Chapter 19: No Milkies
Travis was only gone a couple hours if that by the time he returned. The sun was still high in the sky and he was merrily humming to himself about all the fun he and Angel were going to have with the children.
The thought of being a father filed him with joy, Angel had done so much to help him work through his trauma from Crow’s assault and now to share that love with her, it was everything to him.
As he turned the corner into his alleyway home, he immediately felt something off, he couldn’t place a hoof on it yet but something unnerved him as he slowly approached his hole-home. Getting closer, he realised it was the faint sound of distressed chirping, and no mummah song to calm them down.
Travi dropped the food he was carrying and raced towards the hole, inside he found his five children, all huddled together, shivering and chirping, and Angel nowhere to be seen.
Travis panicked. “SPECIAW-FWIEND? SPECIAW-FWIEND WHEWE AM YU?”
No answer, Travis ran up and down the alleyway, she had to be nearby, Angel loved him, she loved their children, she wouldn’t just leave them defenceless like this.
Unless… would she? Travis had been wrong before, he thought all humans were nice until Francis nearly starved him and his family. He thought all Fluffies were nice until he met Crowley and his herd. Could he have been wrong about Angel all this time?
He tried not to think about it, his children needed him, once they were safe he’d look for Angel. Returning to the hole-home, Travis lay down and wrapped his body around the foals, letting them snuggle into him for warmth.
“Dewe dewe babbehs, daddeh am hewe, daddeh keep babbehs safe. Mummah bak soon, Twavis fink.”
He tried to keep the worry out of his voice but he wasn’t sure he was successfully. At least the foals had stopped shivering, while they were born into hot-times it would take a day or two for their Fluff to grow in properly, until then they were wholly reliant on their parents body warmth.
Travis didn’t know it, but had he been gone another hour, at least one of his children would’ve died from hypothermia.
Sitting in his home, now suddenly much bigger and scarier without Angel, Travis tried to think of where she could’ve gone. He wouldn’t let himself believe she left intentionally, he couldn’t let that thought poison his mind, but where else was there? She could reach in for food without having to even get up, her water bowl was within eyesight of the home, the only other thing he could think of was boredom and he didn’t think Angel would abandon their newborns for her own amusement.
Could it be humans? Angel did say they were dangerous, and wingie-pointies like her were popular. Plus there was a distinct human scent close by, but the whole place smelt like humans, they ate human food and lived underneath human homes. And why just take Angel, why not take the foals as well, there was two wingie-pointy babbehs, if humans loved them so much why leave them?
It hurt his brain to think about, more and more the toxic idea of Angel leaving him seeped into his mind, he tried to ignore it, but nothing else made sense. Nothing at all made sense.
Travis didn’t even realise he was crying until his felt movement on his stomach, he opened his blurry eyes and looked down. His foals were cuddling in closer to him, they wanted to give him huggies to make him feel better.
Wait, no they were still crying, they wanted something. They were looking for milkie-places, they were hungry, and Travis couldn’t feed them.
“Am sowwy babbehs, daddeh nu hab miwkie-pwaces, nu can guib miwkies.”
The five newborns didn’t understand, they kept looking around, pawing at where their brains told them milkies should be, but never finding any. They wailed, wondering why their stomaches were in so much pain, why their mummy and daddy didn’t love them anymore.
Travis felt utterly helpless, he had food, he could’ve stayed there for many forevers and not have to worry about anything. But he couldn’t feed his foals without milk, without their mother. Was this why she left him? To cruelly watch his children die slow, painful deaths, to hurt him like…
NO! No Angel didn’t leave him, something happened to her. He couldn’t let those thoughts hurt him like that.
Thinking quickly, Travis grabbed some stale bread from his food stock and started chewing, food made milkies, but since he couldn’t make milkies, he had to try and give his children food. He knew they couldn’t chew anything yet, so he chewed it for them, waiting until he could only feel a watery paste in his mouth.
Fighting every temptation to swallow, Travis grabbed his closest babbeh, his yellow colt, and gently spat into his mouth. The foal chirped and panicked at the strange, almost sour liquid being dribbled down his throat, where was the warm, sweet milk, where was his mothers love.
The colt spat out the sour liquid, his stomach almost lurching with sicky wawas. Travis looked down at his son, his little yellow face stained with the watery bread paste.
“Pwease babbeh, dwink it. Daddeh knyo it nu miwkies bu hab nuffin ewse.”
Picking up another piece of stale bread, Travis chewed it into paste again and tried to spit it into his son’s mouth. In his haste he spat out too much, the colt was taken by surprise and instinctively swallowed, almost immediately he spat it back out, his infant stomach unable to handle this horrid new taste. Travis could only watch as his yellow son started throwing up, milky vomit spitting out of his mouth, and worse still, the colt was on his back.
“Babbeh? Babbeh wha wong?” Travis was scared, he didn’t know what was happening to his son, why he was reacting this way to Travis trying to feed him. The yellow colt started convulsing, his tiny stomach still retching up what little milk he had in his system, all the while slowly choking him to death.
The colt couldn’t even cry out in pain, his mouth and throat so choked with vomit, his eyes rolled so back in his head he couldn’t even see his father, the colt felt cold and alone as something inside his head twitched and everything went black.
Travis looked down, his son all too still now. “Bab… babbeh? Yu ok?”
