am poopie nu fwuffy wingie fwuff…”
Bonnie gasps, giving Lady Bell a look of pity. “Oh no! Dat am su saddies! Am sowwy munstah stowe yo fwuff, nyu fwen. Nee huggies fo feew bettah?”
Lady Bell is a little taken aback by Bonnie’s kind gesture. All the other fluffies she’d grown up around would’ve pointed and laughed at her, saying how she wasn’t good enough to keep her fluff. That she wasn’t meant to be a pageant champion. Bonnie must be some kind of dummeh. Or maybe it was trick to get her guard down. The pegasus stomps her hoof and holds her head up defiantly. “Nu. Wady Beww am stwong! Nu nee’ huggies. Nee’ tu find way ou’ su can sabe babbehs and wun 'way!”
At the mention of babbehs, Bonnie looks a bit more lively. “'Ou hab babbehs? Bonnie hab babbehs tu!”
“Nu ‘ou don’.” Lady Bell rudely states.
Bonnie is understandably confused and a little offended. “Yus! Hab biggest poopies onwy wast bwite time! Am nyu mummah!”
“Nu. 'Ou a mummah-nu-mowe. Wady Beww saw it aww. Meanie munstah stowe aww yo tummeh babbehs!” Lady Bell says with a scary looking frown on her face as she steps closer.
Bonnie shakes her head, terrified at this news. “N-Nu… Nu. Nu nu nu nunuNU!! NU AM TWUE!! NU AM TWUE!! HUUHUUHUU!!!” She can’t believe that! Lady Bell had to be wrong! She tries to remember what happened, but her head felt too fuzzy to recall most of what happened.
“It am twue!!” Lady Bell shouts, stomping her hoof for emphasis before pointing at Bonnie’s belly. “Wook! Meanie munstah steaw tummeh fwuff! Weave ugwy huwtie pwace on tummeh! If 'ou hab babbehs, wai babbehs nu hewe?! Munstah steaw tummah babbehs!!”
Bonnie was now in hysterics, sobbing uncontrollably as she cried out. “Babbehs?! BABBEHS WHEWE AWE 'OUHUUHUUHUU!!! PWEASE BABBEHS MAKE CHIWPIES FO MUMMAH!! WAN BABBEHS!! HUUHUUHUUHUU!!! TUMMEH HAB WOSTEST HUWTIES HUUHUUHUU!!!”
The purple mare tried to get up only to collapse back on her side after a sudden wave of aching pain spreads from her very sore tummy. She wails in distress and pain, grieving the loss of her missing tummeh babbehs.
A door can be heard opening and closing, shortly followed by rapidly approaching footsteps. Loretta enters the room, frantically looking around before spotting Lady Bell and Bonnie. Almost immediately, she advances and grabs hold of Lady Bell, yanking her into the air as she squeals like a stuck pig.
“YOU! What did you do?!” Loretta asks, already pissed off with the bitch mare.
“SCREEEEE!!! MUNSTAH! MUNSTAH MUMMAH HAB WADY BEWW!! HEWP!! HEEEWWWP! SCREEEEEE!!!” Lady Bell shrieks, being utterly useless in giving any answers.
“MUMMAH 'WETTA!! HUUHUUHUU!! Bonnie babbehs am stowen by munstahuuuHUUHUUU!!! Am wostest mummah!!!” Bonnie sobs, burying her face inher hooves.
Loretta glares at Lady Bell and whisks her away, out of the room and towards her bedroom.
“You little shit! I oughta-Hhghh You are such a piece of work!” Loretta growls. Lady Bell struggles, flailing her arms and kicking as much as she can.
They enter Loretta’s room, walking past Trixie as she was caring for Lady Bell’s foals.
“Hewwo Mummah!” Trixie greets in between licks as she cleans the blue pegasus’ baby fluff.
“Not now, Trixie-” Loretta starts, only to be interrupted by Lady Bell’s shriek.
“DAT AM WADY BEWW’S BABBEHS!!”
The pegasus stops her thrashing to glare down at Trixie and puff out her cheeks. She points a hoof at Trixie, demanding her to give the foals back. Trixie simply looks up at Lady Bell, taking in the bare skinned pegasus with a look of smug amusement.
