Because Of Love, By Solidus.
Author’s notes: Little Christmas hugbox for you all. The spirit of the season in it’s purest form: Caring for and loving others, no matter who they are.
Unless they’re a Furry. Furries delenda est.
21st December. The Winter Solstice, the longest, darkest, coldest night of the year.
Chris sat inside, basking in the glow of his Christmas tree. His family would arrive in the next few days, and he could hardly wait to see them open presents. His brother had welcomed a young daughter into the world, and it would be her first Christmas.
A desperate, rapid knocking came at his door.
He rose, and opened it. Before him, in the heavy snow, was a purple fluffy. She was a pale purple with a magenta mane and tail, the latter of which was pressed over her chubby back. A small white horn was on her forehead.
“Pwease! No close doowsie! Am Mummah, hab Chiwpies…….Pwease……Take babbehs!” She pleaded. Her whole body was shaking, she moved her tail slightly to show a litter of 5 chubby, blind foals. “N-No cawe if mummah fweezies, but no wan babbehs to go foweba sweepies…… Pwease hooman……sabe babbehs….” she said, tears welling in her eyes.
Taking in a feral was a bad idea. Taking in 6 ferals was borderline retarded.
But then it WAS almost Christmas, wasn’t it?
“Come inside.” Chris said, stepping aside so the fluffy could come inside. She practically jumped inside and shook off as much of the snow as she could, settling onto the rug in front of the door, shivering. “T-Thank you nice hooman mistah……” she said, crying tears of joy. He’d let her stay with her babies! He’d let her come inside!
A warm hand settled onto her head, and she let out a squeak of fear at first, but his touch was gentle. “Shhh, it’s okay, you’ll be alright.” He said softly, lifting her tail again. A dark magenta pegasus, a bright pink unicorn, a bright red earthie, a purple earthie, and a unicorn that was so dark a purple as to be nearly black.
“Your foals are very pretty!” Chris said, reaching down to gently stroke them with his finger. They peeped and chirped, grabbing at his warm touch with tiny hooves. “Thank you, nice mistah! Dey am mummah’s pwecious chiwpie babbehs, mummah wubs dem so muchies….” She said, beaming. “Pwease no give upsies to dem yet, too wittwe.”
He nodded. “Don’t worry, I won’t pick them up yet, babies need their mother.” He said, the pink foal latching onto his finger and trying to suckle. He pulled his hand away, and the foal gave a dejected cheep, disappointed at the lack of milk from his fingertip.
“Why you out there alone, girl?”
“Mummah am named Wine, Wine had nice mummah and daddeh, but then….” She seemed to be thinking, struggling to recall the words. “Mean hoomans come to housie, say mummah and daddeh was in ak-shee-dent……and Wine have to weave….Even tho Wine was soon mummah! Call Wine “Shitwat” and say kiww tummeh babbehs!” She seems horrified at the notion. To be fair, that’s a pretty fucked up thing to do.
Chris pet her head gently. “Ah….Sounds like something bad happened to your owners, and whoever was handling their affairs didn’t like fluffies. That’s quite cruel of them.”
“Den Wine find warmsie pwace……thinkies it was cawwed “Bawn”. It had nummies, and moo-moo fwiends, and bawkie fwiend, and puwwy fwiend!”
A barn. She must have gotten to a farm.
“Den Wine have babbehs! Babbehs huwties vewy much coming out, but babbehs am pwettiest, chiwpiest babbehs!” She says proudly, moving her tail to the floor so he could see them.
Chris nodded along. “So they are. Well fed, too.” He pokes the dark purple one gently in the belly, and it lets out a small sound that’s somewhere between chirping and giggling.
“Den hooman find Wine and babbehs, caww Wine “vewmin” and chasies us. Den Wine and babbehs wawks fow many fowebas, until nice mistah wet Wine and babbehs stay!” She finishes, wagging her tail rapidly.
“I see. Well……I can promise you can stay here, at least for a little while. I dunno how well I can take care of six fluffies, but I’ll feed you, keep you warm, get you a litter box, set up a safe room…… And when your babies are big enough, I can help them find nice human mommies and daddies, how’s that sound?”
“Dat sound bestest evew!” Wine said, tapping her hooves happily. “Wine no need muchies, just want babbehs to gwow big and stwong!”
Chris scratched her puffy cheeks. “I can help with that. For now, you don’t mind staying on floor here in the mudroom, right?”
“No mindsies! IS wawmer den outside, babbehs wiww be safe on mummah’s back, hooman no have safewoom yet, so Wine keep babbehs hewe.”
“Good girl.” He said, patting her head. He got up, and walked away, returning several minutes later with a large plastic tupperware container, filled with torn up paper. “I know this is probably kinda gross, it is to me too, but I don’t have a litterbox yet, so if you gotta go, go in here.” He said.
Wine nodded. “When hab wittabocks? Need to teach babbehs to make good poopies.”
“I’ll get one, along with stuff for a saferoom, tomorrow morning.” He looked outside. It was 4 PM and dark out.
“Gonna be a long night, Wine.” He stood up, and got an old hoodie off the wall, laying it down for her to make a “nestie.”
She snuggled into it, and put her babies near her belly, letting them nurse. “Thank you again, nice mistah.”
He patted her gently on the head. “Don’t mention it. You know, this time of year, especially, people are supposed to be extra nice.” He said, sitting beside her.
“Why am dat?”
He smiled at her. “A long time ago, a special man did something very special for humans, because he loved us very much.”
“Dat’s nice.”
“Yeah, it is. I’ll teach you more about it another time.”
“Wine wike pwetty twee.” She said, looking at the Christmas tree.
He smiled.
“I like it too. You’re a great momma, you know that?”
“Hooman think so?”
“Yeah. You went through so much to keep your foals alive, you walked through snow almost as deep as you are tall, and the first thing you said when I opened the door was that I save your babies. You didn’t care about yourself, just them.”
Wine looks and her babies and smiles. “Babbehs am evewything. Wub babbehs, do anything for babbehs. No cawe if go foweba sweepies, just as wong as babbehs be okay….”
Chris pet her back. “I guess, I took you in because I learned to love others, and you’re here because you love your babies. That’s what this time of year is all about.”
“Wat hooman caww dis time? Cowwd time?”
He smile, petting her.
“Christmas. It’s called Christmas. And I’ll teach you all about it tomorrow.” He got up.
“Mistah?”
“Yes Wine?”
“Can Wine caww you nyu daddeh?”
He thought for a moment.
“Of course you can. Goodnight, Wine.”
“Goodnight, Nyu daddeh….”