Gently his nudged his son’s body, the colt’s head dropped to the side and his tongue rolled out. Travis instantly knew his son was dead, and it was his fault.
“NUUHUUUHUU! Babbeh am foweba sweepies, am wowstesh daddeh.”
Travis collapsed to his knees and howled with grief, his four remaining children all cried as well with confusion, their young minds unable to understand what this cry of agony was or why there brother smelt different now.
Travis took his dead babbeh and hid him in some grass. He wanted to bury him properly but he couldn’t risk leaving the other babbehs alone, not when they needed him.
It had only been a few hours since they had their first meal, but foals needed to be fed often since their stomachs were so small and they used up so much energy just from the small movements and peeps they let out.
Travis knew he didn’t have long, he needed to find milk for his children and soon. But as they sun started to set, he didn’t know how he even could.
Then he heard something, a soft voice getting closer and closer, it was a melody, it was a mummah song.
“Mummah wub babbehs, babbehs wub mummah, tummeh hab babbehs, babbehs am bestesh.”
Scared but desperate, Travis climbed out of his home, the sound of his foals crying from the sudden drop in temperature pierced his heart, and looked down the edge of the alleyway. He saw a Fluffy couple, a green earthie stallion and his orange Pegasus mate. The Pegasus was clearly pregnant, almost to the point of being immobile.
Travis couldn’t miss an opportunity like this, he ran forward, his green hiding him to the point where the Fluffy couple never even saw him until he was right next to them.
“Pwease…”
The mare screamed and shit herself. “AHHHH! Nu huwt soon-mummah.”
“NU!, Nu, Twavis nu wan gib huwties. Wan hewp.”
The stallion released the air in his puffed cheeks and looked over Travis, seeing the red eyes and frantic look on his face. “Wha Fwuffy wan hewp wiv?”
“Pwease, Twavis hab babbehs, onwy wittew chiwpy babbehs, bu dey nu hab mummah, nu knyo whewe mummah gu bu babbehs need miwkies and Twavis nu can gib anee. Wun babbeh gu foweba sweepies, udda babbehs hab wowstesh tummeh huwties. Pwease, can Fwuffies gib Twavis babbeh wittew miwkies, jus wittew su Twavis can find mowe in da bwite-time?”
The stallion looked over at his mate, his face unsure, but the mare was moved to tears by Travis’ plight.
“Babbeh nu desweve tummeh-huwties, da am su sadies. Soon-mummah shawe wittew miwkies, tummeh-babbehs nu need anee yet.”
“FANK YU! Twavis wub nyu fwiends, hab wots of nummies, gib sum to nyu fwiends.”
Travis led the couple down the alleyway, he was so excited, he finally had a way of saving his children. It wouldn’t be much, but it gave him some time. Once they reached the hole in the wall, the mare positioned herself with her back against the brick wall and opened her legs for the foals. Travis picked out his yellow earthie filly and his white unicorn colt first, handing them softly to the mare.
“Ooh, babbehs am su pwetty, nu hab sadies nu mowe babbehs, hab miwkies fow yu.”
The mare placed the two foals at her teats, instantly their starved bodies pulled them in and they latched on, drinking down everything they could. Travis could see tiny tears rolling down their eyes as they were spared the horrors of starvation, tears filled his own eyes as well. They were safe.
After a moment the mare pulled the two foals away, they kicked and cried but Travis could see a small bulge in their bellies.
“Nyo babbehs, soon-mummah nu hab wots of miwkies, need gib sum tu udda babbehs tuu.”
The mare handled the two foals to Travis who placed them onto his back to keep them warm and safe, then reached into the hole-home to pick out his blue Alicorn colt and his green Alicorn filly. He placed them both down in front of the mare and let them crawl towards her teats.
The mare was humming a mummah song to herself when she looked down at the two foals approaching her milky-places, and her eyes went wide.
“MUNSTAHS!”
Travis had no time to react before the mare rolled herself away from the Alicorn foals and stomped a back leg onto the green filly, the tiny thing was obliterating under the heavy hoof of the pregnant mare, dead in seconds.
“NUUUUUU!!!”
Travis jumped forward, fruitlessly trying to save his already dead daughter, only to be kicked in the face by the stallion. Travis went flying backwards, his legs scratched raw and bloody as he tried to stop himself from rolling over and hurting the two foals on his back.
The stallion huffed. “Munstah babbehs steaw miwkies fwom tummeh-babbehs, Twavis am bad Fwuffy.”
“Dewe nu munstahs hewe, onwy Twavis babbeh.”
“Hmmph, Twavis hab munstah babbehs, speciaw-fwiend du gud fing gibben hew foweba sweepies.”
The mare was curled into a ball, hugging her unborn foals. “Mummah wub babbehs, nu mean hab munstah steaw mikwies.”
The stallion looked down at the blue colt, the poor thing trying to find where the sweet scent of milk had gone to, blindly crawling on the rough concrete.
“Fwuffy gib udda munstah foweba sweepies tuu.”
“NU!”
Travis sprinted forward and rammed his horn into the stallion, catching him in the leg, the stallion cried in pain and shit himself, giving Travis the distraction he needed to grab his blue son with his teeth and run away. He heard the Fluffies shouting after him but he paid them no attention.
He still didn’t have any milk for his foals, and now he’d lost the only home they’d ever known. And once again, it was his own fault.
He tried to ignore the flash of hatred he had for Angel, but even he had to admit, he didn’t try that hard.