“Weawwy? Dat am suuu intewestin’…” She can tell that Lady Bell is a Bad Mummah just by looking at her. There’s only one reason Loretta would be bringing her through here. Lady Bell had no idea what she was gonna go through. “If dey am yo babbehs, wai dey nu wif 'ou?”
Lady Bell squirms in Loretta’s grasp, unable to worm her way free. “'CAUSE STOOPI MEANIE MUNSTAH MUMMAH TAKE BABBEHS AWAY!! MUNSTAH AM BABBEH THIEF!! NAO GIB BABBEHS BACK, DUMMEH MAWE!!”
Trixie purses her lips and hums, glancing down at the babbehs craddled against her fluff. “Twixie nu knu… Du 'ou wan meanie mummah, babbehs?”
They foals peep and coo, completely oblivious to the question or it’s meaning. Trixie simply nods, playing along and fully aware that they’re too little to really understand anything other than her love, hugs, and milkies. Loretta tries to keep from laughing at the scene playing out. Lady Bell is far less enthused and isn’t quite intelligent enough to realize she’s currently the butt of a joke.
“Babbehs! 'Ou come hewe wight nao! Babbehs? BABBEHS!!! BABBEHS WISTEN TU MUMMAH!!”
“Siwwy meanie, babbehs nu wan 'ou. Wan Twixie!” The unicorn teases. This only proves to enrage Lady Bell further.
“NU!! DEM AM WADY BEWW’S BABBEHS!! GIB BABBEHS BACK OW GET WOSTEST SOWWY HOOFSIES!! BABBEHS! BABBEHS COME TU MUMMAH!!! BABBEHS!!!”
“Alright, that’s enough-” Loretta interjects, opening the closet door.
Trixie stares Lady Bell directly in the eye before giving the blue pegasus foal a long, purposeful lick.
“Dey am Twixie’s babbehs nao~ 
”
Lady Bell’s eyes widen as her face twists in utter rage. Her enraged screeching is cut off as Loretta firmly drops her into the solitary confinement room and slams the door shut. The pegasus’ screams are muffled by the soundproofing of the room, making her barely audible to anyone outside.
Loretta looks down at Trixie, amused at her attitude with Lady Bell, yet a little concerned with this new revelation of the unicorn’s hypocrisy. “You know, Trixie, you sure did cause a fuss when Jitters took that alicorn. You even called him a baby thief…”
“Yus. He am babbeh thief.” Trixie’s tone growing bitter at the memory.
“But you just said those foals were yours now to their mummah’s face. So that makes you a baby thief too.”
“Nu. Nu am babbeh thief. Am gud mummah.” Trixie nonchalantly states with a smile.
“Explain.” Loretta orders, raising an eyebrow.
“Siwwy mummah, ‘Aww gud mummahs wuv aww babbehs.’” The unicorn’s voice eerily alters, if only slightly, to perfectly imitate the voice of the audio recordings she’d had to listen to on repeat whenever she was locked in solitary confinement. “Twixie am gud mummah, wuv aww babbehs! Aww babbehs am Twixie’s babbehs~”
Loretta stares at the unicorn as she starts to sing a mummah song, unnerved at her words. She’s known Trixie to be possessive of foals, and have an aversion to most grown fluffies. That’s why she had to have her own safe room in the bedroom, to keep her away from the primary safe room. However this… This implicated some sinister notions and made Loretta’s experiment in curing BMS backfire in an unexpected direction. Was it possible her curative methods worked too well?
She thought back to some of the strange occurrences that had happened in the past. Missing foals, only to be found by Trixie, who then raised them as if they were her own. Mysteriously dead breeders that Loretta had originally thought to be misfortune from wild animals getting them when they were in the back yard or sabotage from competitors. That couldn’t have been Trixie’s doing, right? No. That’d be silly. She was one of the most loving fluffies in Loretta’s care! The most violence Loretta had ever seen was the first time she’d been attempted to be bred by a stallion, and she only tore off his nutsack with her teeth after stomping his dick into a meaty paste…
Crimeny, she was starting to sound like Jitters. She wasn’t sure what to think, and honestly she was too exhausted to go down this unnerving rabbit hole right now. Matter of fact, she didn’t even have the time to entertain it, she had a distressed mummah to calm down and make sure she didn’t accidentally rip her sutures.
Leaving Trixie, Loretta rushes back to her prep room to take care of Bonnie. Sure enough, the purple mare was still a sobbing mess.
“Babbehs am aww gone! Mummah su sowwy!!! Nu pwotect babbehs fwom munstahuuuhuuhuuu!!!”
Loretta sighed and approached the kennel, opening the cage. “Bonnie? Bonnie, hey, hey, shhh, calm down. It’s okay.”
“Nu!! Am nu otay!! Babbehs gone!!” Bonnie cried, snot and tears running down her face. “Nu fwuff fwuffy saw!!”
“That no fluff fluffy is a meanie mummah that doesn’t know when to stay in her damn lane.” Loretta retorts, petting Bonnie’s mane in an attempt to soothe the mare’s frazzled nerves.
“Bad wowdsie, mummah…huuu”
Loretta rolls her eyes, but can’t help but feel a little pleased that Bonnie’s good manners training still prevails despite her emotional turmoil. “Yeah, yeah, I’m sorry. Listen, I promise you your babbehs are fine.”
Bonnie looks up at her with watery eyes, a glimmer of hope shining in her face. “Weawwy?”
“Yes! All your babbehs are in the safe room. You had a lot of babbehs, too many for a single mare to care for, so your bestest friend, Jade, and all the other mummahs promised to help until you healed from your tummy hurties.” Loretta explains, smiling as she watches Bonnie’s grief and dread melt away.
“Buh… Bu’ wha’ 'bout the munstah?”
“That meanie mummah was calling me a monster after she saw me help the foals. She doesn’t know anything she’s talking about.” It’s a half-truth, if anything. Seeing a C-section first hand with the intelligence level of a spoiled five year old is likely to be traumatizing enough to consider anyone committing surgery a monster. Bonnie doesn’t need to know the gruesome details though.
“Pwease, Mummah 'Wetta, can Bonnie see babbehs nao?”
“Are you sure you feel good enough to move? It was a really rough birth, and you must be feeling a lot of hurties right now…” Loretta asks, raising an eyebrow. She could easily carry Bonnie in the towel she’s resting on, but to have her in the safe room so soon? She wondered if it’d be okay.
“Yus! Bonnie nee’ tu see babbehs! Been in tummeh fo’ su wong! Pwease Mummah 'Wetta! Wet Bonnie see babbehs!” Bonnie begged, squeezing her little hooves around Loretta’s wrist in a clingy hold. It was almost heart breaking how desperate she was.
“Oh, alright, let’s go. We gotta be careful though, you can’t have your babies or anyone else play with you right now, otherwise your tummy might get hurt even worse, understand?”
“Otay… Can stiww gib miwkies? An’ huggies?” The mare asks as she is carefully lifted out of the kennel and carried towards the primary safe room.
“Mmm… I dunno about milkies, but you can have huggies if they’re very careful.” Loretta answers, entering the safe room. The chorus of fluffy voices and chirping babbehs rings out as she puts on an excited face for them. “Look who’s here everybody!!”
Bonnie waves her hoof as she smiles. “Hewwo fwens!”
“BONNIE!!” All the fluffies shout is excited glee as they rush over from their places, circling around Loretta before parting a path as Bonnie is carried to the center of the room and carefully lowered to their level. M&M, a rather ragged looking earthie stallion with patches of shaved fur and barely any mane or tail left, drags over a pillow cushion for Bonnie to lay on.
Loretta holds up her hands to quiet everyone down from their endless questions so she can speak. “Alright everybody, settle down. Bonnie still has a lot of hurties, so you all need to be very gentle with her, okay?”
“Jade was suu wowwied! Am Bonnie otay?” The green maned pegasus asks, pressing her forehead to Bonnie’s in a gesture of affection.
“Bonnie otay, hab tummeh huwties, bu’ Mummah 'Wetta sabe Bonnie and sabe babbehs!” Bonnie answered, looking around. “Whewe am Bonnie’s babbehs? Nu see babbehs yet! Nee’ babbehs!”
One by one the other mares excitedly went to their respective nests to collect the foals that were assigned to them and bring them to Bonnie to show her all her hard work. Bonnie watched with wide eyes as the number of foals shown to her grew. It wasn’t until Betsy Boo carried over the overgrown pink unicorn that she spoke.
“Dat am biggest babbeh ebah!!!”
“That’s the poor little guy that got stuck.” Loretta explained as Besty Boo carefully set the large foal down next to his chirping siblings. “He was so big, I had to help get him and the others out of your tummy.”
Bonnie sniffles, her breath hitching as she hiccups a sob. Jade looks at her with worry. “Bonnie? Am otay?”
“Su… Su many babbehs… Bonnie nebah hab dis many befowe… Was su scawed when Bonnie hab su many huwties. Was scawdies dat Bonnie wouwd wose babbehs…” The purple mare blubbers, trying her hardest to keep her composure. Tears spill down her cheeks, soaking into her fur as her tail wags. “Bu’ Mummah ‘Wetta sabe babbehs… Sabe Bonnie. Am… Am jus’ su many heawt happies! huuhuuuhuu! Tank 'ou Mummah! Tank 'ou su muchies! Bonnie nebah ebah fowget! Wuv babbehs! Wuv mummah! huu huu!”
The mares gather around Bonnie, to share in the love and adoration. All of them cooing and praising Loretta and Bonnie’s beautiful foals. For them, it was truly a magical moment. Maybe it was the exhaustion, or maybe she got a little caught up in the moment, but Loretta couldn’t help but feel a gleeful sense of pride at the mare’s grateful validation of her accomplishment. It was hellish work, working through that birth without losing any of her breadwinners. To hear those grateful words, even from a fluffy, it felt nice and she couldn’t help but beam at the overjoyed mothers.
“You’re very welcome, Bonnie.” Loretta responds, petting the purple mare’s mane.
“Hab su many babbehs, Oweo hewp gib miwkies, if Bonnie wan.” The black and white fluffalo offers with an affectionate nuzzle.
“Tank ‘ou, fwen. Babbehs gun nee’ miwkies tu gwow big an’ stwong!” Bonnie accepts, returning the affection.
Meanwhile, back in the solitary confinement room, Lady Bell was still throwing as much of a tantrum as she could. She screeched at the door, stomping on it with her hooves as hard as she could, all the while cursing her Munstah Mummah, the Dummeh Pointy Head Fwuffy, and even her own foals.
“DUMMEH STOOPI’ BABBEHS! DAT NU YO MUMMAH!!! STOOPI DUMMEH POINTY HEAD THIEF!!! HATECHU! HATECHU!!” She screeches as she stomps as hard as her stained, manicured hooves would allow her.
“WAN OUT! WAN OUT NAO!!!” She pants, plopping down on her butt to catch her breath. She hated this place. She hated Loretta. She hated… Well, almost hated her babbehs for being too stupid to recognize her. But most of all she hated Trixie.
“All good mummahs love ALL babbehs.” The voice recording drones. Lady Bell hated the voice. It didn’t know what it was talking about at all! Only the bestest babbehs were good! Not poopies, Not dummies, and especially Not munstahs!
Catching her breath, she presses her ear to the door, straining to hear anything over the dumb voice telling her dumb rules. Faintly, ever so faintly, she swears she could hear a mummah song. No doubt being sung to her babbehs!
Rage fills her once more, and having caught her breath, is right back to giving the door the sorriest of hoofies.
“DUMMEH BABBEHS WISTEN TU YO MUMMAH!!! AM WEAW MUMMAH! NU DUMMEH POINTY HEAD THIEF!! WET OUT NAO!!”
“SCREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!” She screeches, carrying on her assault as the voice recording says something that gives her an idea.
“Good poopies go in the litterbox.”
“ENF YO GUD POOPIES! GIB WOSTEST SOWWY POOPIES!!!” She declares, raising her nub of a tail and grunting as she unleashes a fowl torrent of shit behind her. For a moment, she is satisfied, that is until she realizes that she completely forgot to aim her poopies at the door she was so pissed off at.
Looking behind her, she gasps in horror at her dreadful mistake. There were her smelliest poopies, covering nearly the entirety of the food and water dish. All her nummies and drinkies were now coated in a heaping pile of shit.
“Nuuuu…” She whined, lamenting the lost food. What would she eat now? What would she drink? Her tummy grumbled. This was that stupid unicorn’s fault. Her and the dummy human monster. If they didn’t lock her in this sorry room, she wouldn’t have poopied all over the nummie dishes.
Her nose crinkled at the wretched smell. It was really awful.
“Good fluffies always clean their messes.” The voice said.
Lady Bell huffed in defiance. “Nu! Nu wan cweanie poopies! Dummeh wowdies!”
To emphasis her words, she sat away form the mess, choosing to try and nap off the hunger. Loretta wouldn’t lock her in here forever, Lady Bell was too important! She’ll have to come back and give her clean drinkie water and sketties! None of that stupid kibble!
Only ten minutes passed before she came crawling back to the dishes, staring down ate them sullenly. It felt like she’d been in here forever. The stupid voice kept saying more and more rules, not letting her sleep. She was getting so hungry, but just because she looked like a poopie, didn’t mean she’d num poopies… right? Right! She was a pageant fluff! She could never stoop so low! She walked away from the dishes once more with her head held high.
Another ten minutes passed. The stench of shit hung in the air. She was back to sitting by the dishes, staring down at the kibble. It wasn’t high grade kibble she’d eaten most her life. It wasn’t even the good kibble for helping mummahs make milkies like the stuff she’d eaten earlier before talking to Bonnie. It was low grade kibble. Dry, grainy, pungent smelling grit in pellet form that didn’t even have sketti flavouring. Now partially soggy with poopies…
“Good fluffies eat all their kibble, and don’t ask for sketties.”
Lady Bell sobbed. She must be in Hell. Abandoned in this room, left alone to eat nothing but her own poopie covered kibble. With no babbehs in sight, and no big, strong stallion to make more… She hated it, but she had no other choice.
Sniveling, she forced herself to take a bite, only to spit it back out instantly. She tries to wash out her mouth with the water only to find it’s all poopies. Nothing but poopies. She screams in frustration before dissolving into sobs. She throws another tantrum, stomping her hooves on the floor until she wears herself out again.
She re-approaches the bowls, and digs in. Tears streak down her face as she forces herself to eat. She gags several times, nearly throwing up at least twice. It’s beyond disgusting and the worst thing she’s ever tasted in her life.
She manages to get through a few more bites before she vomits back onto the remaining slurry of crap and kibble. She wails in despair, feeling hungry as ever.
“WAN OUT!!! WAN BABBEHS!!! WAN SKETTIS!!! WAI MEANIE MUMMAH WEAVE WADY BEWW?! AM GUD FWUFFY!!! AM GUD FWUFFYYYYHUUHUUHUUUU!!!”
She cries some more before resigning herself to her fate, forcing herself to eat and clean her mess once more. She finishes the majority of the bowl, eating as much of the dry, throat scratching kibble as she could. The horror of the ordeal seemed to be over for the time being as she trudged her way back towards the towel that served as a blanket. Only for the light to go out.
“All good fluffies wuv-” The voice suddenly stops. The closet is enveloped in darkness. The sound of a near deafening crack of thunder makes the house rattle from the reverberation.
Lady Bell screams in terror, failing her limbs as she stumbles and rolls onto her back. She can’t see anything. She can faintly hear the screams of other fluffies outside the door. She shits herself in fear.
Back in the primary safe room, Loretta isn’t fairing much better. The fluffies shriek in terror as the lights go out and the thunder from the storm rolls outside. It feels as if today was just one problem after another.
The herd is on the verge of panicking, and another flash outside the windows predict the arrival of another crash of thunder. Quickly taking her phone out of her back pocket, she turns on the flashlight and whistles to gain the fluffies’ attention.
“Alright fluffies, listen up!!” She speaks loud and firm over the terrified peeping of the foals and whimpering of the adults. “Take a deep breath and stay calm. This is just like we practiced! Everybody get their safety buddy and gather in the center of the room. Make sure everybody’s together! I’m gonna go get more lights.”
The fluffies do as they’re told, some being too scared and forcefully pushed into place by their assigned buddies. Loretta leaves the phone on the floor to keep them from losing their minds in the dark before she quickly leaves them to gather everything she needs in the event of a blackout.
After finding her emergency camping lanterns, she checks on Trixie, finding her curled up in her nest, hiding the babbehs under her as she whimpers and whispers promises to protect them from the scary dark.
“Hey, Trixie, you okay?”
“Huuhuuu!! Mummah! Heawd boomy munstah!! Bwight-wight gu ‘way!! Nee’ hewp babbehs!!” Trixie cries, her brave face faltering as she sees Loretta.
“There’s no monsters, Trixie. Just a big storm.” Loretta explains, placing one of the camping lanterns down as she sets up a blanket fort. “Here, help me move the babbehs under here, you’ll feel a lot safer.”
Trixie flinches and squeaks at another roll of thunder, gathering the five foals in her fluff before dragging her pillows and blankets over to where Loretta was moving a vanity stool over to her bed and draping the blankets over them. Before long, the babbehs and Trixie were safely tucked away in the makeshift den.
“There. You gonna be okay in here while I take care of the others?”
“Yus. Twixie be bwave fo’ babbehs. Gib huggies and wuv su nu be scawdies.” Trixie answers in determination, though it falters for a moment when she hesitates to ask a question. “M-Mummah? Can gib huggie to Twixie? Am scawed…”
Loretta pauses for a moment, watching Trixie give the ‘uppsie’ posture before relenting. “Sure, come here.”
She picks Trixie up, hugging her close and feeling the unicorn squeeze as tight as she could before the chirping foals cry out in fear of another roll of thunder. Trixie pulls away from the hug to look at the foals and take a deep breath, steeling her nerves and ready to keep them safe.
“Tank ‘ou Mummah ’ Wetta. Twixie wiww be otay, nee’ keep babbehs safe.”
“Good girl, Trixie. I’ll be back to check on you later.” Loretta says, petting Trixie’s mane before standing up with the remaining blankets, pillows, and camping lantern. She spares a glance at the closet before deciding to deal with Lady Bell after the storm. As she leaves, she hears Trixie singing another mummah song.
"Mummah wuv babbehs~
Babbehs wuv mummah~
Nu be scawdies~
Stowmies gu 'way soon~"
Having gathered the remaining supplies she needed, Loretta returns to the primary saferoom and sets down the camping lantern. She cleans up the scardey-poopies, accepting the apologies of the fluffies that made their messes and assuring that they’re not bad for being scared. Then she sets to work on making a blanket pallet on the floor. The braver fluffies drag their own pillows and blankets over, helping her set up the ‘Big Nestie’ that they had practiced before. The babbehs were gathered in a little nest and closely guarded by Bonnie, Jade, and Betsy Boo. Loretta finished the set up by shutting all the curtains, blocking out as much of the storm as she could.
Sitting down on the blanket and cuddling up with her terrified herd, she took out a children’s book and opened it up.
“Once upon a time, on a warm summer’s day, a mommy duck wriggled excitedly on her nest. She could hear a tapping noise. Tap, tap, tap, tap! “Quick! Quack! Quick!” Mommy duck called to the other ducks. “My eggs are hatching! Come and see!”…”
She read to the fluffies, distracting them from the sound of pounding rain and rolling thunder. Before too long, the vast majority of the fluffies her dozing off, curled up against her in a makeshift fluffpile. Betsy Boo had wormed her way up under Loretta’s arm.
“Dat was byootifuw stowy, Mummah. Tank 'ou vewy muchies…”
“No problem, Boo…” Loretta yawned, fighting to keep her own eyes open.
“Mummah am tiwed, nee sweepies.” Betsy hummed, her soft eyes peering up at Loretta.
“Mm… I dunno… I gotta make sure the foals stay alive…Make sure everyone’s okay…”
“Babbehs am safe. Gu sweepies, Betsie watch babbehs, kee’ hewd safe.”
Loretta yawns again, her eyesrefusing to open as she mumbles. “Mmn… Maybe… Just a little nap…”
Betsy Boo hums softly, an old lullaby of no discernable tune. She remains in place, dutifully listening and keeping an eye on the foals. Loretta was such a good mummah, and did so much work, it was about time she got some sleep.
Loretta and all her breeder fluffies belong to @UndercoverPallasCat
Especially what she did to Bonnie.